To shift or not to shift
Indexical attraction in role shift in German Sign Language
There are two main competing views about the nature of sign language role shift within formal semantics today: Quer (2005) and Schlenker (2017a,b), following now standard analyses of indexical shift in spoken languages, analyze it as a so-called ‘monstrous operator’, while Davidson (2015) and Maier (2017), following more traditional and cognitive approaches, analyze it as a form of quotation. Examples of role shift in which some indexicals are shifted and some unshifted pose a prima facie problem for both approaches. In this paper, we propose a pragmatic principle of attraction to regulate the apparent unshifting/unquoting of indexicals in quotational role shift. The analysis is embedded in a systematic empirical investigation of the predictions of the attraction hypothesis for German Sign Language (DGS). Results for the first and second person pronouns (ix 1 and ix 2) support the attraction hypothesis, while results for here are inconclusive.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Role shift
- 2.1Role shift as a visible monster
- 2.2Role shift as quotation/demonstration
- 3.Shifted and unshifted indexicals
- 3.1 shift-together, mixed indexicality, and monsters
- 3.2Iconic indexicals and unquotation
- 4.The pragmatics of attraction
- 5.Evidence for attraction
- 5.1Empirical study
- 5.1.1Participants
- 5.1.2Procedure
- 5.1.3 ix 1 items
- 5.1.4 ix 2 items
- 5.1.5 here items
- 5.1.6Fillers and controls
- 5.1.7Summary
- 5.2Results and discussion
- 5.1Empirical study
- 6.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.18004.hub
References
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