Calle Börstell Profile picture
Associate professor (førsteamanuensis) of Linguistics @UiB_HF, @UiB 🇸🇪➡️🇳🇴 | Signed languages, #rstats & anything linguistic | Name sign: DUCK🦆 (he/him)

Sep 28, 2019, 9 tweets

Very excited about Hope Morgan et al.'s talk on phonological (wiggle-fingers) complexity and frequency distribution! Relevant to much of my own work! #TISLR13

Phonological complexity can be defined by 1) markedness (frequency/economy) and 2) structure (quantity).

E.g.:
Some handshapes are easier (1). Two-handed signs with simultaneous movements have more structure (2).
#TISLR13

Research question: is there a maximum limit of complexity that can be packed into a sign? #TISLR13

Research question: does phonological complexity change over time (language age as a factor)? #TISLR13

Research question: how does frequency relate to phonological complexity?

We already know that lexical frequency correlates inversely with sign duration (citing Börstell et al. 2016, 2019 😍)
#TISLR13

A scoring matrix defining phonological complexity index. #TISLR13

Results: Generally signs are not very phonological complex (distribution highest in the lower range of the scale) #TISLR13

Results: the distribution across complexity scale correlates with age of the language. #signlanguages become more phonologically complex over time?
#TISLR13

Plenty of future directions! Community size, neighborhood complexity, etc.

As for me (Calle), I'mma head over to Hope during the ☕ break and suggest a paper together. Hashtag networking hashtag I love all you TISLRs!
#TISLR13

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