[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-138303-105":59,"doc-detail-138303-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","pronouns-and-pointing-in-sign-languages","Pronouns and pointing in sign languages","","Pointing signs in sign languages serve pronominal reference alongside other functions, yet they visually resemble non-signers’ pointing gestures. Researchers typically assume pointing signs constitute pronouns distinct from gesture. This paper compares canonical properties of pronominal pointing signs with personal pronouns in spoken languages and with pointing gestures. Results show morphosyntactic difficulty aligns with gestures, while gestural difficulty aligns with pronouns, so pronominal signs share traits of both.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/pronouns-and-pointing-in-sign-languages/138303/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/pronouns-and-pointing-in-sign-languages/138303.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Sage","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-18","2026-08-23",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main question this paper addresses?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Whether sign languages have personal pronouns or instead rely primarily on pointing gestures similar to those used by non-signers.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the paper compare pronominal pointing signs?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It compares their canonical properties with personal pronouns in spoken languages and with pointing gestures used by non-signers.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What key conclusion does the paper reach about pronominal signs?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Pronominal signs cannot be characterized exclusively as either personal pronouns or pointing gestures; they exhibit properties of both.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},138303,1787478736,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":144},687197207057,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Available online [at](at www.sciencedirect.com)[ www.sciencedirect.com](at www.sciencedirect.com)[ ](at www.sciencedirect.com)ScienceDirect  \nLingua 137 (2013) 230--247  \n[www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua](www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua)  \nb  \nPronouns and pointing in sign languages Kearsy Cormier a ,* , Adam Schembri b, Bencie Woll a  \na Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London, United Kingdom Linguistics program, Department of Languages Histories and Cultures, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia  \nReceived 19 November 2012; received in revised form 28 September 2013; accepted 30 September 2013  \nAvailable online 13 November 2013  \nAbstract  \nPointing signs are used for pronominal reference (among many other functions) in sign languages. Many pointing signs do not look very different from non-signers’ pointing gestures (Kendon, 2004; Kita, 2003c) . However, most sign language researchers, regardless of their theoretical perspective, assume that there is evidence for considering these pointing signs to be pronouns (i.e. , distinct from pointing gestures used by non-signers) . In this paper, we compare canonical properties of pronominal pointing signs in sign languages with (a) personal pronouns in spoken languages and (b) pointing gestures used by non-signers. We find firstly that the features that make pronominal signs difficult to characterise morphosyntactically are those features they share with pointing gestures and not with pronouns. Secondly, we find that the features that make pronominal signs difficult to characterise gesturally are those features they share with pronouns and not with pointing gestures. Therefore, we conclude that pronominal signs cannot be characterised exclusively either as personal pronouns, or as pointing gestures, but instead have characteristics of both. We discuss implications of this conclusion for linguistic theory and also for our understanding of linguistic diversity and linguistic universals.  \n© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.  \nKeywords: Sign language; Gesture; Reference; Deixis; Grammaticalisation  \n1. Introduction  \nHuman languages display considerable structural diversity, and yet at a basic level they share many properties. These are the two main tenets behind the study of linguistic diversity and the search for linguistic universals. Given the enormous amount of diversity across languages, Evans and Levinson (2009) question whether there are any true linguistic universals at all. In doing so, they argue against some substantive universals that have been proposed in the literature, providing examples and evidence for each case. One such universal proposed by Pinker and Bloom (1990) is ‘anaphoric elements’, including pronouns and reflexives. Evans and Levinson argue that many languages lack reflexives and some also lack clear personal pronouns. They also note: ‘‘Sign languages like American Sign Language also lack pronouns, using pointing instead’’ (2009:431) .  \nIn a response to Evans and Levinson (2009) , we previously noted that very few studies in the sign language literature make such a claim, and that, in fact, most sign linguists assume (and some have explicitly argued) that sign languages do have pronouns (Cormier et al. , 2010) .1 Arguments for the presence of pronouns in sign languages have included the greater systematicity in use of pointing in sign languages when compared to gesture used by non-signers, together with  \n* Corresponding author at: Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London, 49 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, United Kingdom. Tel.: +44 020 7679 8674; fax: +44 020 7679 8691.  \nE-mail addresses: [k.cormier@ucl.ac.uk](k.cormier@ucl.ac.uk) (K. Cormier), [a.schembri@latrobe.edu.au](a.schembri@latrobe.edu.au) (A. Schembri), [b.woll@ucl.ac.uk](b.woll@ucl.ac.uk) (B. Woll) .  \n1 Exceptions include Friedman (1975) and Johnston (2013) .  \n0024-3841/$ -- see front matter © 2013","cbCaiboan9PWI0LX","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiboan9PWI0LX","pdf",1110092,18,"English","# Abstract\n# 1. Introduction\n# 2. Background: pronominal signs","[{\"question\":\"What is the main question this paper addresses?\",\"answer\":\"Whether sign languages have personal pronouns or instead rely primarily on pointing gestures similar to those used by non-signers.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper compare pronominal pointing signs?\",\"answer\":\"It compares their canonical properties with personal pronouns in spoken languages and with pointing gestures used by non-signers.\"},{\"question\":\"What key conclusion does the paper reach about pronominal signs?\",\"answer\":\"Pronominal signs cannot be characterized exclusively as either personal pronouns or pointing gestures; they exhibit properties of both.\"}]","Pronouns and pointing in sign languages | PDF",45]