Title: Exploring the Meaning of Negation Signs

Abstract: Through possession and existential sentences in Japanese Sign Language(JSL) Sign languages have been shown to express existential and possessive sentences in related ways that also connect to expressions of location, just like spoken languages, based on data from American Sign Language (ASL),  Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) and Croatian Sign Language (HZJ)  (Chen Pichler et al. 2008), which raises the question about similarities and differences across sign languages. This paper investigates the use of possessive and existential sentences in the discourse of Japanese Signers, investigating both positive and negative cases, with special focus on expressions of negation in both existential and possessive sentences, since this has generally not been explored much in even in other sign languages, and sign languages are known to have modality-influenced expressions of negation (Zeshan 2004, Pfau 2016). We find that Japanese signers of JSL employ various negatives in their natural communication, influenced by their experiences and cognitive motivations. 

Prior work on negation in JSL comes from Ichida (2005: 89-90),  a Japanese linguistics researcher who categorized JSLnegatives into three typical forms: <nai>, which flutters the palm as if rotating it, <shinai>, which waves the palm left or right, and <chigau>” (Harada, 2013) (Figure 1). However, this previous research did not provide a comprehensive explanation of the constraints surrounding these forms; we aim to better understand the differences in these forms, supported by an experimental acceptability study.

[SHOW pictures of signs used like this:

Figure 1. <nai>, <nai-2>, and <chigau>]

Methodologically, our study is comprised of two distinctive components: an interview and an experimental survey. In the interview phase, we engaged a participant in a natural exchange, with the aim of naturally eliciting expressions of possession and existential sentences in JSL.  For the second part, we present a carefully controlled set of ten questions in JSL, each accompanied by a visual prompt that facilitates a response (e.g., a depiction of a dog situated outside a residence), testing negation of both existential and possessive sentences. Participants chose which of the three negations was the most appropriate response, as in Figure 2. . Our hypothesis, based on intuitions as signers of the language, is that certain syntactic aspects of these questions impose constraints on the available answers , notably with respect to the deployment of <nai>, <nai-2> and <chigau> negations.

While we have not yet collected the data, we expect an additional role for the interplay between the Figure and Ground components, as well as the utilization of non manual (NM) markers, which we intend to analyze according to the framework laid out by De Weedit (2016). Through this examination, we attempt to illuminate the syntactic disparities that distinguish existential statements from possessive expressions, thereby providing insights into the intricate linguistic features embedded within the utterance of Japanese Sign Language.

Keywords: Japanese Sign Language, Negative sentence, Possession, Existence, Linguistics, Semantics, Typology, Cognitive.