Cover not available
Part of
Intonational Grammar in Ibero-Romance: Approaches across linguistic subfields
Edited by Meghan E. Armstrong, Nicholas Henriksen and Maria del Mar Vanrell
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 6] 2016
► pp. 369–386

Intonation and grammar in the visual-gestural modality

A case study on conditionals in Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

ORCID logo | ICREA-Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Although certain facial nonmanual articulations in sign languages have been analyzed as overt markers of a syntactic domain or semantic scope, an alternative view defends that they genuinely signal prosodic domains. Moreover, they have been claimed to convey discrete general meanings. I address the open question of the proper characterization of nonmanual domain markers by studying brow raise in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). It marks conditional antecedents and other dependent clauses in the left periphery. This study aims to determine whether LSC conditionals offer new evidence in favor of one of the two types of competing analyses, and concludes that brow raise is a portmanteau marker of syntactic integration of the dependent clause into the matrix, potentially layered with other nonmanuals.

Keywords: brow raise, Catalan Sign Language (LSC), conditional sentences, nonmanual markers, prosodic structure, sign language intonation
Published online: 31 March 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.6.17que
References
Alba, C., Barberà, G., & Quer, J
(2013, May). Imperatives in LSC. Paper presented atthe Workshop on Imperatives at SignGram COST Action IS 1006, Istanbul, Turkey.Google Scholar
Austin, P
(1981) A grammar of Diyari, South Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caponigro, I., & Polinsky, M
(2011) Relative embeddings: A Circassian puzzle for the syntax/semantics interface. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 29(1), 71-122. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coulter, G.R
(1978) American Sign Language typology. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Dachkovsky, S
(2008) Facial expression as intonation in Israeli Sign Language: The case of neutral and counterfactual conditionals. In J. Quer (ed.), Signs of the time. Selected papers from TISLR 2004 (pp. 61-82). Hamburg: Signum.
Dachkovsky, S., & Sandler, W
(2009) Visual intonation in the prosody of a sign language. Language and Speech, 52(2/3), 287-314. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fischer, S.D., & Lillo-Martin, D
(1990) Understanding conjunctions. International Journal of Sign Linguistics, 1, 71-80.Google Scholar
Liddell, S.K
(1980) American Sign Language syntax. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Lillo-Martin, D., & Quadros, R. de
(2010, March).Interfaces and WH-questions in sign languages. Paper presented atthe 20th Colloquium on Generative Grammar, Barcelona, Spain.Google Scholar
Mosella, M
(2012) Les construccions relatives en llengua de signes catalana (LSC) [Relative constructions in Catalan Sign Language]. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona.Google Scholar
Neidle, C., J. Kegl, D. MacLaughlin, B. Bahan, & R.G. Lee
(2000) The syntax of American Sign Language: Functional categories and hierarchical structure. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Nespor, M. & Sandler, W
(1999) Prosody in Israeli Sign Language. Language and Speech, 42, 143-176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nespor, M. & Vogel
I (1986) Prosodic phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Pfau, R. & Quer
J (2002) V-to-Neg raising and negative concord in three sign languages. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa, 27, 73-86.Google Scholar
J (2010) Nonmanuals: Their grammatical and prosodic roles. In D. Brentari (Ed.), Cambridge language surveys: Sign languages (pp. 381-402). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reilly, J., M. Mcintire & U. Bellugi
(1990) The acquisition of conditionals in American Sign Language: Grammaticized facial expressions. Applied Psycholinguistics, 11(4), 369-392. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sandler, W
(1999) The medium and the message: Prosodic interpretation of linguistic content in Israeli Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics, 2(2), 187-215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010) Prosody and syntax in sign language. Transactions of the Philological Society, 108(3), 298-328. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2012) Prosody. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & B. Woll (Eds.), Sign languages (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science, HSK), (pp. 55-76). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R.B
(2000) Phonological and prosodic layering of nonmanuals in American Sign Language. In K. Emmorey & H. Lane (Eds.), The signs of language revisited (pp. 215-244). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
(2011) Nonmanuals, semantic operators, domain marking, and the solution to two outstanding puzzles in ASL. Sign Language & Linguistics, 14(1), 148-178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilbur, R.B. & Patschke, C.G
(1999) Syntactic correlates of brow raise in ASL. Sign Language & Linguistics, 2(1), 3-30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Aubrey, Rachel & Michael Aubrey
2022. Bibliography of Conditionals. Journal of Translation 18:2 ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.