1 Introduction

The primary purpose of this paper is to bring within the purview of linguistics a less known language, the sign language used by the Estonian deaf. Although little is known about the existence of Estonian Sign Language (ESL), it has been, is, and will be used in communication between the deaf themselves. ESL exists in reality, but it has been virtually unstudied in linguistic terms. The general knowledge about the rules which govern the combining of signs into sentences in ESL is limited and, despite the fact that people for whom sign language is their first language, or the primary means of communication, do know how to sign, a detailed description of these rules and of the whole language is needed. This is so not only for working out the method of teaching ESL, but also because the data about every single language, whether signed or spoken, contribute to the study of language universals.

Since 1960 - when the American linguist William Stokoe presented his seminal work Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication System of the American Deaf - research on different sign languages across the world has shown that the signs of a sign language are something more than gestures without internal structure. Also, the "gestures" that are used in the communication systems of deaf people have turned out to form real languages, "which are just as rich, just as complete, and just as productive as the spoken languages" (Lillo-Martin 1990:86) (see Chapter 5).

Furthermore, research on sign languages has shown that the theories which have been applied to spoken languages are also applicable to sign languages. For this reason, sign languages have gained more and more attention with reference to the search for language universals, and it has been understood that the questions about the nature and fundamental properties of human language could only be answered by widening the scope of study to sign languages as well. Bernard Comrie (1981:221) has written in the conclusion to his book Language Universals and Linguistic Typology:

[i]n seeking explanations for universals of spoken language, one obvious question that might arise is the extent to which these universals can be explained in terms of the medium employed. Thus, clearly many universals of phonetic structure are determined or facilitated by the structure of the human vocal tract, and the nature of human auditory perception. It is conceivable that certain other universals of spoken languages might in turn correlate with properties of the medium, rather than, necessarily, with the human linguistic faculty at a more abstract level. Fortun ately, we do here have a standard of comparison, namely various sign languages, which use a radically different medium.

Thus, the object of this paper is to observe whether and how the major grammatical categories of the noun phrase which appear cross-linguistically in spoken languages are expressed in Estonian Sign Language. That is, the paper is concerned with describing the noun phrase in ESL from the typological perspective.

I used videotaped recordings of native signers of ESL, originating from the period of 1990-1994 as the material for my study. A more detailed account of the data for this study is given in Chapter 2. An overview of the typological approach to the study of grammar, and of the main issues related to it will be presented in Chapter 3. The purpose of Chapter 4 is to outline the major grammatical categories of the noun phrase: number, gender, definiteness and case, and to illustrate the various means and ways that different spoken languages utilise to express or indicate them. Attention has also been paid to the relationships within the noun phrase, and some universals by Greenberg in relation to these will be presented in order to observe their validity or applicability in the case of Estonian Sign Language in Part II. Chapter 5 serves to point out the main features of signs and sign languages; a general overview of the current state of Estonian Sign Language will also be provided.

Part II, which deals with the noun phrase in Estonian Sign Language, commences by observing the grammatical categories outlined in Part I, Chapter 4. The expression of number, noun class, definiteness and case in the ESL noun phrase will be described in Chapter 6. In addition to the grammatical categories mentioned above, Chapter 8 pays attention to adjectival modification, especially to the order of noun signs in relation to signs expressing quality (adjectives). This is particularly important because one of the claims which I have frequently encountered in sign language classes (as well as in the literature on sign language linguistics) is that one should sign a thing (object, person or entity) first, and then its quality. The validity of this statement will be tested. The way possession is expressed in ESL noun phrases is also of interest, a description of which will be presented in Chapter 7. Chapter 9 serves to observe whether the ESL noun phrase reveals some constraints in relation to the ordering of multiple elements (signs) occurring in the phrase. A summary of the main findings pertaining to the noun phrase in Estonian Sign Language will be given in Chapter 10.

With respect to Part II of this paper, several people should be singled out for special mention. My sincere thanks belong to Vahur Laiapea for lending me his valuable library on sign language linguistics, and to Ave Paat who provided me with all the materials for the data analysis, and with the opportunity to get to know many wonderful people at the Tallinn Deaf School. My thanks also go to Lilli Pärn, Aire Murd, Airi Püss, Regina Toom, Brita Bergman.

I also want to thank Krista Mits for her invaluable help.

Airi Tamm, Elena Jurado and Maris Pähn have given me unfailing support and understanding. My warmest thanks to them.

Last, but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to Reet Ristjan whose role in helping me to understand the silent language cannot be overestimated. Without her, this study would have been incomplete, although no study seems ever complete. I hope that we will continue exploring Estonian Sign Language together.