Meaningful Blurs: the sources of repetition-based plurals in ASL

In several sign languages, plurals can be realized with unpunctuated or punctuated repetitions of a noun, different semantic implications; similar repetition-based have been described in some homesigns and silent gestures. Unpunctuated often get approximate ‘at least’ readings while typically correspond to ‘exactly’ readings. The prevalence these mechanisms could thought case which Universal Grammar does not just specify the abstract properties grammatical elements, but also their phonological realization, at least visual modality. We explore an alternative arise from general iconic representations. On empirical level, we argue that ASL (American Sign Language), are unlikely exclusively mechanism, as they found purely (word-free) theoretical for modular account three components. First, create simplified pictorial representation. Second, give rise vagueness, resolved by way quantification over precisifications. Third, pragmatic process involving strategic reasoning maps vague representations onto set candidate linguistic meanings, including plural best expressed repetitions.