Challenges in the research of relative clause constructions in signed languages to date

Abstract

The main focus of the paper is to discuss how the complex occurrences of relative clause constructions in different signed languages can highlight dis-/advantages of some methods of data collection and how we can best design studies to fully depict the realities of signed languages' discourse. I provide an overview of current insights into relative clause constructions in signed languages. I aim to reflect on the challenges works have faced to date and discuss how these might be overcome by pulling in approaches and methods not used (to their full potential) on this research topic so far. Eliciting data is a logical strategy to hopefully gain more insight into how relative clauses work in signed languages -however, we risk eliciting only very specific, limited occurrences and not getting the full picture which can only be found in more complex texts. Therefore, this overview shows how corpus studies on relative clause constructions could be a fruitful addition to the field in the future. To date, there are very few studies that have taken this approach that admittedly poses new challenges of understanding these constructions when they take wildly different forms in naturalistic data and employ markers that are both not obligatory and not limited to this specific construction.