Trevor Johnston
Biographic Data
| ID | 3842050 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Trevor Johnston |
| GIVEN NAMES | Trevor |
| FAMILY NAME | Johnston |
| SIGNATURE | JOHNSTON T |
| AFFILIATIONS | RAND Corporation |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1954-2331 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 111 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Corpus Analysis of Sign Languages
Sign languages (SLs) are the naturally evolved visual‐gestural languages of deaf com‐munities.
Building an Enduring Peace in Yemen: Lessons from Five Years of Rand Research
Yemen's civil war entered its sixth year in 2021. United Nations–led peace talks, which have been ongoing since the very beginning of the crisis, have struggled to gain traction. This report draws on five years of RAND research to describe the challenges facing efforts to achieve an enduring peace in Yemen and outlines constructive steps the international community can take to achieve an enduring peace.
Could the Houthis Be the Next Hizballah? Iranian Proxy Development in Yemen and the Future of the Houthi Movement
The authors analyze the prospect that Iran will further invest in Yemen's Houthis and develop them into an enduring proxy group. The authors examine the Houthi movement's history, the Houthis' current relations with Iran, Iran's history of proxy development, and the trajectory of the Houthi-Iran relationship, and then pose scenarios for the future. The report should be of interest to a wide audience in the foreign policy and defense community
Donating Time or Money? The Effects of Religiosity and Social Capital on Civic Engagement in Qatar
Authoritarian Abdication: Bargaining Power and the Role of Firms in Migrant Welfare
On the Conventionalization of Mouth Actions in Australian Sign Language
This study investigates the conventionalization of mouth actions in Australian Sign Language. Signed languages were once thought of as simply manual languages because the hands produce the signs which individually and in groups are the symbolic units most easily equated with the words, phrases and clauses of spoken languages. However, it has long been acknowledged that non-manual activity, such as movements of the body, head and the face play a v…
Reform of the Kafāla System: A Survey Experiment from Qatar
Immigration in the Arabian Gulf is governed by the kafāla (sponsorship) system, which provides the legal basis for the residency and employment of foreign workers across the region. Despite mounting economic, political and social costs, the system remains entrenched with little prospect for reform. The following paper takes up this puzzle, asking the simple question, why has vital reform been so difficult to achieve? In answering this question, w…
Medical Signbank as a model for sign language planning? A review of community engagement
This paper reviews a sign language planning project conducted in Australia with deaf Auslan users. The Medical Signbank project utilised a cooperative language planning process to engage with the Deaf community and sign language interpreters to develop an online interactive resource of health-related signs, in order to address a gap in the health lexicon of Auslan. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the outcome of the bottom-up language planni…
Finish Variation and Grammaticalization in a Signed Language: How far down this well-trodden pathway is Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
Language variation is often symptomatic of ongoing historical change, including grammaticalization. Signed languages lack detailed historical records and a written literature, so tracking grammaticalization in these languages is problematic. Grammaticalization can, however, also be observed synchronically through the comparison of data on variant word forms and multiword constructions in particular contexts and in different dialects and registers…
Elaborating Who's What: A Study of Constructed Action and Clause Structure in Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
In spoken and signed language discourse, periods of gestural enactment, or constructed action, appear sequentially and simultaneously with linguistic signs. In the domain of signed language research, constructed action has been shown to be an important part of narrative discourse. However, there has yet to be much empirical investigation into its frequency or interaction with a signed language grammar. The current study addresses this gap with a …
Points, Depictions, Gestures and Enactment: Partly Lexical and Non-Lexical Signs as Core Elements of Single Clause-Like Units in Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
Pointing signs, depicting signs and manual gestures are all used for meaningful expression in Auslan, as are full or partial body enactments to demonstrate action or dialogue. This article outlines a corpus-driven approach to identifying clause-like units in a native signed language and investigates the use of pointing signs, depicting signs, gestures and enactments to express core elements of possible clause-like units in Auslan narratives. We e…
Variable “subject” presence in Australian Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language
This article reports the findings of parallel studies of variable subject presence in two closely related sign language varieties, Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). The studies expand upon research in American Sign Language (ASL) (Wulf, Dudis, Bayley, & Lucas, 2002) that found subject pronouns with noninflecting verbs to be more frequently unexpressed than expressed. The ASL study reported that null subject u…
From archive to corpus: Transcription and annotation in the creation of signed language corpora
Annotations are an important resource in corpus-based linguistic research. In fact, the most important feature of a modern signed language corpus should be that it has been annotated rather than simply transcribed. Digital multi-media annotation software can now transform language recordings into machine-readable texts using gloss-based annotations without it first being necessary to transcribe these utterances, provided that sign tokens are iden…
Variation, lexicalization and grammaticalization in signed languages
Nous suggérons que les théories sur la structure des langues et le changement linguistique qui sont basées sur la notion de construction offrent un cadre particulièrement fécond pour comprendre la variation et la grammaticalisation dans les langues des signes (LS). Nous montrons qu’il y a une dimension complémentaire à la variation sociolinguistique dans ces langues, dont l’exploration systématique vient juste d’être ouverte par les grands corpus…
Phonological variation and change in Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages: The location variable
In this study, we consider variation in a class of signs in Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages that includes the signs think, name , and clever . In their citation form, these signs are specified for a place of articulation at or near the signer's forehead or above, but are sometimes produced at lower locations. An analysis of 2667 tokens collected from 205 deaf signers in five sites across Australia and of 2096 tokens collected from 138 d…
Australian Sign Language (Auslan): An introduction to sign language linguistics
This is first comprehensive introduction to the linguistics of Auslan, the sign language of Australia. Assuming no prior background in language study, it explores each key aspect of the structure of Auslan, providing an accessible overview of its grammar (how sentences are structured), phonology (the building blocks of signs), morphology (the structure of signs), lexicon (vocabulary), semantics (how meaning is created), and discourse (how Auslan …
The realization of the linguistic metafunctions in a sign language
According to the metafunctional hypothesis, there is a non arbitrary relationship between three major kinds of linguistic structure—'wave’ (sequence and periodicity), ‘field’ (intonation) and ‘particle’ (constituents)— and the core meanings they typically express (textual, interpersonal and ideational, respectively). Furthermore, every act of meaning using a linguistic semiotic system is said to simultaneously encode and express all three types o…
The realization of the linguistic metafunctions in a sign language
From archive to corpus: Transcription and annotation in the creation of signed language corpora
Annotations are an important resource in corpus-based linguistic research. In fact, the most important feature of a modern signed language corpus should be that it has been annotated rather than simply transcribed. Digital multi-media annotation software can now transform language recordings into machine-readable texts using gloss-based annotations without it first being necessary to transcribe these utterances, provided that sign tokens are iden…
Phonological variation and change in Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages: The location variable
In this study, we consider variation in a class of signs in Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages that includes the signs think, name , and clever . In their citation form, these signs are specified for a place of articulation at or near the signer's forehead or above, but are sometimes produced at lower locations. An analysis of 2667 tokens collected from 205 deaf signers in five sites across Australia and of 2096 tokens collected from 138 d…
Variable “subject” presence in Australian Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language
This article reports the findings of parallel studies of variable subject presence in two closely related sign language varieties, Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). The studies expand upon research in American Sign Language (ASL) (Wulf, Dudis, Bayley, & Lucas, 2002) that found subject pronouns with noninflecting verbs to be more frequently unexpressed than expressed. The ASL study reported that null subject u…
Points, Depictions, Gestures and Enactment: Partly Lexical and Non-Lexical Signs as Core Elements of Single Clause-Like Units in Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
Pointing signs, depicting signs and manual gestures are all used for meaningful expression in Auslan, as are full or partial body enactments to demonstrate action or dialogue. This article outlines a corpus-driven approach to identifying clause-like units in a native signed language and investigates the use of pointing signs, depicting signs, gestures and enactments to express core elements of possible clause-like units in Auslan narratives. We e…
Elaborating Who's What: A Study of Constructed Action and Clause Structure in Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
In spoken and signed language discourse, periods of gestural enactment, or constructed action, appear sequentially and simultaneously with linguistic signs. In the domain of signed language research, constructed action has been shown to be an important part of narrative discourse. However, there has yet to be much empirical investigation into its frequency or interaction with a signed language grammar. The current study addresses this gap with a …
On the Conventionalization of Mouth Actions in Australian Sign Language
This study investigates the conventionalization of mouth actions in Australian Sign Language. Signed languages were once thought of as simply manual languages because the hands produce the signs which individually and in groups are the symbolic units most easily equated with the words, phrases and clauses of spoken languages. However, it has long been acknowledged that non-manual activity, such as movements of the body, head and the face play a v…
Variation, lexicalization and grammaticalization in signed languages
Nous suggérons que les théories sur la structure des langues et le changement linguistique qui sont basées sur la notion de construction offrent un cadre particulièrement fécond pour comprendre la variation et la grammaticalisation dans les langues des signes (LS). Nous montrons qu’il y a une dimension complémentaire à la variation sociolinguistique dans ces langues, dont l’exploration systématique vient juste d’être ouverte par les grands corpus…
Donating Time or Money? The Effects of Religiosity and Social Capital on Civic Engagement in Qatar
Authoritarian Abdication: Bargaining Power and the Role of Firms in Migrant Welfare
Finish Variation and Grammaticalization in a Signed Language: How far down this well-trodden pathway is Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
Language variation is often symptomatic of ongoing historical change, including grammaticalization. Signed languages lack detailed historical records and a written literature, so tracking grammaticalization in these languages is problematic. Grammaticalization can, however, also be observed synchronically through the comparison of data on variant word forms and multiword constructions in particular contexts and in different dialects and registers…
The realization of the linguistic metafunctions in a sign language
The realization of the linguistic metafunctions in a sign language
According to the metafunctional hypothesis, there is a non arbitrary relationship between three major kinds of linguistic structure—'wave’ (sequence and periodicity), ‘field’ (intonation) and ‘particle’ (constituents)— and the core meanings they typically express (textual, interpersonal and ideational, respectively). Furthermore, every act of meaning using a linguistic semiotic system is said to simultaneously encode and express all three types o…
The realization of the linguistic metafunctions in a sign language
According to the metafunctional hypothesis, there is a non arbitrary relationship between three major kinds of linguistic structure—'wave’ (sequence and periodicity), ‘field’ (intonation) and ‘particle’ (constituents)— and the core meanings they typically express (textual, interpersonal and ideational, respectively). Furthermore, every act of meaning using a linguistic semiotic system is said to simultaneously encode and express all three types o…
The realization of the linguistic metafunctions in a sign language
Australian Sign Language (Auslan): An introduction to sign language linguistics
This is first comprehensive introduction to the linguistics of Auslan, the sign language of Australia. Assuming no prior background in language study, it explores each key aspect of the structure of Auslan, providing an accessible overview of its grammar (how sentences are structured), phonology (the building blocks of signs), morphology (the structure of signs), lexicon (vocabulary), semantics (how meaning is created), and discourse (how Auslan …
Phonological variation and change in Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages: The location variable
In this study, we consider variation in a class of signs in Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages that includes the signs think, name , and clever . In their citation form, these signs are specified for a place of articulation at or near the signer's forehead or above, but are sometimes produced at lower locations. An analysis of 2667 tokens collected from 205 deaf signers in five sites across Australia and of 2096 tokens collected from 138 d…
From archive to corpus: Transcription and annotation in the creation of signed language corpora
Annotations are an important resource in corpus-based linguistic research. In fact, the most important feature of a modern signed language corpus should be that it has been annotated rather than simply transcribed. Digital multi-media annotation software can now transform language recordings into machine-readable texts using gloss-based annotations without it first being necessary to transcribe these utterances, provided that sign tokens are iden…
Variation, lexicalization and grammaticalization in signed languages
Nous suggérons que les théories sur la structure des langues et le changement linguistique qui sont basées sur la notion de construction offrent un cadre particulièrement fécond pour comprendre la variation et la grammaticalisation dans les langues des signes (LS). Nous montrons qu’il y a une dimension complémentaire à la variation sociolinguistique dans ces langues, dont l’exploration systématique vient juste d’être ouverte par les grands corpus…
Variable “subject” presence in Australian Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language
This article reports the findings of parallel studies of variable subject presence in two closely related sign language varieties, Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). The studies expand upon research in American Sign Language (ASL) (Wulf, Dudis, Bayley, & Lucas, 2002) that found subject pronouns with noninflecting verbs to be more frequently unexpressed than expressed. The ASL study reported that null subject u…
Elaborating Who's What: A Study of Constructed Action and Clause Structure in Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
In spoken and signed language discourse, periods of gestural enactment, or constructed action, appear sequentially and simultaneously with linguistic signs. In the domain of signed language research, constructed action has been shown to be an important part of narrative discourse. However, there has yet to be much empirical investigation into its frequency or interaction with a signed language grammar. The current study addresses this gap with a …
Points, Depictions, Gestures and Enactment: Partly Lexical and Non-Lexical Signs as Core Elements of Single Clause-Like Units in Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
Pointing signs, depicting signs and manual gestures are all used for meaningful expression in Auslan, as are full or partial body enactments to demonstrate action or dialogue. This article outlines a corpus-driven approach to identifying clause-like units in a native signed language and investigates the use of pointing signs, depicting signs, gestures and enactments to express core elements of possible clause-like units in Auslan narratives. We e…
Reform of the Kafāla System: A Survey Experiment from Qatar
Immigration in the Arabian Gulf is governed by the kafāla (sponsorship) system, which provides the legal basis for the residency and employment of foreign workers across the region. Despite mounting economic, political and social costs, the system remains entrenched with little prospect for reform. The following paper takes up this puzzle, asking the simple question, why has vital reform been so difficult to achieve? In answering this question, w…
Medical Signbank as a model for sign language planning? A review of community engagement
This paper reviews a sign language planning project conducted in Australia with deaf Auslan users. The Medical Signbank project utilised a cooperative language planning process to engage with the Deaf community and sign language interpreters to develop an online interactive resource of health-related signs, in order to address a gap in the health lexicon of Auslan. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the outcome of the bottom-up language planni…
Finish Variation and Grammaticalization in a Signed Language: How far down this well-trodden pathway is Auslan (Australian Sign Language)
Language variation is often symptomatic of ongoing historical change, including grammaticalization. Signed languages lack detailed historical records and a written literature, so tracking grammaticalization in these languages is problematic. Grammaticalization can, however, also be observed synchronically through the comparison of data on variant word forms and multiword constructions in particular contexts and in different dialects and registers…
On the Conventionalization of Mouth Actions in Australian Sign Language
This study investigates the conventionalization of mouth actions in Australian Sign Language. Signed languages were once thought of as simply manual languages because the hands produce the signs which individually and in groups are the symbolic units most easily equated with the words, phrases and clauses of spoken languages. However, it has long been acknowledged that non-manual activity, such as movements of the body, head and the face play a v…
Authoritarian Abdication: Bargaining Power and the Role of Firms in Migrant Welfare
Donating Time or Money? The Effects of Religiosity and Social Capital on Civic Engagement in Qatar
Could the Houthis Be the Next Hizballah? Iranian Proxy Development in Yemen and the Future of the Houthi Movement
The authors analyze the prospect that Iran will further invest in Yemen's Houthis and develop them into an enduring proxy group. The authors examine the Houthi movement's history, the Houthis' current relations with Iran, Iran's history of proxy development, and the trajectory of the Houthi-Iran relationship, and then pose scenarios for the future. The report should be of interest to a wide audience in the foreign policy and defense community
Building an Enduring Peace in Yemen: Lessons from Five Years of Rand Research
Yemen's civil war entered its sixth year in 2021. United Nations–led peace talks, which have been ongoing since the very beginning of the crisis, have struggled to gain traction. This report draws on five years of RAND research to describe the challenges facing efforts to achieve an enduring peace in Yemen and outlines constructive steps the international community can take to achieve an enduring peace.
Corpus Analysis of Sign Languages
Sign languages (SLs) are the naturally evolved visual‐gestural languages of deaf com‐munities.
Hearing Impairment and Communication (13 works) · Linguistics (13 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (11 works) · Sign language (11 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works)