It is widely known that sign languages make an extensive use of non-manual markers (NMM) to transmit linguistic information. Some NMMs are specific to particular constructions (in several Sign Languages, furrowed eyebrows is mostly used to mark wh-questions, while headshake is used to mark negation), others may occur in several unrelated constructions (see eyebrow raising in American sign language). This study presents preliminary results of a quantitative investigation of the distribution of raised eyebrows (re-NMM) in Italian Sign Language (LIS). Re-NMM frequently occurs in spontaneous signing and is used to mark a variety of constructions; therefore re-NMM qualifies as a good candidate for a VARBRUL analysis. In particular, re-NMM may mark 8 different constructions in LIS: yes/no-questions, topics, if-clauses, correlative clauses, focus, contrastive focus, subordinate clauses, and the signer’s attitude. Data come from a corpus of LIS and have been analyzed with the ELAN software. Results show an even distribution across the sample for most of the uses of re-NMM. Only two functions turned out to be significantly different: the use of re-NMM as a focus marker and the use of re-NMM as an attitude marker, which are sensitive to age.
@inproceedings{conte:10024:sign-lang:lrec,
author = {Conte, Genny and Santoro, Mirko and Geraci, Carlo and Cardinaletti, Anna},
title = {Why are you raising your eyebrows?},
pages = {53--56},
editor = {Dreuw, Philippe and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Johnston, Trevor and Mart{\'i}nez Ruiz, Gregorio and Schembri, Adam},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2010} 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies},
maintitle = {7th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2010)},
publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}},
address = {Valletta, Malta},
day = {22--23},
month = may,
year = {2010},
language = {english},
url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/10024.pdf}
}