Abstract
How negation is expressed by means of manual and/or non-manual markers has been described in a wide range of sign languages. This work has suggested a split between sign languages requiring a manual negative element in negative clauses (manual dominant sign languages) and those where a non-manual marker only can be used (non-manual dominant sign languages) (Zeshan 2006; 2004). To date there is only one published study on negation in SASL which describes SASL as a non-manual dominant language (De Barros and Sieborger 2016). However, Oomen and Pfau (2017) have recently indicated that such a typological split is too radical. They show that larger data sets are necessary to identify the range of expressions used within one sign language to express negation. This paper will contribute to this typological debate by considering some preliminary data from South African Sign Language (SASL), highlighting a particular construction, known as a polar Question-Answer clause, which is not generally mentioned in the literature on negation in sign languages. The paper will conclude with a reflection on the implications of these observations for a typology of negation in sign languages.
Highlights
Negation is a universal category of natural language (Dahl 1979: 80)
In recent years the expression of sentential negation has been described in a wide range of sign languages, and has been shown to feature similar morphological and syntactic properties to those found in spoken languages
While typological studies on spoken languages indicate a strong tendency for negative particles to occur in pre-verbal position (Dahl 1979: 93), Zeshan (2004: 39) observes that, basic word order has not been clearly established for many sign languages, there is a striking preference for post-predicate or clause-final position of negatives across sign languages, independently of word order typology
Summary
Negation is a universal category of natural language (Dahl 1979: 80). All human languages make a distinction between affirmative and negative statements; negation remains marked in relation to affirmation (Horn 1989:156). To date there is only one published study on negation in SASL which describes SASL as a non-manual dominant language (De Barros and Siebörger 2016). They describe an optional manual negator, occurring in post-verbal position, accompanied by a side-to-side headshake. This paper will discuss a particular construction, known as a polar Question-Answer clause (QAC), which is not generally mentioned in the literature on negation in sign languages, with a reflection on the implications of this observation for sign language typology. This paper is organized as follows: I provide a brief description of SASL This is followed by a general description of negation in sign language and a section describing previous research on negation in SASL. The concluding section provides a brief discussion of the implications of these observations for sign language typology
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