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Free keywords:
pointing; grammaticalisation; gesture; language emergence; Kata Kolok; sign language typology
Abstract:
Signed utterances are densely packed with pointing signs, reaching a frequency of one in six
signs in spontaneous conversations (de Vos, 2012; Johnston, 2013a; Morford & MacFarlane,
2003). These pointing signs attain a wide range of functions and are formally highly diversified.
Based on corpus analysis of spontaneous pointing signs in Kata Kolok, a rural signing variety of
Bali, this paper argues that the full meaning potentials of pointing signs come about through the
integration of a varied set of linguistic and extralinguistic cues. Taking this hybrid nature of point-
ing phenomena into account, it is argued that pointing signs may become an intrinsic aspect of
sign language grammars through two mechanisms: morphemization and syntactic integration.
Although not entailed in this research, this approach could implicate that some highly systema-
tized pointing systems of speaking communities may to a degree be grammatical as well.
