A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

Narrating a spatial event requires a preference of a certain perspective or viewpoint. In turn, the particular perspective goes parallel with certain grammatical structures (such as the type of classifier to be used) and localization of referents. Two main perspectives are used in TİD: character perspective, and observer perspective (See also [Pragmatics - Chapter 6]). To exemplify, see below an event (a woman carrying a tray) from character and another event (a woman approaching) with observer perspective:

 

 

 

 

woman self CL:‘handling_carry_tray'

'The woman carried the tray.’

 

 

 

woman CL:‘person_approach’

‘The woman approached me.’

 

In character perspective, the event is narrated from the vantage point of the character in the utterance (which is the woman in the examples below). The signer’s body is integral to the signing space since the whole body of the signer assumes the role of the referred character. The size of movements and entities are close to real world size. Observer perspective on the other hand, takes a vantage point external to the signer. The signing space does not include the signer’s body, but includes the area in front of the signer. The size of movements and entities in events are scaled down to the size of the area in front of the signer. In the examples above, the movement of arms during walking are visible in character perspective, but not in observer perspective. The man is represented by hand, not the whole body. Another difference between character and observer perspective is that the former usually uses the sagittal axis whereas the latter resorts to the lateral axis.

As for classifier types, handling classifiers generally co-occur with character perspective. The hands animate the hands of referents in handling classifiers while signer’s body represents the body of referents (as in the example above where a woman carries a tray). As entity classifiers are small-sized models of entities, they commonly occur in observer perspective (as in the example above where a woman approaches to the signer).

This type of aligned constructions generally represent a single animate character and a single inanimate entity. Typically, character perspective with handling classifiers denotes a transitive event where an agent manipulates an object, whereas observer perspective with entity classifiers refer to intransitive events where the agent gets involved in a non-manipulative action.

Rarely, entity classifiers can be produced with character perspective, and handling classifiers with observer perspective. The former commonly expresses intransitive activities of inanimate characters whereas the latter represents transitive actions of two animate entities at the same time. See below examples for these two types of non-aligned constructions respectively.

 

 

Character perspective with entity classifier (inanimate, intransitive)

 

 

 

h1: CL:'entity_ball_fall'

h2: ...

‘The ball fell in front of me (the signer)’               

      (adapted from Perniss & Özyürek 2008: 363-364)

 

Observer perspective with handling classifier (animate, transitive)

 

girl ix_a boy ix_b water _bgive_a money _agive

‘There is a boy and a girl. The boy gave the girl a glass of water. The girl gave money to the boy’

(adapted from Perniss & Özyürek 2008: 362)

 

Besides character and observer perspectives, fused perspective combines two perspectives together. The head and torso of the signer represents the activity of the character and at the same time orient towards locations according to observer perspective, whereas the frontal signing area represents the zoomed-out entities or movements of events. See below a sentence which is produced in fused perspective:

 

          Fused perspective

 

h1: chıld CL:'person, walk'_______________

h2:                                         girl CL:'eyes, look'

          ‘The girl is looking at the child who is walking’

                                    

   (adapted from Perniss & Özyürek 2008: 65)

 

Besides the character/observer distinction, when describing the location of an entity with respect to another one, there are mainly two strategies of specification which are called frames of reference. When egocentric frame of reference is used, the objects are located as seen by the narrator or the addressee. Allocentric frame of reference allows to represent entities with respect to other fixed entities, or alternatively intrinsic features of objects. The realization in signing space is influenced by the frame of reference choice.

Along the frame of reference distinction, two alternative descriptions are possible which denote two entities that are located on, for example, the sagittal axis according to the signer’s viewpoint. In a description of this layout with egocentric perspective, the sagittal axis in signer’s viewpoint is faithfully represented on the sagittal axis of signing space. See an example sentence below:

 

h1: woman there man CL:‘person’_[proximal]

            h2:        CL:‘person’_[distal]_________________

          ‘The woman and the man are side-by-side in the middle and facing left’                                                 

     (adapted from Arık 2013b: 222)

 

If allocentric perspective is adopted to represent the same layout, the objects are localized in signing space only with respect to each other. Since lateral axis is used instead of saggital axis in the real scene, the axial information is omitted.

         

 

h1: (...) CL:‘person’_[proximal]

h2:        CL:‘person’_[proximal]                              

                                (adapted from Arık 2013b: 223)

 

 

The preference for one frame of reference is not influenced by the sitting orientation of interlocutors. However, when addressees respond to narrators, the addressees tend to adopt the perspective of narrators.