11.1. Register
LSC varies depending on the register of the communicative situation. These changes may be observed at multiple levels of a language. Thus, phonological, lexical or syntactic variation may depend on the formality scale. In LSC, the phonetic production of the signs may vary in informal situations and some of the basic parameters [PHONOLOGY 1] of a particular sign may be produced in a different way from the citation form.
The following images show minimal pairs of signs signed in informal production and with the corresponding citation form. The informal register shows a phonetic variation. In the example (a) below the place of articulation of the sign almost has changed with respect to the citation form of the sign in (b). In (a) the signer produces the sign at the height of the chin, although the citation form is at the height of the chest, as shown in (b).
a) almost (informal production)
(Moya-Avilés, 2018: 35)
b) almost (citation form)
In the following minimal pair, the basic parameter that has changed is the handshape. In (a) the sign mistake is produced with three fingers, instead of five as in the corresponding citation form (b). The selected fingers are reduced in the informal conversation [PHONOLOGY 1.1.1.1.].
a) mistake (informal production)
(extracted from the corpus created in Moya-Avilés, 2018)
b) mistake (citation form)
Regarding the non-manual markers, in an informal register in LSC it is common to find the non-manual markers appearing without the manual lexical item. Thus, the meaning of the lexical sign is expressed only by facial expression, mouthings or mouth gestures [PHONOLOGY 1.5]. Concretely, the use of mouthings without the lexical sign is more frequent in Deaf signers with hearing parents. In the following image, there is an example of a non-manual marker produced without the lexical sign. As illustrated below, in the informal interaction the signer only produces the mouthing (a) that is not obligatory in the lexical sign in the citation form (b).
a) és veritat ‘it’s true’ (informal production)
(extracted from the corpus created in Moya-Avilés, 2018)
b) true (citation form)
Apart from the variation of some of the basic parameters, in the informal register changes in the number of manual articulators are also found. Two-handed signs can be produced with one hand, as shown in the example (a) and (b) below. The citation form of the sign hide is two-handed (b), although the signer in this situation produces the sign only with one hand (a). This phenomenon is called weak hand drop and it is common in LSC informal discourse.
a) hide (informal production)
(extracted from the corpus created in Moya-Avilés, 2018)
b) hide (citation form)
Both theweak hand drop and the modification of some of the basic parameters presented above are examples of the phenomenon named phonetic reduction that occurs in spontaneous informal discourse in LSC. This phonetic reduction consists of reducing either (i) the movement of the sign from the starting point to the place where the sign is produced, (ii) the number of fingers in the configuration or (iii) the number of hands involved in the production of the sign. Apart from the phenomena presented so far, in LSC informal discourse the dominant hand may be also switched, which is called “dominance reversal”. As illustrated below in the examples (a) and (b), the signer is right-handed and produces the one-handed sign with the left hand as her dominant hand.
a) know (informal production)
(extracted from the corpus created in Moya-Avilés, 2018)
b) know (citation form)
Moreover, in LSC informal discourse a combination of both weak hand drop and dominance reversal phenomena may be found at the same time. In the example (a) below it can be observed the sign try produced one-handed and with a dominance reversal. In this example, the signer is right-handed but produces the sign try only with the left hand. In example (b) it can be observed the citation form of the sign with two hands with the right hand as a dominant hand.
a) try (informal and one-handed production)
(Moya-Avilés, 2018: 43)
b) try (citation form)
Regarding phonetic variation, note that although there are specific phonetic phenomena that frequently occur in an informal register (such as phonetic reduction, or changes in the dominance of the hands) there is not a specific pattern that makes the same sign vary always in the same way in an informal register. Also, it cannot be affirmed that one particular basic parameter always changes more frequently than others, because the communicative situation, among other factors, may define which parameter will vary more often than others. However, in LSC it has been observed that in general both the place of articulation and the handshape are more likely to vary rather than the orientation or the movement, for instance.
Phonetic reduction and dominance reversal are less frequent in a formal communicative situation in LSC. Still, there are some characteristics of formal register that do not appear in informal situations. In formal register, due to the preparation of the speech, discourse is more organized than in informal spontaneous conversations, with different ordered parts like introduction, a clear development, and an end. Apart from this, some aspects featuring the formal register are (i) the use of signing space is bigger than in informal register, (ii) the body posture is more static and straight, (iii) the discourse is more cohesive and the ideas are more ordered, (iv) there are clear and marked pauses between the sentences, and (v) the phonetic production is more accurate than in informal discourse.
Regarding the register of the communicative situation of the examples used in this section, in the informal register, the mode of the conversations is a real and spontaneous informal conversation in LSC. The tenor is an interactive conversation between three friends with a very similar social and power status in the terrace of a bar. Finally, the field is an informal conversation centred around the card game the signers are playing. In the formal register, the mode is a planned formal LSC explanation. The tenor is an individual discourse in the office of a university. The field is the explanation of the instructions of the card game they played. The linguistic data of the descriptions of this chapter come from three informants, one boy and two girls, who were born and raised in Barcelona. Two of them have Deaf families, and one of them was raised by a hearing family. One of them is 18 years old and the rest of them are 25 years old. The three of them are LSC native signers and they attended bilingual LSC-spoken Catalan school.