Asymmetry and Contrast: Coordination in Sign Language of the Netherlands

This paper investigates coordination in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). We offer an account for a typologically unusual coordination pattern found in this language. We show that the conjuncts of a coordinated structure in NGT may violate a constraint governing coordinated structures in spoken languages, which we refer to as the ‘Parallel Structure Constraint’. The violation consists in asymmetric fronting in the second conjunct of a coordinated structure. We argue that a violation of the Parallel Structure Constraint is acceptable in NGT in order to express a contrast across the conjun... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Hartmann, Katharina
Pfau, Roland
Legeland, Iris
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Reihe/Periodikum: Glossa: a journal of general linguistics ; Contrastive, given, new - encoding varieties of topic and focus ; volume 35, issue 1 ; ISSN 2397-1835
Verlag/Hrsg.: Open Library of the Humanities
Sprache: unknown
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27611371
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5872

This paper investigates coordination in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). We offer an account for a typologically unusual coordination pattern found in this language. We show that the conjuncts of a coordinated structure in NGT may violate a constraint governing coordinated structures in spoken languages, which we refer to as the ‘Parallel Structure Constraint’. The violation consists in asymmetric fronting in the second conjunct of a coordinated structure. We argue that a violation of the Parallel Structure Constraint is acceptable in NGT in order to express a contrast across the conjuncts. Hence asymmetric reordering in the second conjunct is a strategy that allows signers to obtain the desired strength of marking when in situ marking is insufficient.