A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

EXAMPLE OF CONVENTION

FUNCTION/MEANING

s-i-g-n

fingerspelling

sign++

reduplication

₁sign_{3  2}sign_{1  3a}sign_3b

verb agreement

ix₁

1st person singular, ‘I’

ix_1pl

1st person plural, ‘we’

ix_1+2pl

‘two of us’

ix_1+2pl-incl

‘two of us’ (inclusive)

ix_1+2pl-excl        

‘two of us’ (exclusive)

ıx_a

pointing sign referring to a location

ıx(loc)_a

pointing sign referring to a location

ıx_a(here)                  

‘here’

ıx(def)_a

definite determiner

ıx(dem)_a 

demonstrative determiner

ıx_a[distal],  ıx_a[proximal]

index sign, pointing towards a distal or proximal location in signing space

ix_3pl-arc

3rd person plural with arc movement

ıx(b)₁ , ıx(,)₁

first person singular pointing sign with the depicted handshape

ıx_{a[ipsi_down]}

index sign pointing to the lower ipsilateral area

ıx(poss)₁

index sign, 1st person possessive

poss₁

not an index sign, 1st person possessive

show_off,  there_is_not,  doesn’t_have

one sign translated into English with more than one word

aux_1, aux_2,  not_1,  not_2

a functional sign with more than one alternative form

q_prt

question particle

who^some

a sign consisting of more than one morpheme

car-pl

plural marker suffixed to a noun

eat^place

a compound consisting of two roots

phone(h1)^type(h2) ‘minicom’

a simultaneous compound. h1 represents the dominant hand and h2 represents the non-dominant hand

Pòhead ‘psychology’

a compound. The dominant hand represents a letter and touches a part of the body such as the head

exist.not,  have.not

a suppletive form with two morphemes

go.impfv         

a sign internally modified to express an grammatical function

cl(6 ): ‘head_bowing’

classifier with this handshape with this meaning

cl(fist): ‘head_bowing’

classifier with this handshape with this meaning

cl(s): ‘head_bowing’

classifier with this handshape with this meaning

[…]

mouthing, the representation of the actual phonetic production

/…/

mouthing, the phonological representation of the mouthed word

[pa]

mouth gesture

‘pa’

mouth gesture

rs:3a                        

role-shift into the role of the person represented as 3a