Biased polar question forms in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT):Two functions of headshake

We identify several polar question forms in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) through a production experiment in which we manipulate two types of biases: (i) the prior expectations of the person asking the question, and (ii) the evidence available in the immediate context of utterance. Our analysis in the present paper focuses on forms involving headshake. We find that in some cases headshake expresses negation, as expected, but in other cases it fulfils another function, namely, it is part of a sentence-final phrase either expressing uncertainty or signalling a request for a response fro... Mehr ...