A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

Disjunction is mainly expressed using non-manual markers such as squinted eyes, furrowed eyebrows and both lips curving down in combination with body leans and head tilts, as well as, the mouthing /o/, which is very common. These non-manual markers will be described in detail later in [SYNTAX 3.1.3.1.2]. Together with non-manual markers, it is also possible to find several signs, which are not disjunction coordinators by themselves. They help express disjunction and mark what the speaker knows in relation to what s/he is talking about.

            In LSC the coordinator equivalent to the English or, the sign or, is used very rarely. It keeps the O-handshape of the word o meaning ‘or’. If used, the sign is produced in combination with the mouthing /o/ ‘or’. Below we can see a picture of the sign and an example where it is used.

 

               

        or

                                                       fe, sq

                               ht-left   /o/         ht-right

marina work  or vacation.

           ‘Marina will work or will go on vacation.’ 

(© Giorgia Zorzi 2018. Reprinted with permission from Zorzi, 2018b: 128)

 

In combination with non-manual markers, it is often possible to see palm-up signed with a >-handshape oriented upward. This sign seems to be a prosodic marker that expresses doubt or uncertainty and it can be found in combination with other non-manual markers, but never alone, for instance with the mouthing /o/ ‘or’.

 

               

        palm-up

                                                           re                                                                                  lcd

                                                                                            bl-left            /o/                   bl-right

marina_j friend ix(poss)_j car rent cl: ‘rent’ palm-up bus public use.

‘Marina’s friend will rent a car or use the public bus.’ 

(© Giorgia Zorzi 2018. Reprinted with permission from Zorzi, 2018b: 129)

 

A second manual marker that is used in disjunction is the sign doubt. It is very common and contributes to expressing disjunction in a context of doubt or uncertainty.

 

               

     

                    doubt

                                                                                                                                                        fe, sq

                                                                                                                       ht-right                                   ht-left

                weekend+++ ix-1 doubt+++ palm-up marina pizza bake  marc ice-cream buy.

               ‘Every weekend I always doubt whether Marina will bake the pizza or Marc will buy the ice-cream.’

                (Context: the speaker is the owner of a restaurant and every weekend she has the same doubt).

(© Giorgia Zorzi 2018. Reprinted with permission from Zorzi, 2018b: 132)

 

doubt is an element that, depending on its position in the sentence and on the context, expresses the knowledge state of the speaker or of a referent. More data can be found in [SYNTAX 3.1.2.2.3].

Another manual marker in disjunction is the sign either-one. It is very common and it can be used in affirmative and interrogative sentences. The sign is bimanual and both hands are characterized by the Y-handshape. The non-dominant hand faces the signer, while the dominant one is oriented downward towards the horizontal plane. The non-dominant hand does not move and the dominant touches alternatively the top of the index and middle fingers of the non-dominant hand. It can also be accompanied by the mouthing of /cuál/ ‘which’.

 

               

        either-one       

 

                                            

                                               bl-left /o/             bl-right              /cuál/

marina palm-up house go      school stay either-one.

‘Marina went home or stayed at school, one of the two.’ 

(© Giorgia Zorzi 2018. Reprinted with permission from Zorzi, 2018b: 130)

 

The sign which seems to have the same properties as either-one, and it is generally produced only at the end of the sentence. It is articulated with an upright 2-handshape in both hands and an alternating movement up and down. We can see a video of the sign and an example below.

               

 

                    which  

                                                                                                  lcd

                                                        bl-left             bl-right

marina palm-up house go school stay which.

‘Marina either went home or stayed at school.’

(© Giorgia Zorzi 2018. Reprinted with permission from Zorzi, 2018b: 127)

                                                                                              

Finally, a further manual marker used in disjunction is the-2alternate. It has the same form as the-2 for conjunction, but with a different movement: the wrist turns alternating the palm orientation of the hand from upward to downward. Due to its movement in space, the sign the-2alternate agrees with the locations of the events. It is depicted below, together with an example.

               

 

         the-2alternate

              re     bl-right, ht-right /o/           bl-left, ht-left                         lcd

marina pizza knead            ice-cream buy  the-2alternate.

‘Marina either kneaded pizza or bought ice-cream.’

(© Giorgia Zorzi 2018. Reprinted with permission from Zorzi, 2018b: 136)

                                                                                             

The manual markers for disjunction described in this subsection are productively used in combination with non-manual markers, but they are not obligatory; they add information to the structure expressing disjunction already marked by the non-manual markers [SYNTAX 3.1.2.3.3].