Date of Award

12-1-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Linguistics

First Advisor

J. Albert Bickford

Abstract

Very little has been written about Ethiopian Sign Language, but the language has obvious differences from more well-studied signed languages. This thesis focuses on striking differences in reference tracking: looking at all the different referring types—lexical items, points, eye gaze, body shift, agreement, and zero reference—and their distribution throughout narrative texts. Through this process, Ethiopian Sign Language has proved different from expectations based on previously studied signed languages. This language uses loci with much more flexibility, depending on role shift alone to strongly establish loci for entities. Another way this language differs from other languages is its lack of entity classifiers. Research here also shows an intense dependence on local roles of entities. Entities that would typically be labeled as “main entities” or “props” in a global role are better analyzed at the local role level. When discourses are analyzed on a local role level, they meet expectations rather than upset them—fitting nicely with expectations for saliency marking. Body shift (versus role shift) is the referring type while role shift is simply a way to shift perspective—a framework within which reference tracking is performed.

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