A Grammar of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT)

Signs, when appearing in a sign stream in natural conversation, are often articulated differently from their exact phonological specification in the lexicon. Repeated movements may be lost, for instance, or a two-handed sign may be articulated with only one hand. In addition, new features may be added. There are various reasons why such processes apply; they may, for example, be due to the circumstances in which the language is used, they may have to do with signing speed, or occur simply because they make the articulation easier. The differences between the underlying phonological specifications and the output form are, however, usually not random. It has been shown that output forms can often be predicted by means of phonological rules or processes. Note that these adaptations are usually unconscious and often optional, in the sense that their appearances are influenced by, for instance, signing speed or register.

This chapter is devoted to addressing these processes, as far as I found evidence for their relevance in NGT. The structure of this chapter is similar to the previous one, in that it starts with processes affecting the phonemic level (PHONOLOGY 3.1) and proceeds towards larger prosodic units: the syllable (PHONOLOGY 3.2), the prosodic word (PHONOLOGY 3.3), and higher prosodic units (PHONOLOGY 3.4). Throughout the chapter, the reader should keep in mind that for many of the processes discussed, it is not (yet) clear how systematically they apply and in how far they interact with or are triggered by other (e.g. morphological) processes.