6.1. Attitude role shift and (in)direct speech
Attitude role shift indicates that the signer quotes from another person’s utterances, thoughts or attitudes such as actions, gestures, and facial expressions. The markers of role shift are body shift, change in the direction of eye gaze, and altered facial expressions [Syntax - Section 3.3.3].
During quotation (direct speech), the loci of referents in signing space might shift from that of the actual signer to the perspective of the quoted person. First and second person pronouns as well as the person reference of agreement verbs are shifted to the perspective of the quoted person. In the attitude shift sentence below, the goal of the verb ask is the quoted person, yet the spatial goal is the body of the signer.
2ask 1
‘Ask me’
(r.f. Kelepir & Göksel 2013: 196)
say is a frequently used agreement verb to introduce (in)direct speech. It behaves differently than regular agreement verbs in two respects: say is sometimes repeated within a single utterance, and say can be articulated with the non-dominant hand. These are exemplified below respectively:
semra say melek what do say
‘Semra asked “What is Melek doing?” ’
________hold
guest arrive say ……
h1…………..… h2
‘… said that guests arrived.’
(Kelepir & Göksel 2013: 205-206)
Rarely, the non-dominant hand is held stationary while the dominant hand produces the quoted utterance. The intermittent or continuous nature of say helps the procession of discourse as the addressees should get “who says to whom” information that change frequently during a narrative that has plenty of attitude role shift.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant Agreement No 693349.