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This thesis provides a description and a pragmatic analysis of the expression and interpretation of focus and contrast in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). I argue that LSC data provides empirical evidence that contrast is an independent notion in Information Structure that can overlap with topics and foci, and that involves different types, which are built compositionally. All types of contrast share a basic meaning (semantic parallelism), which is essential for an element to be contrastive, and which is expressed through a specific combination of non-manual markers (NMMs). Additional prosodic NMMs are used to trigger more complex meanings, like exhaustivity or counterexpectation. Moreover, a first description of focus particles and clefts in LSC is provided, together with a pragmatic analysis of exhaustivity and non-truth conditional meaning (presuppositions and implicatures) in these constructions. Aquesta tesi proporciona una descripció i una anàlisi pragmàtica de l’expressió i la interpretació del focus i el contrast en llengua de signes catalana (LSC). Defenso que l’LSC aporta proves empíriques que el contrast és una noció independent en el camp de l’estructura informativa que se solapa amb el tòpic i els focus de l’oració i que es pot dividir en subtipus que es conformen de manera composicional. Tots els tipus de contrast comparteixen un significat bàsic (paral·lelisme semàntic), que és imprescindible perquè un element sigui contrastiu i que s’expressa a través d’una combinació específica de marcadors no manuals (MNM). MNM addicionals són emprats per expressar significats més complexos, com ara l’exhaustivitat i la contraexpectació. A més, s’ofereix una primera descripció de les partícules focals i les oracions clivellades en LSC, i una anàlisi pragmàtica de l’exhaustivitat i el significat no veritatiu-condicional (implicatures i pressuposicions) que es deriva d’aquestes construccions. Esta tesis proporciona una descripción y un análisis pragmático sobre la expresión y la interpretación del foco y el contraste en lengua de signos catalana (LSC). Defiendo que la LSC aporta pruebas empíricas de que el contraste es una noción independiente en el campo de la estructura informativa que se solapa con el tópico y el foco de la oración y que se puede dividir en subtipos que se constituyen de manera composicional. Todos los tipos de contraste comparten un significado básico (paralelismo semántico), que es imprescindible para que un elemento sea contrastivo y que se expresa a través de una combinación específica de marcadores no manuales (MNM). MNM adicionales son utilizados para expresar significados más complejos, como la exhaustividad y la contraexpectación. Además, se presenta una primera descripción de las partículas focales y de las oraciones escindidas en LSC, así como un análisis pragmático de la exhaustividad y del significado no veritativo-condicional (implicaturas y presuposiciones) que se deriva de estas construcciones.

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.

In this paper, we describe the different syntactic and prosodic manual and non-manual markers used in the expression of focus and contrast in LSC. Given that in LSC contrast markers may also be found in topics, we follow Vallduví & Vilkuna (1998) and analyse the notion of contrast as a different dimension, which may also overlap with topics, and we offer an analysis of the expression of contrast in LSC from a unifying semantic-pragmatic perspective. Moreover, following Umbach (2004), we identify three different subtypes of contrast expressed through different combinations of markers. Artigo Completo, Sensos-e, v. 6 n. 1 (2019): Morfossintaxe da Língua Gestual Portuguesa e outras Línguas Gestuais

Treball de fi de màster en Lingüística Teòrica i Aplicada Tutor: Josep Quer Information structure (IS) notions are present in all human languages, spoken or signed, and are the key to understand how we human organize information in discourse. Due to the fact that signed languages research is very recent, IS notions, such as the focus-ground and the topic-comment distinctions, have not been not described in such an accurate way as they have been in many spoken languages. For Catalan Sign Language (LSC), few studies are found regarding IS notions. Hence, the main goal of the present study is to provide a basic description of the main syntactic and prosodic strategies used to express focus in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). The data analyzed in this study have been collected through elicitation tasks and also through consultation of the LSC corpus, which is currently being annotated. In addition, an overview on the main linguistic studies on IS in SLs is offered.