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Chapter 2. Negative Concord in Sign Language of the Netherlands

A journey through a corpus
  • Cindy van Boven , Marloes Oomen , Roland Pfau and Lotte Rusch
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Advances in Sign Language Corpus Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Advances in Sign Language Corpus Linguistics

Abstract

In a Negative Concord (NC) configuration, two negative elements co-occur in a clause but the polarity of that clause still remains negative. NC involving two manual negators has been observed in various sign languages, but relevant examples are usually presented in the context of broader investigations on negation in a particular sign language. Also, examples are not usually drawn from natural discourse. In this chapter, we offer the first comprehensive study on NC in a single sign language, namely, the Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), based entirely on corpus data. We find that NC is attested in NGT, but that it is optional and rather infrequent. First, our contribution is of a typological nature, as we distinguish different types of NC and compare our corpus-based results with those reported for other signed and spoken languages. Second, we describe in detail our “journey”, that is, our search procedure and inclusion criteria, thereby offering methodological guidelines for future endeavors.

Abstract

In a Negative Concord (NC) configuration, two negative elements co-occur in a clause but the polarity of that clause still remains negative. NC involving two manual negators has been observed in various sign languages, but relevant examples are usually presented in the context of broader investigations on negation in a particular sign language. Also, examples are not usually drawn from natural discourse. In this chapter, we offer the first comprehensive study on NC in a single sign language, namely, the Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), based entirely on corpus data. We find that NC is attested in NGT, but that it is optional and rather infrequent. First, our contribution is of a typological nature, as we distinguish different types of NC and compare our corpus-based results with those reported for other signed and spoken languages. Second, we describe in detail our “journey”, that is, our search procedure and inclusion criteria, thereby offering methodological guidelines for future endeavors.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Foreword ix
  4. Acknowledgements xi
  5. Notes on the contributors xii
  6. List of abbreviations and acronyms xxi
  7. Chapter 1. Sign language corpus linguistics 1
  8. Part I. Advances in sign language linguistics
  9. Chapter 2. Negative Concord in Sign Language of the Netherlands 30
  10. Chapter 3. Exploring sign-writing contact and multilingualism in the Norwegian Deaf community 66
  11. Chapter 4. Syntactic functions of nonmanuals in Russian Sign Language 90
  12. Chapter 5. A corpus-based analysis of coordinate structures in Libras 123
  13. Chapter 6. Verb classes in South African Sign Language 155
  14. Chapter 7. Exploring regional variation in the DGS Corpus 192
  15. Chapter 8. Studying microdiachronic change with the Catalan Sign Language corpus 219
  16. Part II. Advances in sign language corpus construction
  17. Chapter 9. Creating a multifaceted corpus of Swedish Sign Language 242
  18. Chapter 10. Overview of and epistemological conditions for building and using LSF corpora 262
  19. Chapter 11. W(h)ither the ASL corpus? 287
  20. Chapter 12. Developing an inventory of handshapes, locations, and movements in Hong Kong Sign Language 309
  21. Chapter 13. Utterance unit annotation for the Japanese Sign Language Dialogue Corpus 353
  22. Index 383
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.108.02van

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Foreword ix
  4. Acknowledgements xi
  5. Notes on the contributors xii
  6. List of abbreviations and acronyms xxi
  7. Chapter 1. Sign language corpus linguistics 1
  8. Part I. Advances in sign language linguistics
  9. Chapter 2. Negative Concord in Sign Language of the Netherlands 30
  10. Chapter 3. Exploring sign-writing contact and multilingualism in the Norwegian Deaf community 66
  11. Chapter 4. Syntactic functions of nonmanuals in Russian Sign Language 90
  12. Chapter 5. A corpus-based analysis of coordinate structures in Libras 123
  13. Chapter 6. Verb classes in South African Sign Language 155
  14. Chapter 7. Exploring regional variation in the DGS Corpus 192
  15. Chapter 8. Studying microdiachronic change with the Catalan Sign Language corpus 219
  16. Part II. Advances in sign language corpus construction
  17. Chapter 9. Creating a multifaceted corpus of Swedish Sign Language 242
  18. Chapter 10. Overview of and epistemological conditions for building and using LSF corpora 262
  19. Chapter 11. W(h)ither the ASL corpus? 287
  20. Chapter 12. Developing an inventory of handshapes, locations, and movements in Hong Kong Sign Language 309
  21. Chapter 13. Utterance unit annotation for the Japanese Sign Language Dialogue Corpus 353
  22. Index 383
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