Visible Prosody: Spreading and Stacking of Non-manual Markers

I. Introduction: prosody in signed languages. In signed languages (SLs), non-manual markers
(NMMs) such as facial expressions, head and mouth movements can function at various
linguistic levels. Amongst other things, it has been shown that NMMs may fulfill a prosodic
function by marking prosodic constituency and prosodic prominence (Sandler 1999; Wilbur
2000). Crucially, NMMs are capable of spreading over a string of manual signs, thereby
delimiting prosodic domains, such as intonational phrases and prosodic words.
     In this talk, I will look at two types of non-manual prosodic spreading: (i) spreading of
NMMs associated with left periphery features and (ii) spreading of NMMS, such as mouthings,
associated with lexical items. I will also show how different NMMs interact with each other,
sequentially and simultaneously.
II. Non-manual spreading. In SLs, some NMMs are the overt realization of left periphery
features, hosted by functional heads, such as Mood, Inter, and Topic (Rizzi 1997, 2001).
Generally, these NMMs must co-occur with manual material; they either spread locally (in a
Spec-head relation) or over the entire c-command domain of the respective feature. In both cases,
the spreading domain is an intonational phrase.
     In the imperative (1a) from Dutch SL (NGT), e.g., an imperative feature is responsible for
the (non-manual) imperative intonation (forward lean & eye squint). Since the specifier of the
relevant functional projection is empty, the non-manual has to spread over the entire c-command
domain of [+imp]. Crucially, different prosodic NMMs may sequentially combine with each
other, thereby giving overt evidence for the topography of the left periphery. The ASL example
(1b), e.g., shows that a topic may precede the imperative, indicating that [+imp] is hosted by a
functional head below TopP, presumably the head of MoodP. The topicalized phrase occupies
SpecTopP and receives its NMM (head forward & eyebrows up) in a Spec-head configuration.
                                                                     imp
(1)   a. [[Ø]SpecMoodP [+imp]Mood° [ INDEX2/ATT2 BOOK 2GIVE1]FinP]MoodP                     (NGT)
         `Hey, give me the book!'
                               top                             imp
      b. [[TICKET]SpecTopP [+top]Top°]TopP, [[+imp]Mood° [2GIVE1]FinP]MoodP                 (ASL)
         `Give me the ticket!'
III. Non-manual stacking. The second type of prosodic spreading to be considered involves
lexical NMMs, such as mouthings. Lexical NMMs have clearly distinct spreading properties in
that the may only spread onto adjacent functional material. In all cases, spreading is indicative of
cliticization and defines a prosodic word. In the German SL (DGS) example (2), e.g., the
mouthing associated with the adjectival predicate spreads onto the sentence-final auxiliary.
                                                                       q
                                       top                      /stolts/
(2)      POSS1 BROTHER INDEX3, INDEX2 PROUD 2AUX3                                           (DGS)
         `As for my brother, are you proud of him?.'
Example (2) also shows that prosodic NMMs can be stacked on top of each other; in this case: a
question intonation (marking an intonational phrase) on top of an extended mouthing (marking a
prosodic word). This is clearly a modality-specific property of SL prosody, since ­ in contrast to
spoken language tones ­ the different NMMs make use of different articulatory channels.

References

Rizzi, L. (1997), The fine structure of the left periphery. In: Haegeman, L. (ed.), Elements of
    grammar. Handbook in generative syntax. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 281-337.
Rizzi, L. (2001), On the position "Int(errogative)" in the left periphery of the clause. In: Cinque,
    G. & G. Salvi (eds.) Current Studies in Italian Syntax. New York: Elsevier, 287-296.
Sandler, W. (1999), The medium and the message: Prosodic interpretation of linguistic content in
    Israeli Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics 2 (2), 187-215.
Wilbur, R.B. (2000), Phonological and prosodic layering of nonmanuals in ASL. In: Emmorey,
    K. & H. Lane (eds.), The signs of language revisited. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 213-244.