A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

1.1.1.1. Selected fingers

As previously mentioned selected fingers are the active fingers of a handshape. They display some properties that cannot be found in unselected fingers, for instance, i) they can have internal movement, ii) they can fulfil different finger configurations, and iii) they typically have contact with a location (as will be shown in PHONOLOGY 1.1.1.2). By contrast, unselected fingers cannot have internal movement and they can only display two different finger configurations (open or closed). In the example below the sign emerge has the same set of selected fingers but different finger configurations at the beginning (closed) and at the end (open).

emerge [video]

 In LSC there is a limited amount of finger selection combinations that are shown in the table below. 

Nr. of selected fingers

Selected fingers

Flexed unselected fingers

Extended unselected fingers

 

One

Thumb

/

Index

/

Middle

Pinkie

/

Two

Thumb+index

Thumb+middle

 

/

Thumb + pinkie

 

/

Index + middle

 

/

Index + pinkie

 

/

Three

thumb + index+ middle 

/

Four

index + middle

+ ring + pinkie

 

/

Five

thumb + index

+ middle + ring

+ pinkie

/

 

LSC shows many examples of minimal pairs created by contrastive handshapes based on a different finger selection.

Handshape 1 and i may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (different vs. peace).

different vs. peace

Handshape 5 and 0 may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (slowly vs. no-one).

slowly vs. no-one

Handshape B and A may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (always vs. work).

always vs. work

Handshape Y and U may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (telephone vs. toilet).

telephone vs. toilet

Handshape 4 and 2 may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (catalunya vs. es-2).

catalunya vs. es-2

Handshape 1-middle and 7 may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (tablet vs. literature).

tablet vs. literature

Handshape 4 and A may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (latin vs. bold).

latin vs. bold

Handshape C and 5 may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (bus vs. fast).

bus vs. fast

Handshape 8 and B may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (chair vs. son).

chair vs. son

Handshape 2 and 6 may create minimal pairs such as the one shown below (tidy vs. mafia).

tidy vs. mafia

Moreover, some signs in LSC may be articulated with different phonological handshapes (allophones) without any contrastive meaning giving rise to different lexical variants, like the ones shown below.

a)    mother-2 vs. mother-b

b)    father-2 vs. father-b

c)    afternoon-b vs. afternoon-middle

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)