Agent-backgrounding in Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

Barberà, Gemma; Hofherr, Patricia Cabredo; Quer, Josep

doi:10.1075/sll.00023.bar

Article published In: Impersonal human reference in Sign Languages
Edited by Gemma Barberà and Patricia Cabredo Hofherr
[Sign Language & Linguistics 21:2] 2018
► pp. 334–348

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Special issue articles

Agent-backgrounding in Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

Gemma Barberà | Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Patricia Cabredo Hofherr | CNRS UMR 7023 | Université Paris 8 (UPL)

Josep Quer | Universitat Pompeu Fabra | ICREA

Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 22 March 2019

https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.00023.bar

Abstract

This paper examines backgrounding strategies for human agents in Catalan Sign Language, that is, constructions featuring human agents that are non-referential. We identify and analyze four types of agent-backgrounding strategies: subjectless constructions, indefinite pronouns, the impersonal axis, and general nouns. Extending on previous work, we offer a description and a semantico-pragmatic analysis of each construction.

Keywords: backgrounding, Catalan Sign Language (LSC), impersonal axis, indefinite pronoun, impersonal reference, R-impersonals, generic human nouns

Article outline

1.Introduction
2.Methodology
3.Backgrounding strategies
- 3.1No lexical subject
- 3.2Indefinite pronouns
- 3.3Impersonal axis
- 3.4Lexical subjects
4.Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Notes
References

References (16)

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