The Pragmatics of Person and Imperatives in Sign Language of the Netherlands

Emar Maier; Kees de Schepper; Martine Zwets

doi:10.2478/rela-2013-0010

Authors

Emar Maier University of Groningen
Kees de Schepper Radboud University Nijmegen
Martine Zwets Radboud University Nijmegen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/rela-2013-0010

Keywords:

sign language, pragmatics, imperatives, pointing, person

Abstract

We present new evidence against a grammatical distinction between second and third person in Sign Language of The Netherlands (NGT). More precisely, we show how pushing this distinction into the domain of pragmatics helps account for an otherwise puzzling fact about the NGT imperative: not only is it used to command your addressee, it can also express ‘non-addressee-oriented commands’.

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