A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

Coordinating conjunctions such as and, or and but connect two or more words, phrases and clauses on the same syntactic level. DGS lacks the conjunction and. However, the sign plus, which is a derived sign from the manual speech system LBG (lautsprachbegleitendes Gebärden), occasionally occurs in natural signing.

 

plus

family together plus friend there

‘The family is together and friends are also there.’

 

 

 

Usually, coordination is prosodically marked and realized by a small pause between the single conjuncts as in the following.

 

       marc juice drink lisa bread eat                                                    

‘Marc drinks juice and Lisa eats bread.’ 

                                    

(based on Happ & Vorköper, 2006:538)

 

 

 

 

The signs but and or are more common in DGS and are used in different dialectal variations as demonstrated below.  

 

a.       but(1)

 

 

 

b.      but(2)

 

 

 

c.       but ix_pl trainer hearing hire ix₁ not no

         ‘But they hired a hearing trainer, I don’t like it.’

          (CDGS_ber_02_free conversation_00:01:32.30-00:01:35:40)

 

d.      or(1)

 

 

 

e.       or(2)

 

 

 

f.       or(3)

 

 

 

g.      example partner or poss₁ family or friend dispute

         ‘For example, a dispute with the partner or my family or a friend.’

(CDGS_fra_16_free conversation: 00:11:50:44-00:11:55:00)