Information Structure in Sign Languages : Evidence from Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands / Vadim Kimmelman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kimmelman, Vadim, Author.

Series:

Sign languages and deaf communities.

Sign Languages and Deaf Communities [SLDC] ; 10

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dutch Sign Language.

Russian Sign Language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxii, 284 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter Mouton, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Vadim Kimmelman, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Summary:

This book presents a first comprehensive overview of existing research on information structure in sign languages. Furthermore, it is combined with novel in-depth studies of Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands. The book discusses how topic, focus, and contrast are marked in the visual modality and what implications this has for theoretical and typological study of information structure. Such issues as syntactic and prosodic markers of information structure and their interactions, relations between different notions of information structure, and grammaticalization of markers of information structure are highlighted. Empirical studies of the two sign languages also showcase different methodologies that are used in such research and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. The book contains a general introduction to the field of information structure and thus can be used by linguists new to the field.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of tables

List of figures

Acknowledgments

Glossing conventions

List of sign languages and their abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Puzzles of information structure

3. Methodological issues

4. Topics in sign languages

5. Quantitative analysis of topics in RSL and NGT

6. Topic prominence

7. Discourse topics and modality effects

8. Focus in sign languages

9. A quantitative study of focus in RSL and NGT

10. Contrast

11. Doubling

12. A corpus study of question-answer pairs in NGT

13. Sign languages and typology of information structure

Appendix 1. Stimuli for the study of focus in RSL and NGT

Appendix 2. Testing reliability of coding for manual prosodic markers

References

Subject Index

Notes

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-277) and indexes.

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

1-5015-1004-5

1-5015-0993-4

OCLC:

1091660238