Modal and Focus Particles in Sign Languages : A Cross-Linguistic Study

Bringing together the research fields of sign language linguistics and information structure, this book focuses on the realization of modal and focus particles in German Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands, and Irish Sign Language. The study analyzes professionally elicited data with regard to nonmanual features expressed by articulators such as the body, head, and face, and accounts for the results within existing theoretical models. The analyses contribute to recent debates about information structure and the syntax-prosody interface. Thus, this book is of special interest to both sign and spoken language linguists.