Linearisation constraints on sentential negation in Russian Sign Language are prosodic

(with Anna Kuznetsova) “Linearization constraints on sentential negation in Russian Sign Language are prosodic.” Sign Language & Linguistics 24(2): 259–273.

doi:10.1075/sll.20007.rud

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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.

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I’m Pavel Rudnev, and this is my personal website. I’m a research fellow and lecturer in linguistics at HSE University in Moscow. My main area of interest is syntax and its interfaces with sound and meaning. In particular, my current research revolves around the structure of nominal expressions, agreement, case and verbal morphosyntax in East Caucasian languages, and the syntax-to-phonology mapping in Russian Sign Language.

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