Existential sentences in Flemish Sign Language and Finnish Sign Language

Abstract

This paper presents a descriptive and comparative study of existential sentences in Flemish Sign Language and Finnish Sign Language. Existential sentences are used to express the existence or presence of something or someone. This study investigates how expressions of existence or presence are constructed and what the order of Figure and Ground is in existential sentences in both languages. Existential sentences can be formed around the lexical signs HEEFT (‘have’) in Flemish Sign Language and OLLA (‘have’) in Finnish Sign Language or the lexical signs can be omitted from the construction. The number of existential sentences with an overt HEEFT/OLLA is higher in Finnish Sign Language than Flemish Sign Language, while the omission of such lexical signs appears more in Flemish Sign Language than Finnish Sign Language. This sentence type exhibits the specific order of Ground preceding Figure in both languages. The Ground is often omitted from the construction when it can be retrieved from the context. Adposition signs, depicting signs and localized lexical signs are used in both sign languages to mark the spatial relationship between Figure and Ground. Flemish Sign Language uses adposition signs more often than does Finnish Sign Language.