Publications

Displaying 201 - 263 of 263
  • Schäfer, M., & Haun, D. B. M. (2010). Sharing among children across cultures. In E. Norcliffe, & N. J. Enfield (Eds.), Field manual volume 13 (pp. 45-49). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.529154.
  • Schiller, N. O., & Meyer, A. S. (2003). Introduction to the relation between speech comprehension and production. In N. O. Schiller, & A. S. Meyer (Eds.), Phonetics and phonology in language comprehension and production: Differences and similarities (pp. 1-8). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Schmiedtová, B. (2003). The use of aspect in Czech L2. In D. Bittner, & N. Gagarina (Eds.), ZAS Papers in Linguistics (pp. 177-194). Berlin: Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft.
  • Schmiedtová, B. (2003). Aspekt und Tempus im Deutschen und Tschechischen: Eine vergleichende Studie. In S. Höhne (Ed.), Germanistisches Jahrbuch Tschechien - Slowakei: Schwerpunkt Sprachwissenschaft (pp. 185-216). Praha: Lidové noviny.
  • Schmiedtova, B., & Flecken, M. (2008). The role of aspectual distinctions in event encoding: Implications for second language acquisition. In S. Müller-de Knop, & T. Mortelmans (Eds.), Pedagogical grammar (pp. 357-384). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Schreuder, R., Burani, C., & Baayen, R. H. (2003). Parsing and semantic opacity. In E. M. Assink, & D. Sandra (Eds.), Reading complex words (pp. 159-189). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
  • Seifart, F. (2003). Encoding shape: Formal means and semantic distinctions. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.), Field research manual 2003, part I: Multimodal interaction, space, event representation (pp. 57-59). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.877660.

    Abstract

    The basic idea behind this task is to find out how languages encode basic shape distinctions such as dimensionality, axial geometry, relative size, etc. More specifically, we want to find out (i) which formal means are used cross linguistically to encode basic shape distinctions, and (ii) which are the semantic distinctions that are made in this domain. In languages with many shape-classifiers, these distinctions are encoded (at least partially) in classifiers. In other languages, positional verbs, descriptive modifiers, such as “flat”, “round”, or nouns such as “cube”, “ball”, etc. might be the preferred means. In this context, we also want to investigate what other “grammatical work” shapeencoding expressions possibly do in a given language, e.g. unitization of mass nouns, or anaphoric uses of shape-encoding classifiers, etc. This task further seeks to determine the role of shape-related parameters which underlie the design of objects in the semantics of the system under investigation.
  • Senft, G. (2008). The teaching of Tokunupei. In J. Kommers, & E. Venbrux (Eds.), Cultural styles of knowledge transmission: Essays in honour of Ad Borsboom (pp. 139-144). Amsterdam: Aksant.

    Abstract

    The paper describes how the documentation of a popular song of the adolescents of Tauwema in 1982 lead to the collection of the myth of Imdeduya and Yolina, one of the most important myths of the Trobriand Islands. When I returned to my fieldsite in 1989 Tokunupei, one of my best consultants in Tauwema, remembered my interest in the myth and provided me with further information on this topic. Tokunupei's teachings open up an important access to Trobriand eschatology.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Wosi Milamala: Weisen von Liebe und Tod auf den Trobriand Inseln. In I. Bobrowski (Ed.), Anabasis: Prace Ofiarowane Professor Krystynie Pisarkowej (pp. 289-295). Kraków: LEXIS.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Zur Bedeutung der Sprache für die Feldforschung. In B. Beer (Ed.), Methoden und Techniken der Feldforschung (pp. 55-70). Berlin: Reimer.
  • Senft, G. (2008). Zur Bedeutung der Sprache für die Feldforschung. In B. Beer (Ed.), Methoden und Techniken der Feldforschung (pp. 103-118). Berlin: Reimer.
  • Senft, G. (2010). Culture change - language change: Missionaries and moribund varieties of Kilivila. In G. Senft (Ed.), Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving, and revitalization (pp. 69-95). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Senft, G. (1998). 'Noble Savages' and the 'Islands of Love': Trobriand Islanders in 'Popular Publications'. In J. Wassmann (Ed.), Pacific answers to Western hegemony: Cultural practices of identity construction (pp. 119-140). Oxford: Berg Publishers.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Ethnographic Methods. In W. Deutsch, T. Hermann, & G. Rickheit (Eds.), Psycholinguistik - Ein internationales Handbuch [Psycholinguistics - An International Handbook] (pp. 106-114). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Ethnolinguistik. In B. Beer, & H. Fischer (Eds.), Ethnologie: Einführung und Überblick. 5. Aufl., Neufassung (pp. 255-270). Berlin: Reimer.
  • Senft, G. (2008). Event conceptualization and event report in serial verb constructions in Kilivila: Towards a new approach to research and old phenomenon. In G. Senft (Ed.), Serial verb constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages (pp. 203-230). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics Publishers.
  • Senft, G. (2008). Introduction. In G. Senft (Ed.), Serial verb constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages (pp. 1-15). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics Publishers.
  • Senft, G. (2010). Introduction. In G. Senft (Ed.), Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving, and revitalization (pp. 1-13). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Senft, G. (2003). Reasoning in language. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.), Field research manual 2003, part I: Multimodal interaction, space, event representation (pp. 28-30). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.877663.

    Abstract

    This project aims to investigate how speakers of various languages in indigenous cultures verbally reason about moral issues. The ways in which a solution for a moral problem is found, phrased and justified will be taken as the basis for researching reasoning processes that manifest themselves verbally in the speakers’ arguments put forward to solve a number of moral problems which will be presented to them in the form of unfinished story plots or scenarios that ask for a solution. The plots chosen attempt to present common problems in human society and human behaviour. They should function to elicit moral discussion and/or moral arguments in groups of consultants of at least three persons.
  • Senft, G. (1998). Zeichenkonzeptionen in Ozeanien. In R. Posner, T. Robering, & T.. Sebeok (Eds.), Semiotics: A handbook on the sign-theoretic foundations of nature and culture (Vol. 2) (pp. 1971-1976). Berlin: de Gruyter.
  • Senghas, A., Kita, S., & Ozyurek, A. (2008). Children creating core properties of language: Evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua. In K. A. Lindgren, D. DeLuca, & D. J. Napoli (Eds.), Signs and Voices: Deaf Culture, Identity, Language, and Arts. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
  • Senghas, A., Ozyurek, A., & Kita, S. (2003). Encoding motion events in an emerging sign language: From Nicaraguan gestures to Nicaraguan signs. In A. E. Baker, B. van den Bogaerde, & O. A. Crasborn (Eds.), Crosslinguistic perspectives in sign language research (pp. 119-130). Hamburg: Signum Press.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2003). Verb clusters and branching directionality in German and Dutch. In P. A. M. Seuren, & G. Kempen (Eds.), Verb Constructions in German and Dutch (pp. 247-296). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1974). Autonomous versus semantic syntax. In P. A. M. Seuren (Ed.), Semantic syntax (pp. 96-122). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2010). Donkey sentences. In A. Barber, & R. J. Stainton (Eds.), Concise encyclopedia of philosophy of language and linguistics (pp. 169-171). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2010). Aristotle and linguistics. In A. Barber, & R. J. Stainton (Eds.), Concise encyclopedia of philosophy of language and linguistics (pp. 25-27). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Abstract

    Aristotle's importance in the professional study of language consists first of all in the fact that he demythologized language and made it an object of rational investigation. In the context of his theory of truth as correspondence, he also provided the first semantic analysis of propositions in that he distinguished two main constituents, the predicate, which expresses a property, and the remainder of the proposition, referring to a substance to which the property is assigned. That assignment is either true or false. Later, the ‘remainder’ was called subject term, and the Aristotelian predicate was identified with the verb in the sentence. The Aristotelian predicate, however, is more like what is now called the ‘comment,’ whereas his remainder corresponds to the topic. Aristotle, furthermore, defined nouns and verbs as word classes. In addition, he introduced the term ‘case’ for paradigmatic morphological variation.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2008). Apollonius Dyscolus en de semantische syntaxis. In J. van Driel, & T. Janssen (Eds.), Ontheven aan de tijd: Linguistisch-historische studies voor Jan Noordegraaf bij zijn zestigste verjaardag (pp. 15-24). Amsterdam: Stichting Neerlandistiek VU Amsterdam.

    Abstract

    This article places the debate between Chomskyan autonomous syntax and Generative Semantics in the context of the first beginnings of syntactic theory set out in Perì suntáxeõs ('On syntax') by Apollonius Dyscolus (second century CE). It shows that, theoretically speaking, the Apollonian concept of syntax implied an algorithmically organized system of composition rules with lexico-semantic, not a sound-based, input, unlike Apollonius's strictly sound-based postulated rule systems for the composition of phonemes into syllables and of syllables into words. This meaning-based notion of syntax persisted essentially unchanged (though refined by Sanctius during the sixteenth century) until the 1930s, when structuralism began to take the notion of algorithmically organized rule systems for the generation of sentences seriously. This meant a break with the Apollonian meaning-based approach to syntax. The Generative Semantics movement, which arose during the 1960s but was nipped in the bud, implied a return to the tradition, though with much improved formal underpinnings.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2003). Logic, language and thought. In H. J. Ribeiro (Ed.), Encontro nacional de filosofia analítica. (pp. 259-276). Coimbra, Portugal: Faculdade de Letras.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2010). Meaning: Cognitive dependency of lexical meaning. In A. Barber, & R. J. Stainton (Eds.), Concise encyclopedia of philosophy of language and linguistics (pp. 424-426). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1974). Introduction. In P. A. M. Seuren (Ed.), Semantic syntax (pp. 1-28). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1974). Negative's travels. In P. A. M. Seuren (Ed.), Semantic syntax (pp. 183-208). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (2010). Presupposition. In A. Barber, & R. J. Stainton (Eds.), Concise encyclopedia of philosophy of language and linguistics (pp. 589-596). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1973). The comparative. In F. Kiefer, & N. Ruwet (Eds.), Generative grammar in Europe (pp. 528-564). Reidel: Dordrecht.

    Abstract

    No idea is older in the history of linguistics than the thought that there is, somehow hidden underneath the surface of sentences, a form or a structure which provides a semantic analysis and lays bare their logical structure. In Plato’s Cratylus the theory was proposed, deriving from Heraclitus’ theory of explanatory underlying structure in physical nature, that words contain within themselves bits of syntactic structure giving their meanings. The Stoics held the same view and maintained moreover that every sentence has an underlying logical structure, which for them was the Aristotelian subject- predicate form. They even proposed transformational processes to derive the surface from the deep structure. The idea of a semantically analytic logical form underlying the sentences of every language kept reappearing in various guises at various times. Quite recently it re-emerged under the name of generative semantics.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1973). The new approach to the study of language. In B. Douglas (Ed.), Linguistics and the mind (pp. 11-20). Sydney: Sydney University Extension Board.
  • Seuren, P. A. M. (1998). Towards a discourse-semantic account of donkey anaphora. In S. Botley, & T. McEnery (Eds.), New Approaches to Discourse Anaphora: Proceedings of the Second Colloquium on Discourse Anaphora and Anaphor Resolution (DAARC2) (pp. 212-220). Lancaster: Universiy Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language, Lancaster University.
  • Skiba, R. (2003). Computer Analysis: Corpus based language research. In U. Amon, N. Dittmar, K. Mattheier, & P. Trudgil (Eds.), Handbook ''Sociolinguistics'' (2nd ed.) (pp. 1250-1260). Berlin: de Gruyter.
  • Skiba, R. (2008). Korpora in de Zweitspracherwerbsforschung: Internetzugang zu Daten des ungesteuerten Zweitspracherwerbs. In B. Ahrenholz, U. Bredel, W. Klein, M. Rost-Roth, & R. Skiba (Eds.), Empirische Forschung und Theoriebildung: Beiträge aus Soziolinguistik, Gesprochene-Sprache- und Zweitspracherwerbsforschung: Festschrift für Norbert Dittmar (pp. 21-30). Frankfurt am Main: Lang.
  • Skiba, R., Dittmar, N., & Bressem, J. (2008). Planning, collecting, exploring and archiving longitudinal L2 data: Experiences from the P-MoLL project. In L. Ortega, & H. Byrnes (Eds.), The longitudinal study of advanced L2 capacities (pp. 73-88). New York/London: Routledge.
  • Skiba, R. (2010). Polnisch. In S. Colombo-Scheffold, P. Fenn, S. Jeuk, & J. Schäfer (Eds.), Ausländisch für Deutsche. Sprachen der Kinder - Sprachen im Klassenzimmer (2. korrigierte und erweiterte Auflage, pp. 165-176). Freiburg: Fillibach.
  • Stolker, C. J. J. M., & Poletiek, F. H. (1998). Smartengeld - Wat zijn we eigenlijk aan het doen? Naar een juridische en psychologische evaluatie. In F. Stadermann (Ed.), Bewijs en letselschade (pp. 71-86). Lelystad, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Vermande.
  • Suppes, P., Böttner, M., & Liang, L. (1998). Machine Learning of Physics Word Problems: A Preliminary Report. In A. Aliseda, R. van Glabbeek, & D. Westerståhl (Eds.), Computing Natural Language (pp. 141-154). Stanford, CA, USA: CSLI Publications.
  • Terrill, A. (2010). Complex predicates and complex clauses in Lavukaleve. In J. Bowden, N. P. Himmelman, & M. Ross (Eds.), A journey through Austronesian and Papuan linguistic and cultural space: Papers in honour of Andrew K. Pawley (pp. 499-512). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Van Turennout, M., Schmitt, B., & Hagoort, P. (2003). When words come to mind: Electrophysiological insights on the time course of speaking and understanding words. In N. O. Schiller, & A. S. Meyer (Eds.), Phonetics and phonology in language comprehension and production: Differences and similarities (pp. 241-278). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • van Staden, M., & Majid, A. (2003). Body colouring task 2003. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.), Field research manual 2003, part I: Multimodal interaction, space, event representation (pp. 66-68). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.877666.

    Abstract

    This Field Manual entry has been superceded by the published version: Van Staden, M., & Majid, A. (2006). Body colouring task. Language Sciences, 28(2-3), 158-161. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2005.11.004.

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  • Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2003). Minimalism and explanation. In J. Moore, & M. Polinsky (Eds.), The nature of explanation in linguistic theory (pp. 281-297). University of Chicago Press.
  • Van Geenhoven, V. (1998). On the Argument Structure of some Noun Incorporating Verbs in West Greenlandic. In M. Butt, & W. Geuder (Eds.), The Projection of Arguments - Lexical and Compositional Factors (pp. 225-263). Stanford, CA, USA: CSLI Publications.
  • Van Valin Jr., R. D. (1998). The acquisition of WH-questions and the mechanisms of language acquisition. In M. Tomasello (Ed.), The new psychology of language: Cognitive and functional approaches to language structure (pp. 221-249). Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum.
  • Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2008). Some remarks on universal grammar. In J. Guo, E. Lieven, N. Budwig, S. Ervin-Tripp, K. Nakamura, & S. Ozcaliskan (Eds.), Crosslinguistic approaches to the psychology of language: Research in the tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin (pp. 311-320). New York: Psychology Press.
  • Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2010). Role and reference grammar as a framework for linguistic analysis. In B. Heine, & H. Narrog (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis (pp. 703-738). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Van Valin Jr., R. D. (2008). RPs and the nature of lexical and syntactic categories in role and reference grammar. In R. D. Van Valin Jr. (Ed.), Investigations of the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface (pp. 161-178). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
  • Verkerk, A., & Lestrade, S. (2008). The encoding of adjectives. In M. Van Koppen, & B. Botma (Eds.), Linguistics in the Netherlands 2008 (pp. 157-168). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    In this paper, we will give a unified account of the cross-linguistic variation in the encoding of adjectives in predicative and attributive constructions. Languages may differ in the encoding strategy of adjectives in the predicative domain (Stassen 1997), and sometimes change this strategy in the attributive domain (Verkerk 2007). We will show that the interaction of two principles, that of faithfulness to the semantic class of a lexical root and that of faithfulness to discourse functions, can account for all attested variation in the encoding of adjectives.
  • Von Stutterheim, C., Carroll, M., & Klein, W. (2003). Two ways of construing complex temporal structures. In F. Lenz (Ed.), Deictic conceptualization of space, time and person (pp. 97-133). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
  • Vonk, W., & Cozijn, R. (2003). On the treatment of saccades and regressions in eye movement measures of reading time. In J. Hyönä, R. Radach, & H. Deubel (Eds.), The mind's eye: Cognitive and applied aspects of eye movement research (pp. 291-312). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Warner, N. (2003). Rapid perceptibility as a factor underlying universals of vowel inventories. In A. Carnie, H. Harley, & M. Willie (Eds.), Formal approaches to function in grammar, in honor of Eloise Jelinek (pp. 245-261). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
  • Weber, A., Crocker, M., & Knoeferle, P. (2010). Conflicting constraints in resource-adaptive language comprehension. In M. W. Crocker, & J. Siekmann (Eds.), Resource-adaptive cognitive processes (pp. 119-141). New York: Springer.

    Abstract

    The primary goal of psycholinguistic research is to understand the architectures and mechanisms that underlie human language comprehension and production. This entails an understanding of how linguistic knowledge is represented and organized in the brain and a theory of how that knowledge is accessed when we use language. Research has traditionally emphasized purely linguistic aspects of on-line comprehension, such as the influence of lexical, syntactic, semantic and discourse constraints, and their tim -course. It has become increasingly clear, however, that nonlinguistic information, such as the visual environment, are also actively exploited by situated language comprehenders.
  • Weber, A. (2008). What eye movements can tell us about spoken-language processing: A psycholinguistic survey. In C. M. Riehl (Ed.), Was ist linguistische Evidenz: Kolloquium des Zentrums Sprachenvielfalt und Mehrsprachigkeit, November 2006 (pp. 57-68). Aachen: Shaker.
  • Wender, K. F., Haun, D. B. M., Rasch, B. H., & Blümke, M. (2003). Context effects in memory for routes. In C. Freksa, W. Brauer, C. Habel, & K. F. Wender (Eds.), Spatial cognition III: Routes and navigation, human memory and learning, spatial representation and spatial learning (pp. 209-231). Berlin: Springer.
  • Widlok, T., Rapold, C. J., & Hoymann, G. (2008). Multimedia analysis in documentation projects: Kinship, interrogatives and reciprocals in ǂAkhoe Haiǁom. In K. D. Harrison, D. S. Rood, & A. Dwyer (Eds.), Lessons from documented endangered languages (pp. 355-370). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This contribution emphasizes the role of multimedia data not only for archiving languages but also for creating opportunities for innovative analyses. In the case at hand, video material was collected as part of the documentation of Akhoe Haiom, a Khoisan language spoken in northern Namibia. The multimedia documentation project brought together linguistic and anthropological work to highlight connections between specialized domains, namely kinship terminology, interrogatives and reciprocals. These connections would have gone unnoticed or undocumented in more conventional modes of language description. It is suggested that such an approach may be particularly appropriate for the documentation of endangered languages since it directs the focus of attention away from isolated traits of languages towards more complex practices of communication that are also frequently threatened with extinction.
  • Widlok, T. (2008). The dilemmas of walking: A comparative view. In T. Ingold, & J. L. Vergunst (Eds.), Ways of walking: Ethnography and practice on foot (pp. 51-66). Aldershot: Ashgate.
  • Willems, R. M., & Hagoort, P. (2010). Cortical motor contributions to language understanding. In L. Hermer (Ed.), Reciprocal interactions among early sensory and motor areas and higher cognitive networks (pp. 51-72). Kerala, India: Research Signpost Press.

    Abstract

    Here we review evidence from cognitive neuroscience for a tight relation between language and action in the brain. We focus on two types of relation between language and action. First, we investigate whether the perception of speech and speech sounds leads to activation of parts of the cortical motor system also involved in speech production. Second, we evaluate whether understanding action-related language involves the activation of parts of the motor system. We conclude that whereas there is considerable evidence that understanding language can involve parts of our motor cortex, this relation is best thought of as inherently flexible. As we explain, the exact nature of the input as well as the intention with which language is perceived influences whether and how motor cortex plays a role in language processing.
  • Wittenburg, P., & Trilsbeek, P. (2010). Digital archiving - a necessity in documentary linguistics. In G. Senft (Ed.), Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving and revitalization (pp. 111-136). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Zwitserlood, I. (2008). Morphology below the level of the sign - frozen forms and classifier predicates. In J. Quer (Ed.), Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR) (pp. 251-272). Hamburg: Signum Verlag.

    Abstract

    The lexicons of many sign languages hold large proportions of “frozen” forms, viz. signs that are generally considered to have been formed productively (as classifier predicates), but that have diachronically undergone processes of lexicalisation. Nederlandse Gebarentaal (Sign Language of the Netherlands; henceforth: NGT) also has many of these signs (Van der Kooij 2002, Zwitserlood 2003). In contrast to the general view on “frozen” forms, a few researchers claim that these signs may be formed according to productive sign formation rules, notably Brennan (1990) for BSL, and Meir (2001, 2002) for ISL. Following these claims, I suggest an analysis of “frozen” NGT signs as morphologically complex, using the framework of Distributed Morphology. The signs in question are derived in a similar way as classifier predicates; hence their similar form (but diverging characteristics). I will indicate how and why the structure and use of classifier predicates and “frozen” forms differ. Although my analysis focuses on NGT, it may also be applicable to other sign languages.
  • Zwitserlood, I. (2003). Word formation below and above little x: Evidence from Sign Language of the Netherlands. In Proceedings of SCL 19. Nordlyd Tromsø University Working Papers on Language and Linguistics (pp. 488-502).

    Abstract

    Although in many respects sign languages have a similar structure to that of spoken languages, the different modalities in which both types of languages are expressed cause differences in structure as well. One of the most striking differences between spoken and sign languages is the influence of the interface between grammar and PF on the surface form of utterances. Spoken language words and phrases are in general characterized by sequential strings of sounds, morphemes and words, while in sign languages we find that many phonemes, morphemes, and even words are expressed simultaneously. A linguistic model should be able to account for the structures that occur in both spoken and sign languages. In this paper, I will discuss the morphological/ morphosyntactic structure of signs in Nederlandse Gebarentaal (Sign Language of the Netherlands, henceforth NGT), with special focus on the components ‘place of articulation’ and ‘handshape’. I will focus on their multiple functions in the grammar of NGT and argue that the framework of Distributed Morphology (DM), which accounts for word formation in spoken languages, is also suited to account for the formation of structures in sign languages. First I will introduce the phonological and morphological structure of NGT signs. Then, I will briefly outline the major characteristics of the DM framework. Finally, I will account for signs that have the same surface form but have a different morphological structure by means of that framework.

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