A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

The non-manuals markers that occur in a relative construction in LSC are basically two: brow raise and body lean towards the location in signing space where the head noun has been associated with. These non-manuals may be combined with other non-manuals, such as squinted eyes (when the interlocutors share information) and headshake (when expressing negation). Squinted eyes alone is not a non-manual marker characteristic of relative constructions because its spreading is not parallel to the relative one and also because it is not exclusive to relative clauses. In the example below, squinted eyes spread over the verb while the relative non-manual markers appears only over the determiner sign.

                                                                     sq

                                                                                  rel

          professor ix_1(poss) of son help++ self ix₁ plant offer.

          ‘I offered a plant to the professor who is always helping my son.’   

(© Marta Mosella 2012. Reprinted with permission from Mosella, 2012: 198)

With respect to the combination between the relative construction non-manual markers and the negative headshake, the only restriction is that the negative headshake cannot spread over the relativizer self.

                                                         rel

                                                            hs

          person₃ smoke not never self law smoke give-support.

          ‘The person who has never smoked gives support to the tobacco law.’        

(© Marta Mosella 2012. Reprinted with permission from Mosella, 2012: 202)