The meaning of space in Catalan Sign Language (LSC): Reference, specificity and structure in signed discourse

Abstract

ii iii Als meu pares, al Cesc i a les comunitats sordes d"arreu. Cloc els ulls i sé que no hi ha res més bonic, quan aquest gest és sincer,que dar, cada ú, un xic. EULÀLIA RIBERA I LLONCH v AcknowledgmentsThe point of departure of this journey may be found at different moments: when my neighbour told me about an association for deaf people in Sabadell where she was learning sign language and recommended me the book Le cri de la Mouette by Emmanuelle Laborit; when I started studying for my doctorate and enrolled in a course called L'estructura de les llengües naturals de signes taught by Josep Quer at the Universitat de Barcelona; or also when I started teaching sign language linguistics and working at the Catalan Federation for the Deaf. These three starting points led me to meet many people who, in some way or other, have influenced the path I have taken and shaped this adventure. I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge them now. Josep Quer, my supervisor, is a wonderful linguist, as well as one of the nicest people I have ever met. He introduced me to sign language linguistics and has been on this path since the very beginning. He made me realise that when doing sign language linguistics, formal analyses can be much more interesting (and fun!) than doing WYSIWYG. I want to thank him for leaving me all the space I needed, for letting me wander with the data and for never pushing me in any specific direction, but for constantly reminding me that all the ideas must be well connected, while always thinking about new paths of research in such a positive way. As I said after my MA defence, I hope that this is only the beginning. Always ready to support me on all levels, Berit Gehrke and Alexandra Spalek were the perfect comrades from the very beginning of this journey and they deserve special credit. Berit was always ready to explain linguistic problems with which I was stuck with, help organise parts of this dissertation, listen to my existential doubts and organise barbecues and 80"s movies night when I thought my social skills had started waning. Being very close to Alexandra and after our endless discussions, I managed to understand what formal linguistics and doing a PhD were about. If it hadn"t been for them, I would never have reached my current level of understanding. And, most importantly, we wouldn"t have our amazing blog! Danke schön, my friends!! Most of the last four years were shared with the LSC linguists at the UPF and at the UB, with whom we always travelled on the same thematic journey. Celia Alba, Delfina Aliaga, Santi Frigola, Guillem Massó, Marta Mosella, Josep Quer, Joana Rosselló, and Raquel Santiago, many thanks for every single discussion about LSC and sign language in general. You have also been the perfect fellow travellers around Marrakesh, Vitoria, Lille, London and Venice! Lali Ribera"s dedication and enthusiasm for life is a model to me. Many thanks for letting me start this dissertation with one of your beautiful verses.And as if my work in Barcelona was not already intere...

Scope-taking strategies and the order of clausal categories in German Sign Language

“…13 A different system using a similar verticalization strategy to the one we describe in this article can be found with scopal operators that have a non-fixed position in the domain of locations. As was described for Catalan Sign Language (Barberà 2012) and for American Sign Language (Davidson & Gagne 2014;Barberà 2014), quantifiers with wider domains are signed higher in signing space than quantifiers with narrower domains. This holds true of DGS, too (as was confirmed by our consultants).…”

Reference control in the narratives of adult sign language learners

“…As in spoken languages, this type of language relies on pragmatics and coordination of several linguistic forms. In contrast to the linear sequence of words in the previous frog story example, fluent users of sign languages such as British Sign Language (BSL) or Catalan Sign Language (LSC) direct points and movements of signs between locations in a visual sign space in front of the torso to coordinate reference across sentences (Barberà, 2010(Barberà, , 2012Emmorey & Falgier, 1999;Gee & Kegl, 1983;Metzger, 1994;Morgan, 2005). How these devices are used will be described in the following sections.…”

“…There is relatively little psycholinguistic research on LSC (Barberà, 2012;Baus, Gutiérrez-Sigut, Quer, & Carreiras, 2008) and in general on L2 acquisition of any signed languages. The current study investigates how hearing adult learners of LSC use referential devices to establish and maintain reference in narratives compared with deaf native L1 signers.…”

Backgrounded agents in Catalan Sign Language (LSC): Passives, middles, or impersonals?

“…'John is clumsy.' 9 In sign languages signing space can be interpreted topographically or contrastively (Barberà 2012, Klima & Bellugi 1979. In a topographical interpretation, a high locus is interpreted as a high location, as in 'The pot on the upper left shelf was broken'.…”

“…'Someone/They opened the door.' For the case of LSC, it has been shown that the frontal plane, which extends parallel to the signer's body from the waist upward, is used to express specificity distinctions (Barberà 2012). DPs localized at a low locus are interpreted as specific (they are identifiable by the signer and belong to a restricted set), whereas DPs localized at a high locus are interpreted as nonspecific (they are unidentifiable by the signer and do not belong to a restricted set).…”