Clause-initial Vs in sign languages: Scene-setters

Abstract

In our study, we seek to determine for sign languages the conditions under which a predicate can precede all its arguments. We consider data from the sign languages of Australia, Brazil, Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden, examining interviews (informative dialogues) and narratives (monologues). While pressures of visualization converge to make SOV and SVO the unmarked orders in sign languages for most predicates, existential and presentational predicates may appear in sentence-initial position. In such instances, the predicate is a scene-setter, establishing a broad understanding of how we are to interpret the event we are about to visualize. We argue that pressures of visualization are again at work. Since sign languages are largely iconic – where the articulation itself brings up visual images – there is a stronger pressure for them to align articulation with mental visualization than for spoken languages; the goal of clear communication calls for this alignment whenever possible.