Finnish Sign Language

Abstract

This chapter discusses ellipsis in Finnish Sign Language (FinSL). First, in order to provide a necessary background for the discussion, an overview is given of both the basic grammar of FinSL (Section 2) and the larger role ellipsis plays in FinSL (Section 3). After this (Sections 4–6), several elliptical phenomena discussed in this book (nominal ellipses, conjunction reduction, VP-ellipsis, sluicing, gapping, stripping, and fragment answers) are introduced and described for FinSL, together with other elision phenomena (e.g. argument ellipsis, also known as pro drop). Not all the phenomena can be discussed in equal depth, nor can all the phenomena presented in the book be addressed, because research into ellipsis in sign languages, FinSL included, is still in its early stages (e.g. Cecchetto et al. 2015; Jantunen 2013; the majority of the work carried out so far has dealt almost exclusively with argument ellipsis, see Bahan et al. 2000; Jantunen 2008; Koulidobrova 2012; Wulf et al. 2002). Finally, the chapter takes a broader view of ellipsis once again and contemplates the role that gesture and mime have in the elliptical phenomena found in signed languages, and perhaps also in spoken languages (Section 7).