Linearisation constraints on sentential negation in Russian Sign Language are prosodic

This short remark documents exceptions to the main strategy of expressing sentential negation in Russian Sign Language (RSL). The postverbal sentential negation particle in RSL inverts the basic SVO order characteristic of the language turning it into SOV. We show that this reversal requirement under negation is not absolute and does not apply to prosodically heavy object NPs. The resulting picture accords well with the view of RSL word order laid out by Kimmelman (2012) and supports a model of grammar where syntactic computation has access to phonological information.

keywords: Russian Sign Language, syntax, negation, prosody

This is the authors’ final version of an article accepted to appear in Sign Language & Linguistics.

If you like this, or have a question or a comment, then please  share or reply on Twitter, or  email me.