On word order in Greek Sign Language
Temas
Detalles
This study explores word order in Greek Sign Language (GSL), a fundamental aspect of the syntax of GSL, which has thus far not been tackled, and provides preliminary findings from a hitherto understudied sign language. I investigate the relative order of subject, object and verb in simple declarative sentences and in wh-questions with respect to factors that have been known to influence basic word order in sign languages, such as verb class and argument reversibility by using a picture elicitation task that contains relevant stimuli. After evaluating the data using the chi-square statistical test, it is argued that in GSL, SOV is the order preferred for all categories, except for sentences with plain effective verbs in which SVO is preffered, while OSV appears systematically in sentences with regular locative verbs. Our findings suggest that word order in GSL is critically de-pendent on the verb type and in particular on the feature of effectiveness rather than argument reversibility.