4.3.1. Focus | SIGN-HUB

Prosodic manual markers are used in LSC in the expression of focus. Focused signs are longer in duration, have a higher velocity of their movement and display more movement repetitions, than their unfocused counterparts. In the table below the sign apple is found in two different examples. In the first one, the sign is not focused and it is articulated in 461 ms. By contrast, in the second example, the sign apple is focused and its duration is longer: 575 ms.

Items

Duration of the sign

Non-focused

Who is eating an apple?

[WOMAN]_F PERSON [APPLE]_NF EAT-APPLE

‘The woman is eating an apple.’

461 ms

Focused

What are they eating, an apple or an icecream?

[APPLE]_F EAT

‘Eating an apple.’

575 ms

Comparison in duration of a focused sign vs. an unfocused sign

(based on Navarrete-González, 2016: 32, 36)

If the focused sign involves a repeated movement, it tends to be faster and involve more repetitions than its non-focused counterpart.For instance, in the example (a) below the sign horse is repeated five times and is articulated with a higher velocity of the movement, whereas its unfocused counterpart (b) is repeated only two times.

a) horse+++++ ride

b) horse

(examples a-b based on Navarrete-González, 2016: 33)

New information focus is marked mainly by raised eyebrows. This strategy is only found when no deviation from the basic word order takes place and the focus is found in situ. In the example below the signs woman person (‘the woman’) are focused and marked with raised eyebrows.


woman	person	apple	eat_apple

Subject-focus sentence

Who is eating an apple

[woman person]_f apple eat_apple

‘The woman is eating an apple’

Another NMM used in the expression of new information focus is a forward head tilt accompanied by a chin down movement, as shown in the example below.


now	eat	snack	ix₃

What is the girl doing now?

ht-f

now [eat snack]_F ix₃

‘She is EATING A SNACK now.

Moreover, mouthing is also a very systematic non-manual marker found in the expression of this type of focus. However, this NMM is not only found in new information focus, but it also appears systematically in all the other focus types.

Contrastive focusin LSC is primarily expressed through a combination of NMMs: rightward and leftward body leans and head movements. In the example below, the two contrasted elements are articulated in both sides of the signer’s body. A leftward and a rightward body lean for each contrasted element is clearly distinguished, as well as left and right head tilts.


ix₁	man	sibling	ix₃

ba	finish	ix₁	master

Who finished the BA this year, you or your brother?

bl, ht-left bl, ht-right

[ix₁ man sibling ix₃]_T [ba]_f finish [ix₁]_T [master]_f

‘My brother finished the BA, I finished the MASTER.’

This combination of markers is found with additional head movements in some types of contrastive focus: selective and corrective focus.

When the signer has to select some alternative from a previous set (selective focus), focus is expressed with the same combination of markers (the use of the opposite sides of signing space and body leans from left to right) plus a repeated head nod towards the selected alternative, as illustrated below.

What is the woman doing: riding a bike or riding a horse?

bl- right,ht

[bike ride]_right

‘Riding a bike.’

If the signer is correcting a previous utterance that he/she considers false (corrective focus), a head thrust is added to the combination previously mentioned. In the example below the signs other burger (‘but a burger’) are expressed towards the opposite side of the space, the right side, with a right body lean and head tilt, and additionally a head thrust in the correction.

A: Mary ate a pizza.

bl, ht-left bl, ht-right, hth

B: no, mary pizza_eat [nothing]_left, [other burger]_right.

‘No, Mary didn’t eat a pizza but a burger.’

Furrowed eyebrows are also found in some instances for the expression of contrastive focus. However, this marking is not very systematic; it appears only in some cases of corrective focus, like the one shown below.


no	push

The neighbor is cleaning the car, right?

no, push

‘No, he is pushing (it).’

Moreover, there is a lexical marker, the sign list, thatis used when more than two alternatives are explicitly contrasted [LEXICON 1.2.3]. This sign already expresses the contrast between the elements in the list, without the need of being accompanied by the non-manual markers mentioned before.

‘What did you buy at the supermarket?’

ix₍_first) potato ix_(second) eggplant ix_(third) tomatoes ix_(fourth) fish ix_(fifth)meat etc.

list(>) list(C) list(Z) list(>) list(>)

‘Potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, fish, meat, and other things.’

Nonetheless, this sign (list) can also be uttered along with the non-manual markers for contrast, as illustrated below.

left-bl right-bl left-bl

₃give_gift₁ different++ example ix candy ix money ix teddy bear

list(B) list(Y) list(j)

‘They gave me different gifts. For instance, candy, money, a teddy bear.’

Focus particles are used in LSC as in many other languages. Until date, three different types of focus particles have been found to be productive in LSC: restrictive focus particles like ‘only’, additive focus particles like ‘also’, and scalar additive focus particles like ‘even’.

There are three different signs that refer to the restrictive focus particle ‘only’: that’s_it, unique and only. The sign that’s_it is the most frequent one; it is placed right after the focused item, as shown in example (a) below. The signs unique and only are placed right before the focused item, as illustrated in examples (b) and (c). In example (b) the sign unique is doubled for emphatic purposes.

a) woman cake one that’s_it

‘The woman (baked) only one cake.’

b) woman unique cake unique

‘The woman (baked) only one cake.’

c) man little++, speak nothing, only [write stick++]_{F [VIDEO NEEDS TO BE RECORDED]}

‘The man was slowly doing some actions. He did not speak at all, he just wrote notes and stuck them (in the bank).’

(extracted and recreated from the LSC Corpus, cited in Navarrete-González, to appear)

The additive particle ‘also’ can be expressed through different signs: also, plus(y), plus(n), and plus(B).

left sp right sp

bl-left bl- right

a) law ix [english]_f also [catalan]_f

‘The law can be consulted in English and also in Catalan.’

left sp right sp

bl-left bl- right

b) law ix [english]_f plus(y) [catalan]_f

‘The law can be consulted in English and also in Catalan.’

left sp right sp

bl-left bl- right

c) law ix [english]_f plus(n) [catalan]_f

‘The law can be consulted in English and also in Catalan.’

left sp right sp

bl-left bl- right

d) law ix [english]_f plus(B) [catalan]_f

‘The law can be consulted in English and also in Catalan.’

By contrast, the focus particle ‘even’ can be expressed through different signs: also, until, included, on_top_of accompanied by specific non-manual marking (raised eyebrows and a specific mouth gesture).