Adjective placement in Argentine Sign Language: a preliminary study

In this article we make a preliminary contribution to adjective schemas in Argentine Sign Language (LSA) within a Cognitive-Prototype Perspective (Lakoff, 1987; Langacker, 1987, 1991 y 2008). We analyze qualitative and quantitatively adjective schemas that belong to real LSA signers' productions. This data, consisting in 30 videos, is analyzed with regards to two variables: (a) adjective placement within the nominal; (b) degree of contrast. We define the frequency of use of adjectives within the nominal schema, where prenominal [Adj N], postnominal [N Adj] and intranominal [N-Adj] position can be found, in order to gain insight into the signer's preference regarding placement, as well as to better understand the specificity of each construction. In this paper, we conclude that postnominal position, which is the most frequently used by the signers of our data, the nominal constructions conceptualize a difference with a high degree of contrast amongst other similar entities that are explicit or implicit in discourse, while in prenominal position the difference that conceptualizes the adjective shows a low degree of contrast. Regarding intranominal position, it seems that there is no gradation of contrast, as in the former cases, but a different phenomenon involved: the possibility of the language to incorporate morphologically certain types of attributes within nouns may be motivated by the principle of economy of the sign (De Jonge, 2000).