This study focuses on narratives of personal experiences in villages sign
languages (SLs), namely Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL) and Bouakako Sign
Language (LaSiBo), both located in west Africa. In the village of
Adamorobe, in Ghana, there is an older and more established SL and, in the
village of Bouakako, in Côte d’Ivoire, there is a very young SL with very
few signers. Deaf signers in both villages took particular pleasure in
sharing their personal stories. The comparison of the two SLs can give us
more information about the relevance of sociological factors, as language
age and community size, to the development of linguistic features.
Deaf adults (24 in Adamarobe and 6 in Bouakako) were asked to tell about
animal attacks that they had experienced or watched. The result was a
collection of 34 narratives mainly about attack from snakes, but for the
present work only two narratives of each language are analysed in depth.
The research question “Are narratives structured in the same way in the two
SLs?” will, more specifically, look at “How is the depiction of size and
shape set up within a narrative?”. The analysis is based on the
macrostructure of the narrative and the use of size and shape depictions.
Narratives, though different in length, are organized in similar main
parts. In what concerns the use of the depiction of size and shape, it is
observed that it occurs especially in the description of the snake. In
AdaSL, size and shape depictions occur after the identification of the
animal. However, in LaSiBo, the size and shape of the animal is rarely
referred or it is so only at the end of the narrative when signers are
asked about it. What is more, signers of both SLs use their own body parts,
such as fingers, hands, arms or legs, to depict the size and shape of the
animal.
Keywords: personal experience narrative, size and shape, village sign
language, sign language macrostructure
References:
Labov, William & Waletsky, Joshua. 1967. Narrative analysis: Oral versions
of personal experience. In Helm, June (ed.), Essays on the verbal and
visual arts, 12-44. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Nyst, V. (2007b). *A descriptive analysis of Adamorobe sign language
(Ghana)*. Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics.
Tano, A. J. J. (2016). Etude d'une langue des signes émergente de Côte
d'Ivoire: l'example de la langue des signes de Bouakako (LaSiBo).
Tano, A., & Nyst, V. (2018). Comparing Body-Part Size and Shape
Constructions in Village Sign Languages with Cospeech Gesture. *Sign
Language Studies*, *18*(4), 517-545.
