Compounds in American Sign Language (ASL)

I typically drop movement in noun compounds.
It is very common for nouns to drop one of the movements whether they are in compounds or not.
Keep in mind though that if you ask a "language model" to show you the sign "FILE" in isolation he or she will tend to do it with a double movement. Then later that week while chatting with his friend he will use the noun FILE in a sentence and only do a single movement! Why? Because the context of the sentence made it clear that it was a noun.
It won't take much interaction in the Deaf community before you will note that the sign "CHAIR" often shows up with just a single movement.
A very clear example of movement reduction is the sign "HOME-WORK." Both the signs HOME and WORK drop one of their movements.
Cordially,
Bill

In a message dated 8/13/2008 5:01:48 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, cornelia.loos@ writes:

Dear Prof. Vicars,

I have another question for you and hope you'll find the time to reply. I'm doing an experiment on ASL word formation where I want to elicit noun signs and their plural forlms. Now, I am aware of the fact that in most cases, ASL noun plurals are expressed by just putting a numeral or quantifier like MUCH or MANY in front of the noun to be pluralised. I have also read (in Wilbur 1987 and Supalla & Newport 1978) that sometimes, plural can be expressed directly on the noun, by repeating the noun sign a couple of times, or in the case of two objects, using the "dual inflection" where the noun sign is repeated once and the body shifts from one side to the other. I suppose this way of plural marking isn't very frequent, but do you have an intuition when it is more likely to occur? Maybe there are contexts when it occurs more often than in others, and to elicit these plural forms I could try to build up such a context.
Thank you very much for your reply,

Cornelia Loos

2008/8/13 <BillVicars@aol.com>
Are you specifically asking about "dual inflection?" You state "this way of plural marking" -- exactly what "way" are you referring to? Duplication? Duplication with a body shift? Two objects? What are you referring to when you say "it?" (below) Noun repetition?
Are you from Europe? You are spelling pluralisation with an "s." My spell check tends to use a "z" (e.g. pluralization.) Are you doing your dissertation? Writing a book? Got me curious now.
I have expanded upon your question at the following page:
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/pluralization.htm
At that page scroll down to see your question and my response.
I'd like to respond even more, but time is always an issue for me. (Never enough of it.)
--Bill

In a message dated 8/14/2008 11:21:19 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, cornelia.loos@googlemail.com writes:

Hi Bill,
I am indeed from Europe, specifically from Germany, and I've adopted the 's' for any -ise and -isation words cause that way I don't get muddled up with z and s and just keep it consistent.
I am writing my undergrad thesis on compound formation in ASL, and thanks a lot for putting the note up on your page. Unfortunately, I don't have any process nouns among the nouns I'm testing. The idea behind my asking for pluralisation of nouns is that I want to look at headedness in ASL nominal compounds, and one characteristic of a head (the more prominent element of a compound, e.g. 'house' in 'greenhouse') is that it takes plural marking. So one way of proving that e.g. the formal head of the compound BOOK^SHELF is the sign SHELF is by showing that plural marking on more than one BOOK^SHELF goes onto the sign SHELF, e.g. by signing several shelves next to each other or below each other. I am indeed using pictures to elicit the compound nouns in question, but for lots of them I fear native signers won't reduplicate the noun to show pluralisation, e.g. BABY^COW, JESUS^BOOK, MUSIC^GROUP, DEATH^ARTICLE; BOAT^PADDLE, COAT^HOOD; SKIN^YELLOW, MEDICINE^CALM-DOWN. So my question earlier was aiming at getting contexts where signers would reduplicate the heads of the signs just mentioned to indicate plural.
I hope my explanations is clear, I'm kind of tired - I've been packing all day cause I'm flying to Toronto in a few days to interview native signers :)
Thanks for your interest and help,
Cornelia

2008/8/14 <BillVicars@aol.com>
Cornelia,
Your explanations are really very good. Especially the most recent one.
I can indeed see your challenge and I suspect there is no "easy" solution, but since you've asked for help in brainstorming I'll suggest the following:
It seems to me that you might want to try asking your models to "exhaust" their repertoire of variations by showing you "every" way they can think of to describe what is in the picture or video. Thus they will end up showing you many variations and hopefully include the variations you are looking for. Then, afterward you can ask them to discuss which ones "feel" best. And then you can ask them to specifically comment on the items you are seeking to explore.
--Bill

2008/8/15 Cornelia Loos <cornelia.loos@>

Thanks much for the encouragement! From my interactions with Deaf participants up to now I get the impression that they're rather straightforward and stick to their opinions, that's wh I feared that I won't get much variation in form. But I'll try! And let you know if it works out :)
Have a good weekend,
and thanks for doing all this in your spare time
you don't know how often I've consulted your dictionary in the past few weeks
Cornelia

Cornelia,
You are encountering the sociolinguistic challenge of diglossia.
Whereas "greenhouse" is a compound in both English and American Sign Language, "Bible" is not.
You are studying headedness of compounds.
The term "Bible" is a compound ("JESUS BOOK") in ASL and yet "Bible" is not a compound in English.
Your language model obviously knows the term "Bible" in English and this influences his rendering of the sign "BIBLE."
Thus you will need to account for diglossia in your research and you will need to separate out those terms which are a compound in one language but a single word in another language.
Cordially,
Bill

ASL Linguistics: Compounds