02/02/2026 Adrien Dadone (Leiden University)

Part of my PhD research explored how French Sign Language (LSF) expresses the functionnal equivalents of written French relative clauses (RCs). Drawing on contrastive linguistics (Gast, 2011, 2015) and a functionalist approach (Cristofaro, 2003), I developed a methodology to identify the various strategies used in LSF to convey RCs. Specifically, I analysed a corpus of natural translations from written French to LSF (and vice-versa), drawn from informative and narrative texts, through which I identified four productive strategies. 

By comparing my findings with the existing literature on RCs in sign languages (including Hauser, 2019, for LSF; Branchini, 2021, for LIS; and Kubus, 2016, for TÍD), I uncovered a potential methodological bias in these studies. In particular, the criteria for linguistic analysis - often based on the characteristics of spoken languages - do not adequately account for the unique visual-spatial and oral (vs written) modalities of sign languages. 

In this presentation, I will discuss the implications of these findings for linguistic typology, as well as their pedagogical relevance. 

 

Branchini, C. (2021). Relative clauses: Theoretical perspectives. In R. Pfau, M. Steinbach, & A. Herrmann (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of theoretical and experimental sign language research (pp. 325–350). Routledge.
Cristofaro, S. (2003). Subordination. Oxford University Press.
Gast, V. (2011). Contrastive analysis: Theories and methods. In B. Kortmann & J. Kabatek (Eds.), Dictionaries of Linguistics and Communication Science: Linguistic theory and methodology. Mouton de Gruyter.
Gast, V. (2015). On the use of translation corpora in contrastive linguistics : A case study of impersonalization in English and German. Languages in Contrast, 15(1), 4-33.
Hauser, C. (2019). Subordination in LSF: Nominal and sentential embedding [Thèse de doctorat, Université Paris-Diderot – Paris VII].
Kubus, O. (2016). Relative clause constructions in Turkish Sign Language [Doctoral dissertation, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky].