A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

In DGS, focus is marked prosodically and/or syntactically. Prosodic focus marking may be tensed/pronounced and large signing and the lengthening of signs. Non-manual focus marking comprises raised eyebrows, head nods and tilts, and wide-open eyes.

         A: alisa buy what?

         ‘What did Alisa buy?

                               foc

         B: alisa car buy

         ‘Alisa bought a car.’

 

Syntactically, focused elements can be placed sentence-finally as in question-answer-sequences.

                                        re   foc

         alisa buy what: car

          ‘Alisa bought a car.’

There is a lexical element glossed as self (signed with the B-handshape held upright and palm facing inwards to the body) that is associated with focus and is called a focus marker.

                        foc

         man self book read

         ‘It was the man (himself) that was reading a book.’

The sign self follows the focused constituent and is accompanied by focus marking facial expressions including raised eye brows, wide eyes and head nods.