A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

The grammatical descriptions presented here are the first parts of a comprehensive reference grammar of German Sign Language (DGS). The chapters are thus an important step towards a first comprehensive description of the grammatical and sociohistorical properties of DGS.

The grammar follows the SignGram Blueprint, which is the first comprehensive guide to sign language grammar writing with detailed descriptions of all levels of grammar: Phonology, Lexicon, Morphology, Syntax, and Pragmatics. In addition, it also includes a description of the sociohistorical background of sign languages.

The SignGram Blueprint has been implemented as a grammar writing tool on the SIGN-HUB platform, which was developed by the Horizon 2020 SIGN-HUB project and is available online as open access. In the SIGN-HUB project, first grammatical descriptions of 7 sign languages have been created. The goal of this project is twofold: in the near future, the grammatical description of the first 7 sign languages will be extended and further elaborated and new sign languages will join the repository with new descriptions of comprehensive reference grammars.

Goals and coverage

The DGS reference grammar should serve as a tool for DGS signers, students, interpreters, researchers, linguists, and whoever is interested in the study of DGS. Reference grammars are necessary for many different scientific and applied goals, ranging from the development of teaching materials to language assessment, and the current reference grammar tries to address this need in a substantial way.

Using the reference grammar requires general knowledge about linguistics and grammatical terminology. However, basic concepts are explained in a glossary and in the text where necessary. This reference grammar intends to be accessible to a general reader, in particular through the extensive use of visual examples provided as videos and/or pictures. As a digital online product, A Grammar of DGS, radically differs from other, more traditional grammatical descriptions since it provides hundreds of visual examples, which makes sign language grammar description much more accessible to the readers.

To date the study of the grammar of DGS is still fragmentary and some grammatical phenomena have not yet been or only partially described. This reference grammar incorporates existing research results and adds new research on selected topics.

The task of writing a comprehensive reference grammar is never complete, and this one does not cover all possible aspects either. Hopefully, future research will be integrated in future versions of this grammar and thus contribute to enlarging and deepen our knowledge about DGS.

Methodology

This grammar has been developed by a team of senior and junior researchers, both Deaf and hearing, coordinated by the University of Goettingen over a duration of 4 years, thanks to the SIGN-HUB project.

By following the SignGram Blueprint, many terminological and analytical choices were already settled. In accordance with the objectives of the SignGram Blueprint, reference grammar intends to be mostly descriptive and informed by basic insights of well-established theories in sign language linguistics, but not theory-loaded.

Use

The grammar is divided into 5 parts, each part divided into chapters, sections, and subsections. Content about one phenomenon is often distributed across different modules of the grammar. We recommend therefore to follow the hyperlinks for connected content and to use the search function as well. The Table of Contents should serve as a basic navigation tool through the whole work. Many sections are still void of content because further research is necessary to provide a first description of the basic facts.

Information about the empirical basis and data elicitation can be found at the end of the relevant chapter or section. This is important because it might give information about empirical limitations or the particular variety described in the respective chapter or section. It is well known that the DGS community is subject to linguistic variation in various dimensions (region, age, gender, education, register, …) but – especially on the levels of morphology, syntax, and pragmatics – hardly studied. Hence, the information about the empirical basis might help to identify the variety certain generalizations have been drawn on. In the near future, new corpus studies on DGS will provide a more complete picture of the grammatical properties of the different varieties of DGS.

A list of references and the author(s) of the chapter or sections are also reported at the end of each chapter or section. At the end of the reference grammar, you find appendices and a complete list of references. Note finally, that for basic concepts, a glossary of grammatical terms gives a brief explanation of the meaning of each term.

So far, for resource limitations, this reference grammar can only be offered in English. However, for the future, additional versions in German and DGS are in the process of planning. We invite everyone interested in this project to contribute to the reference grammar to create a fully trilingual comprehensive reference grammar of DGS.

The SIGN-HUB project

SIGN-HUB was carried out by a European research consortium to provide an innovative and inclusive resource hub for the linguistic, historical, and cultural documentation of the heritage of Deaf communities and for sign language assessment in clinical intervention and school settings.

To this end, we created an open state-of-the-art digital platform with customized accessible interfaces. The project initially fed that platform with core content in the following domains, expandable in the future to other sign languages: (i) digital grammar descriptions of 7 sign languages, produced with a new online grammar writing tool; (ii) an interactive digital atlas of linguistic structures of the world’s sign languages; (iii) online sign language assessment instruments for education and clinical intervention, and (iv) the first digital archive of life narratives by elderly signers, partially subtitled and annotated for linguistic properties.

These components, made available for the first time through a centralized platform to specialists and to the general public, should (a) help to explore and to value the identity and the cultural, historical, and linguistic assets of Deaf signing communities, (b) advance linguistic knowledge on the natural languages of the Deaf, and (c) impact on the diagnosis of language deficits within these minorities.

The project involves participation of 10 teams from 7 countries: France, Germany, Italy, Israel, The Netherlands, Turkey, and Spain.

Website of the platform: sign-hub.eu