This type of different efficiency will be because of cross-linguistic differences in the features of BSL and ASL lexicons

Relationships certainly one of lexical and you may phonological properties

Next we examined relationships among the lexical and phonological properties of the signs in ASL-LEX to gain insight into how phonological, lexical, and semantic factors interact in the ASL lexicon. _s = –0.14, p < 0.001. Although it is possible that this inverse correlation is driven by the relatively higher frequency of closed-class words which may be lower in iconicity than other signs, the negative correlation remains when closed-class words (i.e., words with a “minor” Lexical Class) are excluded (r _s = –0.17, p < 0.001). This result is compatible with the early proposal that with frequent use, signs may move away from their iconic origins, perhaps due to linguistic pressures to become more integrated into the phonological system (Frishberg, 1975). Interestingly, the direction of this relationship was the opposite of that found for British Sign Language; that is, Vinson et al. (2008) reported a weak positive correlation between frequency and iconicity: r = .146, p < .05. Alternatively, the different correlations might be due differences in stimuli selection. Vinson et al. (2008) intentionally selected stimuli that had a range of iconicity values which resulted in a bimodal iconicity distribution while we did not select signs for inclusion in ASL-LEX based on their iconicity.

Frequency and you can iconicity z-scores (SignFrequency(Z) and Iconicity(Z)) was indeed significantly negatively coordinated together (see Dining table step one), with an increase of frequent signs ranked as quicker iconic; yet not, it dating is poor, roentgen

Numerous phonological attributes are extremely synchronised and in of several instances simply because the way they are defined (discover Desk step one). Particularly, for each and every major venue consists of one or free Divorced adult dating more slight locations-high frequency minor metropolitan areas tend to hence nearly inevitably be discovered in the higher frequency major towns, and you may handshape regularity try similarly associated with selected hand and you may bending regularity. In addition, all of the three measures out-of Society Thickness try very coordinated that have you to other partially since they are similarly discussed and you can partly since one neighbors you to definitely show four of your own four sandwich-lexical qualities (Maximum Community Occurrence) have a tendency to fundamentally including express certainly one of five sub-lexical features (Minimal Society Thickness). Ultimately, all the around three Community Density tips was synchronised with each of your sub-lexical regularity procedures. This makes sense since of the meaning, common sandwich-lexical qualities come in many cues.

Interestingly, the basic sub-lexical frequencies are completely uncorrelated with each other, with the exception of selected fingers and minor location which are significantly but weakly correlated (r = .10, p < .01). This finding suggests that the space of possible ASL signs is rather large as each sub-lexical property can (to a first degree of approximation) vary independently of the others. This property contrasts with spoken languages where phoneme frequency is correlated across different syllable positions. For example, using position-specific uniphone frequencies from Vitevitch and Luce (2004) we estimate that in English monosyllabic words, vowel frequency is negatively correlated with the frequency of the preceding consonant (r = –.07, p < .001) and positively correlated with the following consonant (r = .17, p < .001), and that onset consonants have highly correlated frequencies (r = –.51, p < .001). We speculate that the relative independence of ASL sub-lexical features is related to both the motoric independence of the manual articulators (e.g., finger flexion is unaffected by the location of the hand in signing space) as well as the relative simultaneity of manual articulation (as opposed to serial oral articulation). We note that these non-significant correlations are for sub-lexical frequency only; specific sub-lexical properties have been argued to co-vary systematically (e.g., signs produced in locations far from the face may be more likely to be symmetrical, two-handed, and have larger, horizontal, and vertical motions; Siple, 1978).