Topics in the Grammar of French Sign Language (LSF)

    The position of manual signs of relativization may vary in LSF. They are most often realized immediately before or after the head noun, as can be seen in the following examples. The relative pronoun pi is underlined, the head-noun is in bold, and the relative clause is within square brackets.

 

                                           rel

       a. ix₁ prefer [ man dog pi pet ]

       ‘I prefer the dog which the man is petting.’

 

 

 

                                 rel

       b. ix₁ prefer vet [pi cure dog]

       ‘I prefer the vet who cures the dog.’

 

 

 

 

 

                           rel

       c. ix₁ prefer pi vet [cure dog]

       ‘I prefer the vet who cures the dog.’                       (Hauser, 2019:58)

 

 

 

 

Relative pronouns can also be separated from the head noun to mark the relative clause periphery, but this option seems marginal and degraded. This is more frequent in internally headed object relative clause, as in the following example.

 

                         rel

       ?ix₁ prefer pi[ man pet dog]

       ‘I prefer the dog that the man pet.’                          (Hauser, 2019)