Existential sentences in Flemish Sign Language and Finnish Sign Language

This paper presents a descriptive and comparative study of existential sentences in Flemish Sign Language and Finnish Sign Language. Existential sentences are used to express the existence or presence of something or someone. This study investigates how expressions of existence or presence are constructed and what the order of Figure and Ground is in existential sentences in both languages. Existential sentences can be formed around the lexical signs HEEFT (‘have’) in Flemish Sign Language and OLLA (‘have’) in Finnish Sign Language or the lexical signs can be omitted from the construction. The... Mehr ...