A Typological Look at the Lack of Classifiers in Hawai‘i Sign Language Samantha Rarrick University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa This Study Handshapes found in Lexical Items Results Handshape Category Meaning Examples Size and shape Small and round ‘grapes’ ‘watch’ Large and round ‘orange’ ‘coconut’ Cylindrical ‘can’ ‘bottle’ Whole entity; body Long, thin object; long, thin body ‘cherry’ ‘snake/eel’ Whole entity Pair of long, thin objects ‘compass’ ‘chopsticks’ Surface; Vessel/Vehicle ‘book’ ‘canoe’ Handling Handheld object ‘eraser’ ‘watermelon’ Pinchable object ‘eat-pineapple’ ‘sheet’ Writing instrument ‘pencil’ ‘color’ Body part Paw ‘dog’ ‘rabbit. jumping’ Claw ‘monster’ ‘tiger’ Hawai‘i Sign Language (HSL) is a critically-endangered isolate language indigenous to the Hawaiian islands Research up to this point has not found classifiers in HSL A lack of classifiers is typologically rare in sign languages The handshapes found in lexical items fall into 4 semantic categories: Size & shape Whole entity Handling Body & body part Instead of incorporating the handshape of the noun, HSL typically changes to the handshape of the verb ‘a cup falls’ ‘I give X a box’ ‘I was walking, was hit by a car, and fell over’ In HSL, these handshapes are not used extensively Clear grammatical difference compared to ASL No handshape can clearly be incorporated into motion and location verbs, and therefore cannot be called a classifier The closest thing is vehicle/vessel handshape For this handshape, the signers were not sure how to create movement meanings Background HSL is highly endangered (Lambrecht et al. 2013) with less than 10 elderly signers remaining This language is not related to American Sign Language (ASL) and exhibits a variety of grammatical difference, especially with respect to classifiers HSL has handshapes which fall into similar semantic categories as classifiers across sign languages BUT none has formed both location and motion predicates They instead occur primarily in lexicalized signs Methods Data were elicited from 2 native signers of HSL as part of ongoing documentation, description, and conservation of this language These signers are also signers of ASL Lexicalized signs were found during the development of language-learning handbooks Signers were given a category, like ‘fruits’ or ‘transportation’ and asked to provide relevant signs Motion and location incorporation restrictions were found during elicitation sessions Signers were asked to interpret sentences like ‘a cup falls’, or ‘I throw an eraser’ They were also asked to describe events, such as someone being given a book or a car accident In instances where the signer did not incorporate the handshape of the noun, signers were provided with options with and without incorporation and asked which was more grammatical Signers were also asked about these types of constructions and denied their existence in HSL Motion & Location Restrictions Conclusions Handshape Category Handshape Location Motion Size & Shape Small and round Yes No Large and round Cylindrical Whole Entity Long and thin Surface Vehicle/Vessel ? Handling Pinchable object Handheld object Writing Instrument Body & Body part Pointed Digits Hands Long, thin Body Classifiers have not yet been found in HSL HSL’s incorporation restrictions for these handshapes are rare typologically Looking at AdaSL, it may be especially rare to disallow motion predicates with size & shape predicates To best understand sign languages typologically, more research on minority languages is needed Classifiers & Typology Classifiers are found in many sign languages They are used extensively in ASL They used to be considered universal Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL) also doesn’t have classifiers (Nyst 2007) The closest thing is a handling handshape Selected references Lambrecht, Linda; Earth, Barbara; Woodward, James. 2013. “History and Documentation of Hawaiʻi Sign Language: First Report”. 3rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation. University of Hawaiʻi: Honolulu. Nyst, Victoria. 2007. A descriptive analysis of Adamorobe Sign Language (Ghana). Utrecht: LOT. Acknowledgements Many thanks to James Woodward for guiding my research and to Linda Lambrecht for sharing her language