A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

4.1.1. All-new focus

All-new focus sentences in LSC (also called thetic sentences) are sentences in which all the information provided is new to the addressee. These sentences are expressed by default with the basic word order (SOV).

 

 

 

‘What’s happening in the picture?’

[woman coke drink]F

‘A woman is drinking coke.’

(© Alexandra Navarrete-González, 2016. Reprinted with permission from Navarrete-González, 2016: 26)

 

Moreover, a part of the all-new focus sentence may be emphasized by doubling an item [PRAGMATICS 4.1.5], as illustrated below.

 

[obsession where frog where]F

‘(He) was obsessed about WHERE the frog was.’

(extracted and recreated from the LSC corpus, cited in Navarrete-González, 2016: 28)

 

In this type of sentences the basic word order can be altered by different factors unrelated to information structure [SYNTAX 2.3.3].

List of editors

Josep Quer and Gemma Barberà

Copyright info

© 2020 Gemma Barberà, Sara Cañas-Peña, Berta Moya-Avilés, Alexandra Navarrete-González, Josep Quer, Raquel Veiga Busto, Aida Villaécija, Giorgia Zorzi

Bibliographical reference for citation

The entire grammar:
Quer, Josep and Gemma Barberà (eds.). 2020. A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series). (www.thesignhub.eu/grammar/lsc) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

A Chapter:
Surname, Name. 2020. Syntax: 3. Coordination and Subordination. In Josep Quer and Gemma Barberà (eds.), A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series). (www.thesignhub.eu/grammar/lsc) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

A Section:
Surname, Name. 2020. Phonology: 1.1.1.2. Finger configuration. In Josep Quer and Gemma Barberà (eds.), A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series). (www.thesignhub.eu/grammar/lsc) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

Surname, Name. 2020. Syntax: 3.1.2.1.3. Manual markers in disjunctive coordination. In Josep Quer and Gemma Barberà (eds.), A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series). (www.thesignhub.eu/grammar/lsc) (Accessed 31-10-2021)