Sarah Trevino

4/20/2015
Discourse Analysis
Referring Expressions

In a piece of discourse it is almost impossible to get through an entire piece

without having to refer to something. In this case, you dont always want to say the
noun of whatever you are referring to (ex: Jennifers cat.herher cat)This is an
expression that occurs across both ASL and English, rather it be the difference
between a finger point, a hand point (you vs. your) or he, she ,they, both
languages found a way to refer to topics without being confusing, or saying the
nouns over and over again. When telling a story, or explaining a scenario,
particularly one in which more than just the speaker is present, there are going to
referents. These are things that can refer to many different things (Swabey 96)
clear, if brief, introduction
In ASL you have the LX referent; this is the signer points in the set-up
direction of what they are referring to. It is typically used in the you, they, he, she
sense of meaning first person pronoun. This can be seen between 00:00:1300:00:15 of the Early Intervention video when the speaker is referring to deaf
people in general. What is she referring tothe exact language from the video
needs to be included here, and discussed
what are the 3 prosodic features that
are required for this analysis? She then does it again at 00:00:28-00:00:30 when
referring to hearing parents with deaf children. The signer uses the lx referent to
point, in space, to a pronoun describing the group of people she was talking about.
In See Now, See Never Again, referents for pronouns are seen very rarely, but at
00:03:40-00:03:42 he signs LX-they referring to the people he had met and talked
to at the deaf club. Another way in which the signer in the See Now video uses
the LX referent is at 00:01:56-00:01:57 when he is talking about the cars
everywhere. Specific example is needed here This time instead of referring to
people, he is using referrents to point at cars (in general, not specific). Since in
English, we do not require the use of pointing to who we were are talking about, or
needing to visually refer to them, we use pronouns such as he, she, they. The
speaker in Teddy Bear does this a lot, but always makes sure to establish who the
he, she, they is, which is important when using referents. For example, at
00:00:15-00:00:21 he says ..President Theodore Roosevelt needed a little break
from the White House so he In Closed Captioning, the speaker makes a referent
we but how do we know who we is?time code? Specific example from the video?
Well, it appears as if its not we the hearing culture, as the speaker in Early
Intervention means (except deaf culture) at 00:00:25-00:00:27 when she says WE
HAVE OUR CULTURE. But instead, the man in Closed Captioning means we as in

his cultural reference, he is using we as we the people in the room, concerned

with the issue. What is the time code? Is this an exact quote from the video? This
is a challenging topic, and the discussion needs more detail to be clearly presented
However, it is not always the pointing, LX referent that will be used to refer to
someone. In a possessive state, there is the whole hand possessive point, in
which the signer uses their whole hand, and palm out motions towards the set-up
space of the person they are referring to. In Early Intervention you see this at
00:00:42-00:00:45 when the signer says HEARING PARENTS THEIR FAULT? They
use this because the person or thing they are referring is not always going to be
non-possessive (her, his, their vs. he she they) and their needs to be a way to
differentiate in ASL. Of course, such things do occur in English as they do in ASL,
with the usage of his, her, their) such in Teddy Bear at 00:00:38-00:00:40 the
speaker says So his hunting guide, after it had already been established that we
are talking about Theodore Roosevelt, so instead of having to say Theodore
Roosevelts hunting guide over and over again, we say HIS hunting guide. What are
the other examples from the other videos? In addition, throughout-what are the 3
prosodic features that are required for this analysis?
So whether you are pointing with your whole hand, or just your finger, or just
using words such as he, she, they or his, hers, theirs referents exists in both ASL
and English, and can be used in place of nouns to describe people or things. The
noun is typically established before-hand, rather it be by naming or cultural
understanding. When used correctly, referents make it easy to establish who or
what is being talked about, without having to label it over and over again.
Sarah,
You have taken on a complex and challenging topic and that is commendable!
You have begun to discuss some examples with detail, but still need to address all
the criteria of the assignment, analyzing the 3 required prosodic features that occur
with the indexing.

Works Cited
Swabey, Laurie. "Referring Expressions in ASL Discourse." Sociolinguistics in Deaf
Communities Series (n.d.): 96.

VIMEO-Teddy Bear
VIMEO-Closed Captioning
VIMEO-See Now See Never Again
VIMEO-Early Intervention