Meaning beyond signs: Implicatures and presupposition in Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

Abstract

Summary: This paper offers a first description of non-truth conditional meaning in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). It analyses conventional implicatures, conversational implicatures and presuppositions, and different devices and structures that trigger them, such as the use of signing space, role shift, classifier constructions, focus particles, connectives, implicative verbs, parentheticals, clefts and interrogatives. Keywords: Catalan Sign Language, implicature, presupposition, signing space, role shift, classifiers, focus particles, clefts