A Study Of The Socially Unacceptable Signs In Shanghai Sign Language

This paper investigates and explores the categories and numbers of the socially unacceptable signs in Shanghai Sign Language (SSL) by analyzing and summarizing the data obtained from the field work. Detailed discussion is made on the topics such as the use of the sign language taboos and euphemism, the role of non-manual features that they play in Shanghai Sign Language. The findings are as follows:Shanghai Sign Language shares a lot in common with the spoken language. However, it has its own characteristics. Shanghai Sign Language differs from spoken language in that they cover different topics. No taboos in using the names of person are found in Shanghai Sign Language. On the contrary, it is typical of Shanghai Sign Language users to give nicknames to their fellows according to their appearance for the convenience of communication. Nicknames can be given to the handicapped deaf according to their physical defects. It is not a socially unacceptable sign (taboo) as long as the signer is not doing this by purposeful mimicking. In expressing such topics as death, sex, and bodily excretions, there are quite a few socially unacceptable signs in Shanghai Sign Language. But the use of sign that means "death" is not prohibited in constructing Shanghai Sign Language euphemisms. No socially unacceptable signs are found in topics related to religions. In order to give good impression to others, the signer will try to avoid to using "dirty, crude" signs in their communicative activities, they would use euphemisms instead. Many euphemisms that are constructed with the Chinese character "xing"(性) as the initial element of the euphemism show no or little associative meaning with sex. "Xing" serves as the morpheme for the formation of Shanghai Sign Language euphemism. Generally, the prototype signs in SSL exhibits strong visual motivation so that they are considered as rude or coarse signs. The use of Taboos and euphemism are influenced by such factors as age, sex and educational backgrounds. There demonstrates the differences in use related to sex, age an education background. There may be other factors that interact with each other, which need to be further explored.The research finds that non-manual features play very important role in discriminating the part of speech, and the meaning of socially unacceptable signs (including taboos), they can also serve as modifiers in Shanghai Sign Language. Some of the NMFs have been lexicalized and grammaticalized.It is of significance both in theory and practice to make a tentative study of the socially unacceptable signs of Shanghai Sign Language, which hopefully will enrich the study of sign language in this field.