Where methods meet: Combining corpus data and elicitation in sign language research

We discuss three case studies on various grammatical phenomena in Russian Sign Language (RSL) and Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) in order to compare corpus-based and elicitation-based approaches to sign linguistics. Firstly, we investigate impersonal reference in RSL using corpus search, informal elicitation, and an acceptability judgment task. Secondly, we examine argument structure and pro-drop licensing in NGT psych verb constructions using corpus search and a supplementary acceptability judgment task. Thirdly, we investigate conditional clauses in NGT based on corpus search, and contrast the findings with those from elicitation-based studies of conditional clauses in other sign languages. The three case studies highlight both the merits and limitations of combining different research methods as well as illustrate some of the issues that arise from doing so – and how they may be navigated. We conclude that corpus-based research serves to identify the boundaries of observed variation and describe both expected and unexpected patterns, while the underlying factors for these patterns can be investigated by eliciting data in more controlled contexts. Finally, we demonstrate that the differences in the results obtained via various research methods have important practical implications, in particular for sign language education.