Where do nouns come from? / 
edited by John B. Haviland, University of California, San Diego. 
 - 1 online resource. 
 - Benjamins current topics,  1874-0081 ;  70 .
<br/><br/>Includes bibliographical references and index. 
<br/><br/>Table of Contents<br/>Where do nouns come from?<br/>	<br/>Introduction: Where does ?Where do nouns come from?? come from?<br/>John B. Haviland<br/>	<br/>1 ? 8<br/>The noun-verb distinction in two young sign languages<br/>Oksana Tkachman and Wendy Sandler<br/>	<br/>9 ? 41<br/>Patterned iconicity in sign language lexicons<br/>Carol A. Padden, Irit Meir, So-One Hwang, Ryan Lepic, Sharon Seegers and Tory Sampson<br/>	<br/>43 ? 63<br/>The emerging grammar of nouns in a first generation sign language: Specification, iconicity, and syntax<br/>John B. Haviland<br/>	<br/>65 ? 110<br/>How handshape type can distinguish between nouns and verbs in homesign<br/>Dea Hunsicker and Susan Goldin-Meadow<br/>	<br/>111 ? 133<br/>Subject index<br/>	<br/>135 ? 136<br/>Name index<br/>	<br/>139 ? 140 
<br/><br/> The noun is an apparent cross-linguistic universal; nouns are central targets of language acquisition; they are frequently prototypical exemplars of Saussurian arbitrariness. This volume considers nouns in sign languages and in the evanescent performances of homesigners (and gesturers), which exhibit considerable iconic motivation. Do such systems mark nouns formally? Do they share strategies for forming nominal expressions? Individual chapters consider formal criteria for a noun/verb distinction in sign languages with different socio-linguistic profiles, strategies of ?patterned iconicity? in a subcategory of nouns in both well-established and emerging sign languages, grammatical markers for a nominal class in a first generation family homesign system from Mexico, and the changing role of handshapes in signs referring to action and objects over the gradual development of a single deaf child?s homesign. The volume is of special interest to scholars of gesture, sign languages, linguistic typology, and the evolution, socialization, and ethnography of language. 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9789027268501 (pdf) 
<br/><br/><label>LCCN: </label>2015011878 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Speech and gesture--Study and teaching.<br/>Sign language--Study and teaching.<br/>Gesture--Psychological aspects.<br/>Grammar, Comparative and general--Noun.<br/>Grammar, Comparative and general--Noun phrase.<br/>Interpersonal communication--Psychological aspects.<br/>Anthropological linguistics.
<br/><br/><label>Index Terms--Genre/Form: </label><br/>Electronic books.
<br/><br/><label>LC Class. No.: </label>P117 
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>419