A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

Nouns which are typically signed in the neutral area of the signing space (central area in front of the signer’s body) can also occur at the ipsilateral or contralateral area of the signing space. This is done to express either locative information as in (a) or contrast between two entities as in (b).

 

a.       book_neutral – book_ipsilateral – book_{contralateral}

         ‘a book, a book placed on the right side, a book placed on the left side’

         

 

 

b.      box _ipsilateral ball_{contralateral}

         ‘a box versus a ball’

        

 

 

 

Nouns in DGS can be distributed at various locations in the signing space via sideward reduplication. In those cases, sideward reduplication simultaneously expresses plurality and location. In the following example the sign house is repeated sideward and thus yielding a meaning: ‘The houses are located next to each other.’

 

         house++

         ‘The houses are located next to each other.’

                                                (based on Pfau & Steinbach, 2005: 126)

 

 

 

In DGS, localization of the nouns can be blocked depending on the phonological properties of those signs. For instance, body anchored signs (father) can only be localized by additional localization mechanisms such as usage of accompanying pointing signs [Lexicon 1.2.2 and Pragmatics 1.1.1]. Signs with complex alternating movements (bicycle) cannot be spatially distributed in space, but only with the usage of corresponding classifier constructions [Morphology  5] a spatial distribution is possible.

 

a.       father (citation) – father ix_ipsilateral

     

 

 

 

b.      bicycle (citation) – bicycle cl(C): ‘bicycle_standing’