A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

In DGS, there are a number of distinctive wh-signs, that are listed below. All of these signs are simple DGS signs.

 

a.       what    

                        

 

 

b.      why ('warum')        

 

        

c.       why ('wieso')

 

 

 

d.      who  

                         

 

 

e.      where       

 

                 

f.       when        

 

                    

g.      how       

 

                       

h.      how_much   

 

            

i.       which

 

 

 

j.       where_from    ('woher')           

 

 

 

k.      where_to         ('wohin')      

 

     

l.       what_for        ('wofür')

 

 

 

m.     what_is_that ('was ist das')

 

 

 

n.      how_does_it_look    ('wie sieht aus')

 

 

 

o.      how_old         ('wie alt')

 

 

 

p.      how_long       ('wie lange')

 

 

 

Some of these signs differ only in their use of mouthing (what and where, and what_for and why (/wieso/), but are still semantically different. Also note that there are several regional variants for who, when, which, and why. In addition to these simple signs, there are also at least two complex wh-signs that are composed of the sign who and a possessive pronoun [Lexicon 3.7.3] (example a) or the agreement marker pam [Lexicon 3.3.4] (example b) respectively.

 

                                 wh

a.       ix car who poss?

         ‘Whose car is this?’

 

 

 

                                   wh

b.      ix₂ love pam who?

         ‘Who do you love?’