Indirecte Taalhandelingen in Nederlandse Gebarentaal

This paper focuses on a specific form of indirect speech act such as 'Can you reach the salt?' or 'Will you close the door?'. Such indirect requests are frequently used in our daily conversations. As the term itself reveals, the main focus of speech act studies has been on spoken language, so it is high time to look at sign language as well. From the literature, it appears that indirect requests are often formed as yes-no questions. In Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT), a special non-manual marking, 'eyebrows raised' and 'head forward', marks yes-no questions. This article investigates if indirect requests in NGT are also formulated as yes-no questions and how they are marked.