In our commentary, we raise concerns with the idea that location should be considered a gestural component of sign languages. We argue that psycholinguistic studies provide evidence for location as a “categorical” element of signs. More generally, we propose that the use of space in sign languages comes in many flavours and may be both categorical and imagistic.In their target article, Goldin-Meadow & Brentari (G-M&B) discuss several observations suggesting that the use of space is imagistic and may not form part of the categorical properties of sign languages. Specifically, they point out that (1) the number of locations toward which agreeing verbs can be directed is not part of a discrete set, (2) event descriptions by users of different sign languages and hearing nonsigners exhibit marked similarities in the use of space, and (3) location as a phonological parameter is not categorically perceived by native signers. It should be noted that G-M&B acknowledge that categorical properties of location and movement may simply not have been captured yet because the proper investigative tools are not yet readily available.

中文翻译：

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为什么空间不是一维的：位置可能是分类的和想象的

在我们的评论中，我们对位置应该被视为手语的手势组成部分的想法提出了担忧。我们认为，心理语言学研究为位置作为符号的“分类”元素提供了证据。更一般地说，我们建议手语中空间的使用有多种形式，并且可能都是分类的和在他们的目标文章中，Goldin-Meadow & Brentari (GM&B) 讨论了几个观察结果，这些观察表明空间的使用是富有想象力的，可能不构成手语分类属性的一部分。具体来说，他们指出（1）一致的动词可以指向的位置数量不是离散集合的一部分，（2）不同手语的用户和听力非手语的人对事件的描述在空间使用方面表现出显着的相似性, 和 (3) 作为语音参数的位置不会被母语手语者明确感知。应该指出的是，GM&B 承认，位置和移动的分类属性可能还没有被捕获，因为适当的调查工具还没有现成的可用。