8.3. Perspective
One of the linguistic elements which plays an important role in the organization of the spatial entities, especially the spatial relations or depictions of motion events in the signing space, is the signing perspective. Signing perspective corresponds to the point of view from which the actual event is mapped onto the signing space. Such mapping can be done either from observer’s perspective or from character’s perspective. The size of the signing space, usage of spatial axes and type of classifier predicates differ in two ways.
In observer’s perspective signers take the role of an observer. They convey events from an external point, using lateral axis and reduced signing space in front of the signer’s body. Typically, entity classifiers [Morphology 5.1.1] are used in the observer’s perspective. In the DGS example below the characters of the reported movie strip (i.e. the elephant and the mouse) are expressed by entity classifiers, the mouse is represented on the right and the elephant on the left side of the lateral axis facing each other. This arrangement directly reflects the position of the characters on the still picture given below on the right side. The signer herself does not take the role of any of the characters and stays external to the event.
h1: cl (Y): ‘mouse_be_at_a’
h2: cl (z ): ‘elephant_be_at_b’
‘The mouse and the elephant stand facing each other.’
(based on Perniss, 2007: 203)
In descriptions of events from the observer’s perspective, signers of DGS very rarely use handling classifiers [Morphology 5.1.3].In the example below, the signer uses the lateral axis and has located the mouse character of the motion event on her left. However, the manner of handling the pan is expressed by the handing classifier.
h1:
h2: cl (3): ‘pan_holding’
‘I am (the mouse) holding the pan.’
(based on Perniss, 2007: 203)
In the character’s perspective the signer takes on the role of the character using role shift [Syntax 3.3.3 and Pragmatics 6] to report the utterances, actions or thoughts of the character. The hands, the upper part of the body and the head as well as the face of a signer can also be used to depict the events. The signing space is large, entities are depicted on the sagittal axis and handling classifiers are used extensively in the character’s perspective. In the example below a signer depicts the scene from a cartoon and he takes the perspective of the mouse in the described movie strip. The hands of the signer correspond to the hands of mouse which holds the ball, this is done by using handling classifier predicate. The signer holds the ball in front of his body in the same way as the mouse character does.
h1: cl (/): ‘ball_holding’
h2: cl (/): ‘ball_holding’
‘I am (the mouse) holding the ball.’
(based on Perniss, 2007: 202)
Signers of DGS quite frequently make use of entity classifiers while reporting motion events from the character’s perspective. In the example below, which is a depiction of the scene on the left, a DGS signer expresses the event from the mouse’s perspective using the sagittal axis for the pancake on the floor. The pancake is signed with the entity classifier on the left of the signer.
h1: cl (3): ‘pan_holding’
h2: cl (]): ‘pancake_be_at_a’
‘I am (the mouse) holding the pan and the pancake is on the floor.’
(based on Perniss, 2007: 204)
Depending on the perspective, different frames of reference are employed to convey the direction of one object is relative to another one. The frame of reference can be one of three different types: relative, intrinsic or absolute. In relative frame of reference, the location of the object is dependent on the location of the signer with respect to the event scene. In intrinsic frame of reference, spatial relations between the objects are depicted from an internal angle and are based on the intrinsic properties of one of the objects. In the absolute frame of reference, the absolute relations, which are based on conventional directions or geographical landmarks of a culture, are expressed. This frame of reference does not depend on the position of the signer. In DGS, we see relative and intrinsic frame of references as well as a combination of these.
The relative frame of reference typically occurs within observer’s perspective. As can be seen in the example below, a signer of DGS first places one of the objects (tree) into the signing space and the second object (man) is positioned behind the tree, as the signer views it on example picture below.
h1: man cl (Y): ‘man_be_at_b’
h2: tree cl (B): ‘be_at_a’______________________________________
‘A man is standing facing a tree.’
(based on Perniss, 2007: 145)
The intrinsic frame of reference is rarely used by DGS signers and it usually comes in alignment with character’s perspective. An example of this is given below, where the signer projects one of the objects into his body (man) and depicts the placement of the other object (tree) with respect to his body.
h1: blue.cl (>): ‘wearing_shirt’ man look tree ix(2)
h2: blue.cl (>): ‘wearing_shirt’ tree
‘A man with a blue shirt is standing behind a tree and looking.’
(based on Perniss, 2007: 147)
When both intrinsic and relative frame of reference are used, one object is located according to the intrinsic properties of the other and this placement is at the same time similar to the one seen from the signer’s view. In the example below, the man is located first into the space and the tree is placed relative to the man, i.e. the placement isfrom intrinsic frame of reference. Such an arrangement corresponds to the external point of view, therefore relative frame of reference is also employed.
h1: man cl (Y): ‘man_be_at_a’ look _________________
h2: cl (B): ‘tree_be_at_b’
‘A man with a blue shirt is standing facing a tree and looking.’
(based on Perniss, 2007: 146)
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant Agreement No 693349.