Haskins Publications

Number	832
Year	1990
Drawer	15
Entry Date	07/20/1998
Authors	Fischer, Susan, and Lillo-Martin, Diane.
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Publication	International Journal of Sign Linguistics, 1(2).
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0832.pdf
Abstract	There is a long tradition in the linguistics literature of function words being historically derived from content words. This study examines one such evolution, concerning the ASL sign UNDERSTAND. This sign, with concomitant phonological, semantic, and syntactic shifts, results in the conjunction we call UNDERSTAND’. UNDERSTAND’ is used to introduce qualifying adverbial clauses: it means, loosely, ‘with the understanding that’. We show the nature of the shifts that occur in this derivation, and relate them to parallel ASL derivations. For example, the signs FINISH, WRONG, and SUPPOSE all have related derived conjunctions. We examine similar verbs in ASL such as INFORM andWARN, and show that they have not undergone these shifts: hence this process is not automatic. We discuss similar examples in spoken languages such as French and Niger-Congo, of function words being historically derived from content words. Finally, we propose tests for determining whether such conjunctions are co-ordinating or subordinating, and conclude that UNDERSTAND’ is a subordinating conjunction.
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