Framing constructed action in British Sign Language narratives

• Published in: Journal of pragmatics Vol. 55; no. Sep; pp. 119 - 139
• Main Authors: Cormier, Kearsy, Smith, Sandra, Zwets, Martine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.09.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Accessibility; Constructed action; Constructed dialogue; Demonstration; Discourse Strategies; Linguistics; Politeness; Pragmatics; Psycholinguistics; Psychology of language; Quotation; Role shift; Sign Language; Constructed action; Accessibility; Demonstration; Constructed dialogue; Role shift; Quotation; Sign language; Discourse strategy; Narration
• ISSN: 0378-2166; 1879-1387
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2013.06.002

•We examine framing of constructed action (CA) in BSL narratives.•In introduction and switch reference, local reference via noun phrase is preferred.•In maintenance, omission of noun phrase identifying the referent is preferred.•These patterns arise based on accessibility of reference within the discourse.•CA shares referential properties with quotations and verbs in speech and sign. Constructed action is a discourse strategy, used widely within sign languages, in which the signer uses his/her face, head, body, hands, and/or other non-manual cues to represent a referent's actions, utterances, thoughts, feelings and/or attitudes. It is generally assumed that framing constructed action (i.e. identification of the referent) typically consists of a preceding noun phrase, but that this is optional (or even infelicitous), if the referent is understood in context. The current study tests these assumptions by examining the framing of constructed action within British Sign Language (BSL) narratives. We find that in cases of introduction or switch reference, local reference via a noun phrase is preferred, while in cases of maintenance of reference, omission of a noun phrase identifying the referent is preferred. This follows patterns found with framing of quotations and demonstrations in spoken languages and also with lexical verbs in both signed and spoken null subject/pro-drop languages. We argue that these patterns arise and are predictable based on accessibility of reference within the discourse.