Conceptual blending in American Sign Language interpretations

Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community onlyThis study investigated the conceptual blending processes that occurred during American Sign Language (ASL) interpretations. Using the framework of conceptual blending (Fauconnier &Turner, 1996), this study analyzed six ASL interpretations and found two new mental spaces, Narrator Space and Interpreter Space, which are activated during interpretations. Conceptual blending has been used analyzing ASL (Liddell, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2003; Dudis, 2004a, 2004b, 2007) but had not been applied to ASL interpretations until this study. The conceptual blending process of ASL has found several mental spaces that are activated in blends. Real Space (Liddell, 1995) and Event Space (Dudis, 2007) are two mental spaces that blend in ASL; these two spaces were also found in the data of this study. The data also revealed that all six interpreters created Event Space much like Deaf signers.Department of EnglishThesis (Ph. D.