A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

Polar questions may have interrogative (question) particles. The form, the frequency of use, and the optionality/obligatoriness of this particle depends on the signer.  

 

A particle that some signers use is a manual sign articulated with a curved index finger resembling the graphic sign of a question mark in orthography. This sign can be represented as q_mark or as q_part. We adopt the gloss q_part, referring to its function in the question.

 

       q_part

 

Some signers use this question particle to mark the focus [Pragmatics – 4.1.] of the question. In the dialect of these signers, the particle occurs question-finally when the entire question is the focus as in ‘Did you meet the president?’ or after the phrase which is the focus of the question. The latter case can be translated into English either with stress as in ‘Did YOU meet the president? or with clefting as in ‘Is it you who met the president?’. The following is an example where the entire question is the focus:

 

ıx2 yesterday ankara go q_part

 

‘Did you go to Ankara yesterday?’

 

The examples below show how the particle can be used by some signers to focus different constituents. The position of the article in the question is after the sign which is the focus. 

 

 

ıx2 yesterday q_part ankara go

 

‘Was it yesterday that you went to Ankara?’

 

ıx2 yesterday ankara q_part go

 

‘Was it Ankara that you went to yesterday?’

 

chıld q_part chocolate eat

 

‘Was it the child who ate the chocolate?’

 

chıld chocolate q_part eat

 

‘Was it the chocolate that the child ate?’

    (adapted from Makaroğlu 2012: 54-55)

 

The distribution of q_part in the examples above may be an influence of Turkish where the polar question particle mi/mu occurs either sentence-finally or to the right of the focused constituent.

 

 

In this dialect, when the q.part is not used, the focused phrase occurs at the end of the question. In the following example, pıcnıc is the focused phrase.

 

tomorrow go pıcnıc

 

‘Is it to the picnic you will go tomorrow?’   

  (Makaroğlu 2012: 57)

 

An alternative is to double the focused phrase, i.e. to have two copies, one in its basic position and one at the end of the question, see [Pragmatics – 4.1.5] for focus doubling.

 

 

tomorrow pıcnıc go pıcnıc

 

‘Is it to the picnic you will go tomorrow?’       (Makaroğlu 2012: 57)

 

Mouthing of the Turkish question particle mi/mu is also possible: this mouthing occurs when the signer mouths the entire question, and the mouthing of mi/mu accompanies the q_part if it is present.

 

 

                 y/n

 

/ucuz       mu/

cheap q_part

‘Is it cheap?’

 

In the absence of q_part, mouthing of mi/mu usually accompanies the final manual sign.

 

           y/n

 

/ucuz mu/

cheap

‘Is it cheap?’

 

Finally, some elderly signers use a question marker which is articulated by the index finger touching the nose and then moving downward in a straight line, which is derived from an older form of the question word what.