A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

Since metaphors map concrete concepts to abstract notions, many such concrete concepts are related to the body of the signer. For instance, the physical area in the back of the body is mapped to concepts related to past, the area near the signer’s chest is mapped to concepts related to present, and the area in front of the signer’s body is mapped to concepts related to future. Thus, temporal adverbs such as yesterday, now and tomorrow are signed in these respective parts of the signing space [Lexicon – Section 3.3.1. and Morphology – Section 3.2.].

 

 

         

          yesterday

 

         

          now

 

          

          tomorrow

                                                                                   (r.f. Dikyuva et al. 2015: 299)

 

Another set of metaphorical signs are verbs of cognition such as understand, learn and forget. These are articulated near the head, and the handshape and the movement of the sign involves metaphorical mapping. The articulation of understand resembles capturing of an object:

 

         

          understand

                                                                          

(r.f. Dikyuva et al. 2015: 299)

 

Thus, concrete action of capturing of an object and putting it in the head is mapped to the abstract concept of understanding something.

          Similarly, learn resembles pulling objects towards the head continuously where objects are mapped to the abstract concept of information and pulling action is mapped to the cognitive process of learning.

 

         

          learn

        

 

forget is articulated by snapping the fingers near the head, and during finger snapping the hand undergoes a short movement that goes from the head outwards.

 

         

          forget

          

Direction in the signing space also plays a metaphorical role: usually good things are signed above and bad things are signed below. Since wınner and success are considered to be positive concepts, they are articulated by an upwards movement whereas loser and dırt by downwards movement.

 

          

          wınner

 

          

          success

 

          

          loser

 

        

          dırt                                                                 

(r.f. Dikyuva et al. 2015: 302-303)

                  

Even though it is rare, verbs can also be used with figurative meaning. One such example is the metaphoric use of the verb eat.

 

          phone ımmedıately battery eat

          Lit. ‘The phone immediately eats the battery.’ ‘The phone uses up the battery immediately.’

                                                                        (adapted from Dikyuva et al. 2015: 300)

 

In this example, the physical consumption via eating is mapped to the consumption of the energy of the battery.