The conceptualization of space in signed languages: Placing the signer in narratives

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss how reported communication in narrative interactions is expressed in Argentine Sign Language (LSA). We analyze data from three different types of reported communicative interactions. Working within the theory of cognitive grammar, we have proposed the concepts of Place as a symbolic structure, which is a meaningful spatial location, and placing, in which a sign is located at a position in space to create a new Place or recruit an existing Place (Martínez and Wilcox 2019). Here we expand the concept of placing to include the signer as a linguistic entity and identify a new construction we call “placing the signer”, which functions to establish referential identity between the signer and another discourse participant. We offer analyses of placing the signer constructions in LSA narratives, and we show how it also applies to fictive interactions in discourse which serve grammatical functions. Finally, we suggest that these placing constructions are manifestations of the conceptual metaphor similarity is proximity