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Abstract

This paper studies communication among deaf sign language users with highly divergent linguistic backgroun
ds
who have no signed or written language in common. It constitutes the earliest, least conventionalised stages of
improvised communication, called ”cross
-
signing” (Zeshan 2015), as opposed to the semi
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conventionalised
contact language International Sign (
e.g. Supalla & Webb 1995). The specific focus here is on the evolution of the
shared repertoire amongst signers over several weeks as they co
-
construct meaning across linguistic and
cultural boundaries. We look at two possible factors influencing the selec
tion of expressive forms (cf. Tamariz et
al. 2014): content
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bias (where the more iconically
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motivated, and/or easily
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articulated form is selected) and
coordination
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bias (where participants attempt to match each other’s usag
e). The data set consists of a 320
-
minute corpus of first encounters between dyads of signers of Nepali Sign Language, Indian Sign Language,
Jordanian Sign Language and Indonesian Sign Language. Recordings took place at the first meeting, after one
week, a
nd after three weeks. The participants vary naturally with regard to their linguistic and international
experience as well as their age of sign language acquisition. In addition to spontaneous conversations, we
collected structured dialogues using a Direct
or
-
Matcher task. In this language elicitation game, the Director has
the coloured images and the Matcher has identical but black and white images alongside a set of colour chips
from which they need to select based on the Director’s descriptions. We coded
and examined the various colour
expressions exploited by the participants. The semantic field of colour was chosen for this investigation into the
evolution of shared communication for two reasons: the visual domain of colour retains sufficient levels of
a
bstraction while affording signers with iconic potential.
Participants initially used a range of strategies, including pointing, articulating signs for common objects with
that colour (e.g. referring to a common iconic sign for ‘tree’ and pointing to the b
ase to mean ‘brown’), and their
own native variants. However, three weeks later these individuals all start using the same forms, e.g. the Indian
signer’s variant for ‘green’ and the Nepali signer’s improvised ‘tree
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trunk’ variant for ‘brown’. The iconic
m
otivation of the latter and the ease of articulation of the former suggest that the content
-
bias is in play. The
coordination
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bias also seems influential in the group’s eventual selection of one variant (cf. Tamariz et al. 2014).
We explore these and furth
er factors that may affect the two biases in the selection of forms within our data.
We also consider participants’ meta
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linguistic skills (Zeshan 2013) and fluency in multiple sign
languages (Byun
et al. in preparation).