A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

4.1.4. Emphatic focus

Emphatic focus is used in LSC in order to intensify an item. The item that is under emphatic focus scope is generally part of a broad focus, and it is usually doubled in order to emphasize it over the rest of the focalized elements. The element doubled is usually placed in final position, as illustrated in the examples below.

 

a)    frog [escape want escape]F

‘Frog wants to ESCAPE.’

 

 

b)     [obsession where frog where]F

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

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

 

In example (a) the verb escape is part of a VP-focus, and it is doubled in final position. In example (b) the wh-particle where is part of an all-new focus sentence and it is also doubled at the end of the sentence.

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)