Relationship among lexical and phonological features

Next we examined relationships among the lexical and phonological properties of the signs in ASL-LEX to gain insight into how phonological, lexical, and semantic factors interact in the ASL lexicon. _s = –0.14, p < 0.001. Although it is possible that this inverse correlation is driven by the relatively higher frequency of closed-class words which may be lower in iconicity than other signs, the negative correlation remains when closed-class words (i.e., words with a “minor” Lexical Class) are excluded (r _s = –0.17, p < 0.001). This result is compatible with the early proposal that with frequent use, signs may move away from their iconic origins, perhaps due to linguistic pressures to become more integrated into the phonological system (Frishberg, 1975). Interestingly, the direction of this relationship was the opposite of that found for British Sign Language; that is, Vinson et al. (2008) reported a weak positive correlation between frequency and iconicity: r = .146, p < .05. Alternatively, the different correlations might be due differences in stimuli selection. Vinson et al. (2008) intentionally selected stimuli that had a range of iconicity values which resulted in a bimodal iconicity distribution while we did not select signs for inclusion in ASL-LEX based on their iconicity.

Frequency and you will iconicity z-results (SignFrequency(Z) and you will Iconicity(Z)) had been significantly adversely correlated along (get a hold of Desk step one), with constant signs rated given that less iconic; yet not, this relationship try weak, r

Numerous phonological qualities is actually extremely correlated plus of several times it is because how they is actually discussed (find Desk step one). Particularly, for every big area comes with no less than one minor metropolises-high frequency minor cities usually thus nearly invariably be discovered from inside the large regularity big towns, and you will handshape regularity was likewise about selected little finger and you will flexion regularity. On top of that, all around three measures of Community Occurrence try extremely correlated having one to another partly since they are furthermore outlined and partly because one residents you to show five of your own five sandwich-lexical attributes (Maximal People Thickness) usually always in addition to express one of five sub-lexical features (Limited Community Occurrence). In the end, all of the three People Occurrence actions is coordinated with every of the sub-lexical volume tips. This is going to make experience because the by definition, preferred sandwich-lexical qualities can be found in of numerous cues.

Interestingly, the basic sub-lexical frequencies are completely uncorrelated with each other, with the exception of selected fingers and https://datingranking.net/erotic-websites/ minor location which are significantly but weakly correlated (r = .10, p < .01). This finding suggests that the space of possible ASL signs is rather large as each sub-lexical property can (to a first degree of approximation) vary independently of the others. This property contrasts with spoken languages where phoneme frequency is correlated across different syllable positions. For example, using position-specific uniphone frequencies from Vitevitch and Luce (2004) we estimate that in English monosyllabic words, vowel frequency is negatively correlated with the frequency of the preceding consonant (r = –.07, p < .001) and positively correlated with the following consonant (r = .17, p < .001), and that onset consonants have highly correlated frequencies (r = –.51, p < .001). We speculate that the relative independence of ASL sub-lexical features is related to both the motoric independence of the manual articulators (e.g., finger flexion is unaffected by the location of the hand in signing space) as well as the relative simultaneity of manual articulation (as opposed to serial oral articulation). We note that these non-significant correlations are for sub-lexical frequency only; specific sub-lexical properties have been argued to co-vary systematically (e.g., signs produced in locations far from the face may be more likely to be symmetrical, two-handed, and have larger, horizontal, and vertical motions; Siple, 1978).