Grammaticalization and Contact-Induced Semantic Change in JSL, SKSL, and TSL

Abstract: This article is concerned with semantic change in sign languages of East Asia and focuses on examples of actual and apparent grammaticalization. We identify grammatical forms in three related sign languages—Japanese Sign Language (JSL), South Korean Sign Language (SKSL) and Taiwan Sign Language (TSL)—which stem from Old Japanese Sign Language (used prior to the end of the Japanese colonial period in 1945). Given the near absence of contact between the three languages since 1945, we posit that forms common to JSL and at least one other language (SKSL or TSL) likely occurred in Old JSL, and we track key subsequent developments in their meanings. The pathways taken by these forms variously display language-internal and contact-induced change. Since 1945, there has been contact with other sign languages—TSL has had extensive contact with Chinese Sign Language (CSL)—and spoken languages, especially Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin. Contact with other signed and spoken languages gives access to new grammatical coexpression patterns (Hartmann et al., 2014), and what appears to be grammaticalization may, thanks to language contact, represent not an internal process but “polysemy copying” or apparent grammaticalization (Bruyn, 2008).