Cross-modal comparative syntax

Within the domains of morphosyntax and syntax, sign languages (i.e., languages in the visual-spatial modality) have been shown to share many interesting properties with spoken languages. At the same time, it has been demonstrated that sign languages are not a homogenous group. Rather, they differ from each other structurally and, what is more, the attested differences often align with typological patterns that have been identified based on the study of spoken languages. In this chapter, we offer a discussion of selected syntactic phenomena that have been studied from a cross-modal perspective, drawing data from a wide variety of sign languages. We address linearization issues (e.g., constituent order), wh-questions, and various types of complex sentences, and we evaluate for each these topics in how far it presents us with modality-specific features, that is, to what extent it is shaped by the affordances of the visual-spatial modality. The general picture that emerges is that sign languages – notwithstanding certain modality-specific characteristics – generally exhibit structural complexity and variation fully on a par with spoken languages. This, in turn, strongly suggests that formal modals developed for spoken languages can and should be applied to sign languages.