Linguistics ETDs

Publication Date

Summer 7-28-2026

Abstract

Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) has been characterized by a north-south dialectal divide since the beginning of its development in the early twentieth century, further complicated by contact with Chinese Sign Language and with Mandarin. Considering increased interconnectivity across Taiwan, this dissertation asks: does the traditional north-south dialectal distinction still hold? To address this question, fieldwork was conducted across six areas of Taiwan to develop a data set consisting of word elicitations and sociolinguistic interviews. Findings from quantitative and qualitative analyses of these data suggest that TSL is not undergoing straightforward dialect leveling, but rather convergence towards a mixed variety shaped by linguistic and social pressures. Moreover, this ground-up process is driven by individual signers navigating competing demands of maintaining their own linguistic identities, accommodation to signers of varying backgrounds, and communicative clarity in the face of a high degree of lexical variation.

Language

English

Keywords

Taiwan Sign Language, language documentation, corpus construction, language variation, dialect contact

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Linguistics

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Department of Linguistics

First Committee Member (Chair)

Erin Wilkinson

Second Committee Member

Jill P. Morford

Third Committee Member

Joshua Birchall

Fourth Committee Member

Julie Hochgesang

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