Call for Papers

Scope of the workshop

Clause-type marking by means of word order, inflection, complementizers, particles and prosody has been widely investigated. Much less is known about how clause-types are marked in the visual modality. This is true for sign languages, where visual cues carry the entire communicative burden, but also in spoken languages, where, in face-to-face interaction, visual cues are used alongside speech. 

How are declaratives, interrogatives and imperatives visually distinguished in spoken and sign languages? And how do the relevant visual cues interact with signals conveying the speaker’s stance or attitude (e.g. particular expectations in interrogatives and specific levels of commitment in declaratives) or the speech act that is performed (e.g. a command or a wish)? Which similarities and differences do we see in this domain between different sign and spoken languages? What kind of visual cues are involved? 

Initial research (e.g. Brentari et al. 2018, Domaneschi et al. 2017) shows that facial expressions, body poses, and temporal cues can all play an important role. Are other types of visual signals involved as well? What are the best methodological approaches to measure and categorize the relevant signals? Can methods making use of computer vision help in this regard?

The workshop aims at bringing together scholars interested in visual ways to mark clause types, both in purely visual sign languages and in multi-modal linguistic interaction. It welcomes both empirical and theoretical contributions, as well as work exploring new methods to measure and/or analyze visual cues.