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Article published In:
Sign Language & Linguistics
Vol. 24:2 (2021) ► pp.259–273
Squib

Linearization constraints on sentential negation in Russian Sign Language are prosodic

| HSE UniversityMoscow,
| HSE UniversityMoscow,
This squib documents exceptions to the main strategy of expressing sentential negation in Russian Sign Language (RSL). The postverbal sentential negation particle in RSL inverts the basic SVO order characteristic of the language turning it into SOV (Pasalskaya 2018a). We show that this reversal requirement under negation is not absolute and does not apply to prosodically heavy object NPs. The resulting picture accords well with the view of RSL word order laid out by Kimmelman (2012) and supports a model of grammar where syntactic computation has access to phonological information (Kremers 2014; Bruening 2019).
Keywords: Russian Sign Language, negation, syntax, prosody
Article outline
  • 1.Word order and negation in Russian Sign Language
  • 2.NegP and head movement
  • 3.Coordinated NPs under sentential negation
  • 4.Analysis: Heavy constituent shift
  • 5.Resultative secondary predicates
  • 6.Mouthing
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 11 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.20007.rud
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