Encoding different types of topics and foci in German Sign Language. A cartographic approach to sign language syntax

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the encoding strategies of different types of topics and foci in (the southern variant of) German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS). The discussion will be guided by two main hypotheses: (i) the existence of a strict, universal ordering of topic and focus projections in the tradition of Rizzi (1997) and (ii) the Bodily Mapping Hypothesis (Bross & Hole 2017; Bross 2020), i. e., the hypothesis that scope is expressed in a systematic way in sign languages: the higher an operator is located in the syntactic tree, the higher the articulator expressing it will be. As this study is concerned with very high CP categories, the Bodily Mapping Hypothesis predicts that the categories under discussion will be marked with the highest possible articulators, i.e., the eyebrows. Concerning topics, base-generated frame setters (epistemic, locative, and temporal frames) and moved aboutness topics will be discussed as well as structures resembling pseudo-clefts. Concerning focus, contrastive and mirative focus as well as regular cleft sentences will be examined.

Fantastic ‘at leasts’ and how to sign them

“…Manual modals are, as mentioned, not allowed in epistemic sentences, as shown in (7). Figure 1 depicts a photographic illustration of epistemic modality (taken from Bross, 2020a). Note that while epistemic modality bans the use of modal verbs, manual adverbs may additionally be used.…”

“…The bi-directional version, in contrast, would predict that CP-functions are expressed with facial non-manuals and that these facial non-manuals reflect CP-functions. This distinction, however, is not crucial for the purpose of this paper (for more details on different versions of the hypothesis see Bross, 2020a).…”

“…The starting points of this study were cartographic approaches to sign language (Bross & Hole 2017;Bross 2020a;b) where clausal structure is said to be systematically mapped onto the body in the visual modality. Bross and Hole (2017) and Bross (2020b) hypothesised that categories located in the CP-layer are expressed non-manually with the face (higher CP-functions are expressed with the upper face and lower CP-functions with the lower face).…”

The impact of verb type on word order in German Sign Language

“…If the ground is new, signers will prefer a figure-ground (SOV) order. In Bross (2020c), he further shows that frame-setting topics such as locative frames are non-manually marked by lowered eyebrows and dense eyes. Hence, it seems plausible for me to draw a connection between the often-observed ground-figure structure and information structure or context dependency.…”