Although sign linguistics and pragmatics started almost at the same time in the early 1960's, few studies have been reported so far on pragmatics in sign languages. The present study aims at examining how politeness is realized in Japanese Sign Language (JSL). For this purpose, a videotaped discourse completion test (6 requests and 6 rejections) was conducted with the help of 8 native JSL signers. As a result, the JSL signers used a variety of politeness strategies, including both positive and negative ones, proposed by Brown & Levinson (1978/1987). It is particularly noteworthy that off-record strategies, i.e., indirect language uses with implicature, were observed in 12 cases among 90. In addition, a nonmanual marker (NMM) "polite grimace" was observed 19 times both in requests and in rejections. It co-occurred with /ask/, /reject/, /it's OK/, /sorry/ and /borrow/. Using this NMM, the signers seemingly showed their feelings such as "I really hate to tell you this, but", "against my will, I have to say", etc. Hoza (2007) reports that "polite grimace" is also observed in ASL. However, the NMM "polite grimace" in JSL is unique in that it is often combined with two-handed signs, which are derived from unmarked one-handed signs and show deference, and/or bowing, i.e., a traditional etiquette in Japan. Thus, the present study clarifies that the politeness theory is applicable to JSL too. From another viewpoint, it indicates the richness of JSL as a language.

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In this paper, we propose annotation and transcription scheme for sign-language utterances “in interactions” and present several analyses of actual cases using this scheme. Previous studies have developed several transcription schemes, most of which have focused on transcribing the linguistic structure of sign-language words or utterances. The earliest scheme was the American Sign Language writing system developed by Stokoe (1960). Transcription schemes developed subsequently include HamNoSys (Prillwitz et al. 1987; Hanke 2004), sIGNDEX (Ichikawa 2001; Hara et al. 2007), and SignWriting (Sutton 1981, 1984). They focus on accurately transcribing each sign, including non-manual signals. However, these aroaches present difficulties in accurately transcribing interactions for the following reasons: (1) they cannot transcribe the start and end points of utterances; (2) they cannot transcribe the shifts and timing of multimodal components; and (3) they cannot transcribe hesitation or the sudden cutting off of an utterance, which often occur in natural conversation. In short, the purpose of these schemes is to reproduce signs that are too specialized for preformatted words and utterances. To discuss sign-language interaction, we must develop another transcription scheme that, like conversation analysis transcription, focuses on accurately presenting utterances in interactions. To this end, we developed a new alied transcription scheme based on the concept of gesture unit (Kendon 1984, 2004; Kita et al. 1998; McNeill 1992, 2005). This scheme reflects the difference between one-handed and two-handed signing, identifies the co-occurrence of actions, and reflects the continuity and change of actions. It thus reflects interactions produced through sign language. Results of case analyses show that signed utterances were composed carefully, and that signers were sensitive to them. We hope that this scheme will lead to renewed and cogent discussion about sign-language interaction.

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