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Article published In:
Impersonal human reference in Sign Languages
Edited by Gemma Barberà and Patricia Cabredo Hofherr
[Sign Language & Linguistics 21:2] 2018
► pp. 307–333
Special issue articles

Impersonal human reference in French Sign Language (LSF)

 | UMR 7023 Structures Formelles du Langage
 | Université Paris-Lumières
 | Université Paris 8 | CNRS
The present paper offers a first systematic approach to the expression of impersonal human reference in French Sign Language (LSF). It extends and deepens a prior study carried out by the authors on the basis of a large scale discourse corpus. The description proposed here is based primarily on data elicited through a specialised questionnaire on impersonal human reference (Barberà & Cabredo Hofherr, this volume), initially developed for spoken languages and adapted for sign languages. The strategies revealed are compared with those discussed in our prior study. We begin with a brief review of the literature on impersonal human reference in spoken and sign languages, and a presentation of our theoretical framework for the analysis of LSF. We then elaborate on our methodology and the issues raised by the elicitation protocol adopted, from initial stages of its preparation to the representation of our data. We finally present and discuss the main strategies we highlighted for the expression of impersonal reference in LSF.
Keywords: French Sign Language (LSF), linguistics, impersonal human reference, elicited data, corpus linguistics, semiological model, null subjects
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Impersonal human reference in spoken and sign languages
    • 2.1Impersonal human reference: Definition and issues
    • 2.2Theoretical choices and research questions
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Questioning the methodology
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Existential contexts
      • 4.1.1Singular referent
      • 4.1.2Plurality of referents (vague plurality)
    • 4.2Existential with generalizing/habitual predication and locative universals
    • 4.3Unrestricted universal
      • 4.3.1Second person pronoun
      • 4.3.2Instructional personal transfer
      • 4.3.3Null subject without spatial anchoring
    • 4.4Others
      • 4.4.1Verbs of saying
      • 4.4.2Conditionals
    • 4.5Review table
  • 5.Summary and discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 March 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.00022.gar
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