as we continue to explore morphology
we note a very common phenomenon this phenomenon is called compounding
compounding occurs when you have two free morphemes in the case of sign
languages to individual signs that fuse together to form a new sign with its own
unique meaning it's important that we note that these signs have their own
unique meaning because if two signs are used together but there is no unique
meaning related to them then that's just a phonological process it doesn't affect
the meaning but morphological processes like compound come about when a new
meaning is actually created
we see this in English with words like blackboard earring and billboard
I remember recently hearing someone talk about a green blackboard and while it
sounds a little funny
it certainly makes sense to us we understand what a person means when they
say green blackboard because a blackboard isn't really primarily about
the color of the board when you say black board though it once related to the
color of the slate that was used to make the board
it's now used to just refer to something you write on with chalk
you can hear similar people saying similar things about earrings and
billboards where the original meaning of the two individual terms has been lost
and a new word has been created in sign language
we noticed that certain processes tend to occur whenever compounding occurs
first we notice that if there are two signs that are used
whatever the first contact point is that will remain so in the sign homework home
usually has two contact points for one by the mouth of the one by the cheek
that initial contact point will remain so you still have the movement by the
mouth when you assign homework but the second hold the holdup on the cheek is
often deleted
so you just have the the movement by the mouth going down into the sign work
also the internal movement and repetitions of signs are eliminated
so if you were to sign the sign home and then the sign work you would have a
contact at the mouth a contact at the cheek for the sign home and then you
would have the sign work which has two movements down by the wrist but when the
sign homework is created from those two individual signs
you simply have the sign by the mouth and then the one movement down for
the sign work
you don't have that additional movement in the sign work
so you just have a swift movement from the mouth to the wrist for the sign
homework
also notice that week hand- that week hand anticipation can happen so that when i'm
signing something like homework
my non-dominant hand will come up and be ready even before my dominant hand moves
downward so as I'm signing home
the the non-dominant hand is ready for the sign work this is how we know that a
new a new sign is occurring that's losing it
the characteristics of the original signs the holds some of the holds
contact holds of the sign home are removed some of the movements of the sign work are
removed to get this new meaning
further phonological rules
can then be applied these phonological rules that we've already
talked about you might have movement epenthesis or hold deletions or
assimilation that can occur just as they may occur in normal phonological
processes but it's important to note that after compounding has happened a
new meaning occurs
you know I talked to deaf students all the time who say they're doing their
homework and they're clearly sitting at the university because homework
no longer carries the meaning of something done at home it simply means
something done after class
so when they signed homework it doesn't mean home per se- it's got a new
meaning
just like people say blackboard in English and it now has a new meaning
so we see lots of compounds in ASL and notice these are not all what based on
English compounding homework happens to be the same compound in ASL as it is in
English if the sign home and the sign work you have this the word home
the word work but most ASL compounds are not based on English at all and
don't follow that pattern so we have compounds that relate to breakfast lunch
dinner
bruising pillows to agree with and all of these compounds that you can see that
you can you can look up or you can ask your instructor the meaning of the
various compounds if you're not familiar with them but it's important to note the
compounds don't always maintain their original meaning
so even though you have the sign food buy which means grocery shopping
you may not buy any food at all when you go food buying right because the meaning
food by is grocery shop and so even if you go
"grocery shopping" and you don't buy any food at all but you buy
other types of groceries that time can still be used because with compounding
you have a new being that's happened after all of these morphological
processes have occurred