A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

Conjunction refers to combining at least two constituents through the use of conjunctions such as and, but, and or. Juxtaposition, on the other hand, refers to the coordination of constituents without such conjunctions. In DGS, conjunctions are generally not obligatory therefore clauses are mainly juxtaposed. Between the two conjuncts there is often a small pause. Juxtaposition of simultaneous events is illustrated in example (a) while juxtaposition of sequential events is shown in (b).

 

a.       father wash_the_dishes mother window clean                       

          ‘The father washes the dishes and the mother cleans the window.’

 

(recreated from Papaspyrou et al., 2008:184)

 

 

 

b.       e-v-a eat continue work                                                             

          ‘Eva eats and continues working.’

 

                     

           

 

The temporal order of both conjuncts is optionally indicated by the manual sign then which occurs at the beginning of the second conjunct.

 

            e-v-a eat then continue work                                                    

            ‘Eva eats and then continues working.’

                                               

(based on Happ & Vorköper, 2006: 540)

 

 

 

There are three main types of conjunction: (i) adversative conjunction which correspond to the use of but, (ii) disjunctive conjunction which correspond to the use of or (iii) and conjoined conjunction that correspond to the use of and.

 

Adversative conjunction in DGS is marked nonmanually by widened eyes and/or brow raise. The manual sign but can be added optionally as the examples below show.

 

                                                             re,we

a.         e-v-a sign can more practice need                        

           ‘Eva can sign but she needs more practice.’

 

(based on Happ & Vorköper 2006:535)

 

           

 

                                                                      e,we

b.         e-v-a sign can but more practice need               

            ‘Eva can sign but she needs more practice.’

          

(based on Happ & Vorköper,2006:535)

 

 

 

                                                                re

                                                     we

                                                                                                      hs

c.          for test soon ix₁want learn but book not_yet arrive         

            ‘I want to learn for the test soon, but the book did not arrive yet.’

 

(based on Papaspyrou et al., 2008:185)

 

 

 

On the one hand disjunctive coordination is typically marked by placing each of the conjuncts at different locations in the signing space. On the other hand, the manual sign or appears usually between both conjuncts as exemplified below. Furthermore, nonmanuals like sideward head tilts and brow raise can accompany both conjuncts.

 

                    re                                   ht                                      ht

         soon holiday ix(loc)_a australia fly or ix(loc)_a austria hike palm_up

          ‘You are on vacation soon? You can fly to Australia or go hiking in Austria.

  

 

 

Conjoined coordination receives no manual marking because DGS lacks the conjunction and. Instead both conjuncts are often separated from each other by a pause and both verbs differ in their position in the signing space. The verb of the first clause is signed on the one side of the signing space whereas the verb from second conjunct is signed on the other one as shown in the example below.

 

         father wash_the_dishes_right, mother window clean_left              

          ‘The father washes the dishes and the mother cleans the window.’

 

(based on Papaspyrou et al., 2008:184)