A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

Repair mechanism in conversation shows that the interlocutors deal with the natural errors in perception, comprehension, and production. The signers themselves can make a false start or initiate a slip of a hand for various reasons. Not all errors are always corrected, however, some errors can be corrected in various ways. Some errors are realized at the initial stages of signing and corrected by the signers themselves. In the following example, the signer indented to sign father but starts with B-handshape which is a handshape of mother.

 

         father

      

 

 

Some repairs are overtly indicated by the signers. One of example in DGS is right_not which is used in the example below. The signer planned to sign tea but starts with coffee and realizes the mistake. The signer comments with right-not and finally utters tea.

 

         coffee wrong right_not tea

 

 

 

If the errors are initiated by the active interlocutors themselves, they are called self-initiated repairs. If the errors are initiated by the addressee, these repairs are other-initiated repairs. Such errors can be resolved either by the signers themselves (self-correction), or by the addressees (other-correction). The example below is an example of a self-initiated and self-corrected repair in DGS.

 

Interlocutor-1: …. digital ci hearing aid

Intended: ‘digital hearing aid (instead of Cochlear Implant)’

(CDGS, 04:45:11-04:45:46)

 

There are manual and/or nonmanual cues for the conversational repairs. Below is an example for a nonmanual cue indicating that repair, signaled by closed eyes and a very short pause in DGS.

 

Interlocutor-1: hearing parent hear… deaf child

Indented Utterance: ‘Hearing parents of a deaf child (instead of hearing parents of a hearing ...)

(CDGS, 15:08:38)

 

Some signers use word/sign search repairs to find a suitable sign for their utterance. The example below shows a manual cue for searching a sign in DGS.

 

Interlocutor-1 come speak perceive-ear …. (manual cue)… radio tv

‘Other people's conversations for example, or something from the radio or the TV.’

(CDGS 10:50:34)