Course Administration, Language Variation, and Sign Language Morphology

Administrative Policies and Receptive Skills Test Guidelines

• Test Schedule and Administration:

  • Date: Friday, October 16.

  • Test Name: Receptive Skills Test (Visual Comprehension Assessment).

  • Administration Window: The test portal will remain open for a total of $3$ hours, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM (Jamaica Time) / 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM (Barbados/Eastern Caribbean Time).

  • Test Duration: Approximately $40$ to $45$ minutes once initiated.

  • Staggered Batches: Testing is conducted in hourly batches:

    • Batch 1: Starts at 4:00 PM Jamaica / 5:00 PM Eastern Caribbean.

    • Batch 2: Starts at 5:00 PM Jamaica / 6:00 PM Eastern Caribbean.

    • Batch 3 (Last Batch): Starts at 6:00 PM Jamaica / 7:00 PM Eastern Caribbean.

  • Batch schedules and assigned participant lists are published during Tutorial Week 6 on the course page.

• Platform Logistics and Campus Access:

  • Primary Platform: The test is administered online via the Cross Campus Module (CCM) page.

  • Mona Campus & St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC): Access the CCM page through the local Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) / BLE page.

  • Cave Hill Campus (Barbados): Access the test via the dedicated campus e-learning portal labeled specifically for Cave Hill.

  • Portal Accuracy Penalty: Attempting the test on an incorrect campus portal results in an automatic grade of zero ($0$).

• Camera and Virtual Supervision Protocol:

  • Students must join the lecture Zoom room during their assigned test batch and keep video cameras turned on for the entirety of the exam.

  • Lacking a Built-in Webcam: Students using devices without working cameras (e.g., specific laptops or tablets) must join the Zoom room using a mobile phone camera positioned directly in front of their workstation screen.

• Special Batch Requests and Absence Policies:

  • Requesting Specific Batches: Students requiring assignment to the first or last batch due to religious observances, employment schedules, or official course exam conflicts (e.g., exams scheduled from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM) must submit a formal email request prior to batch creation.

  • Requests submitted without verifiable, legitimate justification will be rejected.

  • Conflicting Exams: Students with overlapping exams must prepare to complete the Receptive Skills Test in the final batch. Extended time will be granted if necessary, but tests will not be moved to an alternate date.

  • Medical Absences: Students unable to take the test due to illness must present an official medical certificate to qualify for a supplemental examination.

  • Attendance & Roster Audits: Batch assignments are generated directly from the participant list on the CCM page. Students who have missed $3$ tutorials without prior email notification will receive warning notices and risk exclusion from the batch list. Students with late course registration or late override approvals are exempt from attendance warnings.

• Test Structure and Environment Rules:

  • Content Coverage: Covers material from Tutorials 1 through 5.

  • Video Format: The comprehension video features a tutor signing a narrative story, lasting approximately $3$ to $4$ minutes.

  • Vocabulary Handling: Any sign included in the story that has not been explicitly taught in tutorials will first be fingerspelled letter-by-letter before the sign is executed.

  • Question Format: Short-answer comprehension questions written in English, displayed on the same page as the video player.

  • Answering Rules: Responses must be concise short answers. Complete sentence format is not required (e.g., typing the name directly rather than formulating a full sentence). Standard capitalization rules for proper nouns still apply.

  • Environment Restrictions: No physical paper, writing utensils, or note-taking items are permitted in the test environment.

  • Strategy: Students may re-watch and pause the video as many times as necessary while typing responses in the provided input fields.

• Attempt Limits and Technical Issues:

  • The portal displays $2$ attempts, but students are strictly permitted to complete only $1$ attempt.

  • Executing a second attempt without explicit instructor authorization results in an automatic grade of zero ($0$).

  • Technical Interruptions: If internet disruption, power outage, or system disconnects occur, the student must immediately notify the instructor via Zoom (raising a virtual hand) or email to obtain authorization for a second attempt.

  • Video Speed Disturbances: If local device display settings cause the video to play at an unnaturally accelerated speed, the student must notify the instructor immediately during the test window. Unreported playback speed issues raised after test completion cannot be rectified.

Language Variation and Cross-Linguistic Intelligibility

• Mutual Intelligibility:

  • Definition: The degree to which speakers or signers of different language varieties can understand one another without external assistance or interpretation.

  • Low Mutual Intelligibility: Signers using distinct sign language systems who cannot comprehend the majority of each other's signs without an interpreter exhibit low mutual intelligibility.

  • Variation vs. Intelligibility: Variations in vocabulary across regional sign languages do not automatically force low mutual intelligibility; signers may still comprehend structural meanings across different lexical variants.

• False Friends (Faux Amis):

  • Definition: Lexical items across two distinct languages or language varieties that share identical or highly similar surface forms (visual execution or pronunciation) but convey entirely different meanings.

  • Etymology: Derived from the French term faux amis ("false friends").

  • Spoken Language Comparison: The English word journey (a trip) vs. the French word journée (day).

  • Sign Language Examples:

    • Pen: Signed using distinct regional variants across Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, The Bahamas, and Trinidad.

    • Pencil: Regional variants also differ significantly. A specific sign form used to mean pen in one country (e.g., Trinidad) may represent the exact sign for pencil in another territory (e.g., Jamaica), creating a false friend scenario.

• Levels of Linguistic Variation in Sign Language:

  • Phonological Level: Variations occurring in the physical production parameters (handshape, movement, orientation, or location) without altering the word's underlying meaning.

    • Example: Executing the sign THINK with identical handshape and movement, but altering the location slightly from the temple to the center of the forehead.

  • Lexical Level: Variations involving entirely different sign choices (vocabulary) to represent the exact same concept.

    • Example: Two signers using completely distinct sign forms to represent MOTHER (e.g., standard chin contact vs. a motion mimicking holding/feeding an infant). False friends operate on the lexical level.

  • Syntactic Level: Variations occurring in grammatical structure, sentence organization, and word ordering (e.g., variations in the placement of object nouns relative to verbs like BOOK and GIVE).

Fundamentals of Morphology in Sign Language

• Morphology Definition: The branch of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words or individual signs. Individual signs in sign language serve as the exact structural equivalents of words in spoken language.

• Morpheme Definition: The smallest meaningful unit of language or grammatical function.

• Morphological Classifications:

  • Free Morphemes: Independent units of meaning that can stand alone as complete, functional words (e.g., boy, important, want, teach).

  • Bound Morphemes: Units of meaning or grammatical function that cannot stand alone; they must attach to a free morpheme to function (e.g., un-, -s, -ed, -er).

• Subcategories of Bound Morphemes:

  • Inflectional Morphemes: Bound morphemes attached to a base word to modify grammatical relationships (such as tense, aspect, or number) without altering the core meaning or changing the lexical category (part of speech).

    • Example (Tense): Adding past tense -ed to want produces wanted. The core meaning of desire remains identical, but the grammatical time frame changes.

    • Example (Number): Adding plural -s to boy produces boys. The core meaning (male child) remains unchanged, but numerical quantity is grammatically altered.

  • Derivational Morphemes: Bound morphemes attached to a base word to derive a new word with a distinct core meaning, frequently changing the lexical category/part of speech.

    • Example (Lexical Category Shift): Adding -er to the verb teach yields the noun teacher, altering both core meaning and syntactic category.

    • Example (Meaning Modification): Adding prefix un- to the adjective happy yields unhappy, changing the semantic meaning to its exact opposite while maintaining the adjective category.

Morphological Processes in Sign Language

• Morphological Process: Any formal system or rule-governed method used to alter the internal structure of a word or sign to signal a change in meaning or grammatical function.

• Affixation:

  • Definition: The morphological process of attaching a bound morpheme (an affix) to a root or stem.

  • Prefixation: Attaching a bound morpheme to the beginning of a stem (e.g., un- in unimportant, re- in reread).

  • Suffixation: Attaching a bound morpheme to the end of a stem.

    • Sign Language Suffixation (Negation Suffix): Executing a $180^\times$ outward rotation of the forearm/hand at the termination of a sign to negate its meaning.

    • Examples: Combining WANT with the rotation yields don't want; KNOW + rotation = don't know; LIKE + rotation = dislike; GOOD + rotation = bad.

    • Glossing Rules: Sign language glosses are written entirely in uppercase block letters. Suffixes are noted with a dot followed by the morpheme label (e.g., WANT.neg, LIKE.neg, GOOD.neg). Block capital notation distinguishes sign glosses from English words.

  • Simulfixation (Simultaneous Affixation):

    • Definition: An affixation process where a bound morpheme is produced simultaneously alongside the base sign rather than attached sequentially before or after it.

    • Numeral Incorporation: A prominent form of simulfixation where a numeral sign is blended directly into a nominal or time-related base sign to express exact quantity.

    • Mechanism: The handshape parameter of the base sign is replaced by the specific handshape of the number, while keeping the base sign's original movement, location, and orientation constant.

    • Domains: Time expressions including minutes, seconds, weeks, months, years, and age.

    • Examples:

      • 2 days ago / 2 yesterdays: Replacing the standard 'Y' or '1' handshape of YESTERDAY with a '2' handshape while executing identical movement and location.

      • 3 months: Modifying the base sign MONTH using a '3' handshape.

      • 4 seconds: Modifying the base sign SECOND using a '4' handshape.

      • 5 years: Replacing the dominant hand's 'S' handshape in YEAR with a '5' handshape during rotation.

    • Numerical Limits: Numeral incorporation is restricted to numbers $1$ through $9$. Quantities $10$ and above (e.g., $10\text{ minutes}$, $11\text{ minutes}$) must be expressed sequentially by signing the number first followed by the distinct time sign. Exception: The domain of Age permits incorporation of higher numbers ($10$, $11$, etc.).

• Reduplication:

  • Definition: The morphological process involving full or partial repetition of a sign's movement to signal pluralization, frequency, aspect, or derived lexical meanings.

  • Pluralization: Repeating a noun sign to indicate plurality (e.g., repeating BOOK to indicate books; repeating SENTENCE to indicate sentences).

  • Temporal/Habitual Aspect: Repeating a temporal sign linearly downward (e.g., repeating MONDAY in a downward line) transforms the meaning from Monday to every Monday or Mondays.

  • Lexical Derivations: Repeating the sign TOMORROW alters its lexical meaning to daily or every day.

  • Kinship Extensions: Repeating the sign for MOTHER or FATHER outward derives GRANDMOTHER or GRANDFATHER (further repetitions indicate GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, etc.).

• Compounding:

  • Definition: Combining two or more independent free morphemes (signs) to form a single, unified lexical sign with a new meaning.

  • Examples:

    • BOY + MARRY = HUSBAND

    • BOY + SAME = BROTHER

    • GIRL + SAME = SISTER

    • BOY + BABY (or MAN + BABY) = SON

Questions & Discussion

• Exam Conflicts & Special Batches:

  • Question: How should a student handle having a mandatory university exam scheduled from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM on October 16?

  • Answer: The student must send an email prior to batch creation. The instructor will place the student in the final batch (6:00 PM Jamaica / 7:00 PM Eastern Caribbean). If necessary, the completion time window will be extended. Students must prepare to complete both exams on that date unless an official medical exemption is granted.

• Formatting Test Answers:

  • Question: Are full sentences mandatory when typing short-answer responses during the Receptive Skills Test?

  • Answer: Sentence format is not required. Students should type direct, concise answers (e.g., typing a name directly). Proper capitalization for proper nouns must be maintained.

• Absence of Laptops/Webcams:

  • Question: What should a student do if their primary testing device lacks an integrated camera?

  • Answer: The student must log into the Zoom room using a mobile phone, mounting or positioning the device directly facing the laptop or tablet screen so the student's face and workspace remain visible.

• Tutorial Signing Speed:

  • Question: Why do tutors sign so fast during tutorials, and will test videos follow that pace?

  • Answer: Tutors naturally sign at native conversational speed, but students can explicitly ask them to slow down during live sessions. Receptive test videos are recorded at a standard, clear pace appropriate for beginners. If a video plays unnaturally fast during the exam due to local playback settings, the student must notify the instructor via Zoom immediately during the test.

• Lecture Slides and Study Materials:

  • Question: Will lecture slides be posted online for study reference?

  • Answer: Lecture notes and slides will be uploaded prior to the theoretical assessment, as theory exam questions directly assess concepts taught during lecture sessions.