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Publications (116)
This collected volume showcases cutting-edge research in the rapidly developing area of sign language corpus linguistics in various sign language contexts across the globe. Each chapter provides a detailed account of particular national corpora and methodological considerations in their construction. Part 1 focuses on corpus-based linguistic findin...
![FIGURE 2 | The negative particle neg-2 ["(can)not"].](publication/362002804/figure/fig2/AS:1177906323693587@1657846160764/The-negative-particle-neg-2-cannot_Q320.jpg)
Negation is a topic that has received considerable attention ever since the early days of sign language linguistics; also, it is one of the grammatical domains that has given the impetus for sign language typology. In this paper, we offer a typological and theoretical contribution to the study of sign language negation. As for the typological side,...
Typological comparisons have revealed that signers can use manual elements and/or a non-manual marker to express standard negation, but little is known about how such systematic marking emerges from its gestural counterparts as a new sign language arises. We analyzed 1.73 h of spontaneous language data, featuring six deaf native signers from genera...
This paper investigates coordination in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). We offer an account for a typologically unusual coordination pattern found in this language. We show that the conjuncts of a coordinated structure in NGT may violate a constraint governing coordinated structures in spoken languages, which we refer to as the ‘Parallel St...
This volume offers an overview of current research on grammatical number in language. The chapters Part i of the handbook present foundational notions in the study of grammatical number covering the semantic analyses of plurality, the mass–count distinction, the relationship between number and quantity expressions and the mental representation of n...
This article reports the results of the first longitudinal study that systematically investigates the acquisition of verb agreement by hearing learners of a sign language. During a 2‐year period, 14 novel learners of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) with a spoken language background performed an elicitation task 15 times. Seven deaf native si...
We analyze classifier predicates in Russian Sign Language (RSL) using a combination of naturalistic corpus and elicited data in order to determine their argument structure, and to test the generalization, based on research on other sign languages, that there is a clear relation between argument structure and classifier type (Benedicto and Brentari...
We analyze argument structure of whole-entity and handling classifier predicates in four sign languages (Russian Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands, German Sign Language, and Kata Kolok) using parallel datasets (retellings of the Canary Row cartoons). We find that all four languages display a systematic, or canonical, mapping between c...
We describe an intriguing interaction of negation and tense in Georgian Sign Language (GESL), a sign language which to date has received close to no attention by linguists. GESL verbs that employ an irregular negation strategy in the present tense (modal verbs and the verb know) require double marking in the past tense, i.e. the irregular negative...
The sign language phenomenon that some scholars refer to as “agreement” has triggered controversial discussions among sign language linguists. Crucially, it has been argued to display
properties that are at odds with the notion of agreement in spoken languages. A thorough theoretical investigation of the phenomenon may thus add to our understandin...
In serial verb constructions (SVCs), multiple independent lexical verbs are combined in a mono-clausal construction. SVCs express a range of grammatical meanings and are attested in numerous spoken languages all around the world. Yet, to date only few studies have investigated the existence and functions of SVCs in sign languages. For the most part...
In this paper, we offer a formal account of clausal negation in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) based on corpus data. Data analysis reveals that NGT displays considerable variation in negative clauses with respect to (i) word order and (ii) spreading of the headshake. As for (i), we show that the different positions of the manual negator vis...
The expression of standard negation by means of manual and/or non-manual markers has been described for a considerable number of sign languages. Typological comparisons have revealed an intriguing dichotomy: while some sign languages require a manual negative element in negative clauses (manual-dominant sign languages), in others negation can be re...
Sign language typology is the systematic comparative study of linguistic structures across sign languages, and has emerged as a separate linguistic sub-discipline over the past 15 years. It is situated at the crossroads between linguistic typology and sign language linguistics, the latter itself a relatively young discipline with its roots in the 1...
In all Sign Languages (SLs) studied to date, negation can be expressed by manual negative signs and by non-manual markers (mostly a headshake). The way these two types of markers interact, however, has been shown to be subject to cross-linguistic variation. In particular, in some SLs, the use of a manual negator is obligatory (e.g. Turkish SL, Ital...
Numerous unrelated spoken languages, i.e. languages in the auditory-oral modality, have been shown to exhibit systematic polysemy in the domain of reciprocity. Cross-linguistically, reciprocal markers not only encode ‘true’ reciprocity, but are also commonly used to encode spatial and sociative (collective) functions, among others. These functions...
Significance
One key issue in the study of human language is understanding what, if any, features of individual languages may be universally accessible. Sign languages offer a privileged perspective on this issue because the visual modality can help implement and detect certain properties that may be present but unmarked in spoken languages. The cu...
Since the 1990s, the field of sign language typology has shown that sign languages exhibit typological variation at all relevant levels of linguistic description. These initial typological comparisons were heavily skewed toward the urban sign languages of developed countries, mostly in the Western world. This review reports on the recent contributi...
All sign languages investigated to date make use of a side-to-side headshake in the context of negation. This headshake, however, is qualitatively different from the co-speech gesture used by speakers in similar contexts. Following a discussion of the origin and use of gestural headshakes, we show that across sign languages, the distribution of hea...
Studies on sign language grammaticalization have demonstrated that most of the attested diachronic changes from lexical to functional elements parallel those previously described for spoken languages. To date, most of these studies are either descriptive in nature or embedded within functional-cognitive theories. In contrast, we take a generative p...
Studies on sign language grammaticalization have demonstrated that most of the attested diachronic changes from lexical to functional elements parallel those previously described for spoken languages. To date, most of these studies are either descriptive in nature or embedded within functional-cognitive theories. In contrast, we take a generative p...
→ Crucially, the predicate will be modulated such that its endpoint coincides with the location in the signing space at which the Ground has been articulated, thereby yielding the complex meaning 'be located on the top/surface of'. No overt preposition is used. → Despite this modality-specific peculiarity, we argue that SLs employ the same syntacti...
Sign language linguists show here that all questions relevant to the linguistic investigation of spoken languages can be asked about sign languages. Conversely, questions that sign language linguists consider - even if spoken language researchers have not asked them yet - should also be asked of spoken languages. The HSK handbook Sign Language aims...
This chapter proposes a unified analysis for wh-questions and yes/no questions and shows that these are the expressions of an interrogative functional head (Inter) within the complementizer system. Building on Cheng's (1991) clause typing hypothesis and a discussion of data from spoken and signed languages (e.g. Gungbe, Wari', and Indian Sign Langu...
Sign language typology is a fairly new research field and typological classifications have yet to be established. For spoken languages, these classifications are generally based on typological parameters; it would thus be desirable to establish these for sign languages. In this paper, different typological aspects of sign languages are described. W...
This chapter pulls in cross-linguistic observations about the development and use of pointing, whether as a gesture or a sign, from both communities that use spoken languages (in Laos, Thailand, Australia, and Latin American Spanish) and those that use sign languages (in Denmark, Bali, and Germany). It argues that, if we set aside indexicals indica...
Parts of Speech are a central aspect of linguistic theory and analysis. Though a long-established tradition in Western linguistics and philosophy has assumed the validity of Parts of Speech in the study of language, there are still many questions left unanswered. For example, should Parts of Speech be treated as descriptive tools or are they to be...
Introduction There are numerous popular misconceptions about sign languages. One of these misconceptions has it that sign languages are “languages on the hands,” that is, that sign language lexemes as well as morphologically and syntactically complex structures are articulated entirely by the hands (and possibly the lower arm). In the course of thi...
En partant du principe selon lequel la classification des verbes ne s'effectue pas seulement en fonction des proprietes semantiques du sujet ou de l'objet, mais aussi et surtout en fonction de leurs proprietes morphosyntaxiques, les As. examinent ici les divers procedes pour la classification des verbes dans la langue des signes allemande. Apres av...
This study investigates the nature and extent of communication problems between hearing physicians and their deaf or hard-of-hearing patients. Thirty-two deaf and hard-of-hearing patients and their general practitioners were asked to fill in questionnaires regarding communication during the consultations. The authors were interested in (i) the phys...
It has been argued that properties of the visual-gestural modality impose a homogenizing effect on sign languages, leading to less structural variation in sign language structure as compared to spoken language structure. However, until recently, research on sign languages was limited to a number of (Western) sign languages. Before we can truly answ...
Sentential negation in German Sign Language (DGS) is particularly interesting, because it involves the combination of a manual and a non-manual element. The manual element is the negative particle NOT, the non-manual component is a side-to-side headshake which accompanies (at least) the predicate. In this paper, I argue that, despite this peculiari...
Gebarentalen bestaan net zo lang als er dovengemeenschappen zijn. Pas in de achttiende eeuw vinden we beschrijvingen van Franse gebaren die in het onderwijs gebruikt werden. Vanaf de negentiende eeuw hebben we films en foto’s van verschillende gebaren. Net als in gesproken talen bestaan er taalfamilies. Met behulp van lexicostatistiek kan de verwan...
We kunnen twee typen complexe zinnen onderscheiden. Bij subordinatie (onderschikking) is er sprake van een combinatie van een hoofdzin met een bijzin terwijl bij coördinatie (nevenschikking) twee hoofdzinnen gecombineerd worden. Bijzinnen kunnen onder andere door middel van een complementeerder of conjunctie of door verandering in de constituentvol...
One type of internal diachronic change that has been extensively studied for spoken languages is grammaticalization whereby lexical elements develop into free or bound grammatical elements. Based on a wealth of spoken languages, a large amount of prototypical grammaticalization pathways has been identified. Moreover, it has been shown that desemant...
Spoken languages employ various strategies to mark the plural of nouns, the most important ones being affixation, reduplication, and zero marking; within one language, different strategies and/or different morphological markers may be used, depending on lexical, phonological, or morphological properties of the base noun. In this article we present...
Sentential negation in German Sign Language (DGS) is particularly interesting, since it involves the combination of a manual and a non-manual element. The manual element is the negative particle NICHT ‘not’, the non-manual component is a side-to-side headshake that gets associated with the predicate. This article shows that, despite this peculiarit...
Unlike most spoken languages, German Sign Language (DGS) does not have a single means of reciprocal marking. Rather, different strategies are used, which crucially depend on phonological (one-handed sign vs. two-handed sign) and morphosyntactic (plain verb vs. agreement verb) properties of the underlying verb. Moreover, with plain verbs DGS shows d...
As is well known, negation in natural languages comes in many different forms. Crosslinguistically, we observe differences concerning the morphological character of the Neg (negation) element as well as concerning its structural position within a sentence. For instance, while many languages make use of an independent Neg particle (e.g. English and...
Carol Neidle, Judy Kegl, Dawn MacLaughlin, Benjamin Bahan & Robert G. Lee, The syntax of American Sign Language: functional categories and hierarchical structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. Pp. x+229. - - Volume 38 Issue 2 - ROLAND PFAU
In this paper, we shall be concerned with the nature of the morphosyntactic structure of verb signs in German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebaerdensprache: DGS). It has often been claimed that the morphological and morphosyntactic structure of signs is fundamentally different from what we know from the analysis of spoken languages. In the following, we...
In the last 30 years, psycholinguists have developed language production models based on speech error evidence. In particular, it has been shown that different processing levels have to be distinguished between a preverbal message and the articulation of an utterance. However, only few attempts have been made to relate the processing models to a pa...
All sign languages examined so far allow for classifying verbs, but the exact status of this word formation process has been a matter of some debate. We shall consider the different options - lexical vs. syntactic word formation - and claim that for German Sign Language a syntactic analysis is more promising, i.e. we take classification to be an in...
Spontaneous speech errors involving accommodation are a par-ticularly intriguing error type and have received much attention in the literature. In accommodations, an utterance is brought in line with some grammatical (e.g. morphological, morphosyntac-tic) constraint after the error has taken place. They are therefore often assumed to involve two st...
This chapter pulls in cross-linguistic observations about the development and use of pointing, whether as a gesture or a sign, from both communities that use spoken languages (in Laos, Thailand, Australia, and Latin American Spanish) and those that use sign languages (in Denmark, Bali, and Germany). It argues that, if we set aside indexicals indica...
Projects
Projects (2)
We conducted interviews with Deaf elderly signers in 5 European countries. The goal is to preserve the cultural and linguistic heritage of this special population. At present, parts of the interviews are subtitled and an edited volume on the subject is in preparation.
Asymmetrical coordination of the type "My brother bought fruit and vegetables, my mother" appears to be excluded in many spoken languages, but corpus data suggest that such constructions are grammatical in NGT. Our aim is to offer a syntactic account involving Information Structure notions. (Project with Iris Legeland (Amsterdam) and Katharina Hartmann (Frankfurt)).