Stance in Flemish Sign Language

Abstract

In this contribution, we offer a first exploration of stance expressions in Flemish Sign Language (VGT). Biber and Finegan (1989) define stance as the expression of feelings, attitudes, judgments, commitments, and assessments. The few studies focusing on stance in signed languages have shown that stance can be expressed by various structures and mechanisms such as lexical signs, manual gestures (e.g., Palm Up gestures) and embodiment/mental space blends. We will examine if these findings apply to Flemish Sign Language, and we will identify other means of expressing stance in VGT. In this exploratory study, we focus on the following questions: (1) which articulators and semiotic resources can be used in Flemish Sign Language to express stance?; and (2) How are visible bodily actions through different articulators integrated temporally in stance expressions? Our study is based on the analysis of about five hours of data from the Corpus Flemish Sign Language. We present examples from our dataset to illustrate that stance can be expressed through a range of structures and mechanisms (such as lexical signs, manual gestures, enactment, and non-manual features), expressed either sequentially or simultaneously by a multitude of articulators. Moreover, we zoom in on the phenomenon of stance-stacking and analyse how multiple stance expressions can be combined in VGT.

Mocking enactments: a case study of multimodal stance-stacking

“…For instance, in the case of music instruction, sonic qualities or movements for instrument manipulation can be depicted as a part of the evaluation of performances and subsequent instruction for musicians by instructors ( Meissl et al, 2022 ). When signers/speakers express a stance during enactment, they create a complex stance-stacking act ( Andries et al, 2022 ; Janzen, 2022 ). They not only express their stance as a narrator in the here and now but also stack this upon the inherent stance of evidentiality from reporting the speech or action ( Shaffer, 2012 ).…”

“…During mocking, participants express a stance on a serious layer that can be heightened, diminished, or inverted on a non-serious layer. In other words, they stack stances onto each other ( Dancygier, 2012 ; Andries et al, 2022 ). One resource that is eminently suitable for the expression of stances on different interactional layers is enactment as it allows interactants “to ‘construct’ actions and dialog in order to ‘show’ characters, events, and points of view” as they combine “bodily movements, postures, and eye gaze” ( Hodge and Ferrara, 2014 , p. 373).…”