Non-manual Focus Markers in Turkish Sign Language

Sign languages use syntactic (fronting, doubling, clefting), manual manipulations (variation in size, length, speed, repetition), and nonmanual markers (head and eyebrow movements) to mark focus. Due to their simultaneous nature, they are well-known for using these strategies together. In this study, we examined how the focus is marked in Turkish Sign Language (TİD) in free conversations and elicited data. Both studies’ most observed nonmanual markers are head nod and eyebrow raise. We propose that these nonmanual markers are not pure focus markers since they can cooccur with focus and topic in the structures. Yet, due to information structure, they are the marker of the phonological or intonational phrases. Furthermore, the duration of focal signs could be the marker of focus, which needs further investigation

Compound Formation in Karachay-Balkar: Implications for the marker –sI

This paper discusses morphological, phonological, semantic and syntactic properties of compound formation in Karachay-Balkar with a special focus on Noun-Noun compounds which surface with or without marker –sI and sheds new light on compound formation in Turkish. In line with Öztürk and Taylan (2016), we suggest that –sI signals the presence of an argument being the head of functional head nP. Karachay-Balkar is more restrictive than Turkish in that –sI surfaces only with nouns that are inherently transitive. In this paper we also focus on the function of –sI in genitive possessive constructions. Drawing on compounds in Karachay-Balkar and Turkish, we conclude that although –sI introduces an argument in both genitive possessive constructions and compounds, what appears on the head noun in genitive possessive constructions is possessive agreement marker on a par with first and second person agreement markers

Ankara Papers in Turkish and Turkic Linguistics. Edited by Deniz Zeyrek, Çiğdem Sağın Şimşek, Ufuk Ataş, and Jochen Rehbein.

Review of the proceedings of 16th International Conference on Turkish Linguistics (ICTL) held in METU at 18-21 September, 2012

prosody of Karachay-Balkar broad focus sentences

Bu çalışma Kıpçak dil grubunda yer alan Karaçay-Malkar Türkçesinde dar odak bileşen içermeyen olumlu tümcelerin ezgisel özelliklerini ortaya çıkarmayı hedeflemektedir. Sistematik deneysel çalışmaya dayanan bu araştırmada Türkiye'de yaşayan anadil konuşucularına seslettirilen hedef tümceler geniş odaklı bağlamlar olacak şekilde diyaloglar içine yerleştirilmiştir. Hedef tümceler ÖzneNesne-Yüklem sıralamasında hazırlanmıştır. Temel frekans (f0) ölçümüne dayalı fonetik analizin düzensizliklerden arınmış olarak yürütülebilmesi için hedef tümcelerin kelimeleri tınılı sesler ya da ötümlü duraklamalı ünsüz sesler içeren kelimelerden seçilmiştir. Tüm kelimeler son hece vurgulu seçilmiştir. Ezgisel çalışma, hedef tümcelerin Praat programı ile ses perdesi yüksekliği çizgisi incelenmesine ve hecelerin ölçüm alanları olarak seçildiği, temel frekans ölçümlerinin ortalamasının yansıtıldığı ses perdesi yüksekliği çizgi göstermektedir ki (i) öznenin içinde bulunduğu ilk alanın sağ sınırında bir yükseliş ortaya çıkıyor, (ii) nesnenin yer aldığı orta bölümde son heceye denk gelen alanda küçük bir yükseliş ortaya çıkıyor, (iii) orta bölüme kadar korunan referans yüksekliği bu alanın sağ sınırından itibaren düşüşe geçmektedir ki bu bize bu alanın ezgi öbeğinde ana önemi üstüne çeken çekirdek alan olduğunu gösteriyor, (iv) eylemi içeren son bölümde düşük referans yüksekliği görülmektedir ki bu alan da çekirdek alan sonrası alan olarak adlandırılır. Son hece vurgulu kelimelerden oluşan tümcelerin ezgisinin son hece vurgusu almayan kelimelerle karşılaştırılması bu diyalektin ezgisel özelliklerine daha fazla ışık tutacaktırThis study aims to shed light on the prosodic properties of broad focus sentences in Karachay-Balkar Turkic language, which belongs to Kipchak language group. Within this systematic experimental study, the target sentences which are embedded in broad focus contexts are acted out by native speakers of the language living in Turkey. The target sentences are all in SOV order. With the aim of carrying out a phonetic analysis based on fundamental frequency measurements without perturbations, the words of the target sentences are chosen as words composed of sonorant or voiced obstruent sounds. All the words are finally stressed words. The prosodic investigation focuses on pitch tracks of the target sentences using Praat (Boersma and Weenink 1992-2017) and comparison of the pitch tracks based on normalized values taking syllables as measurement domains for fundamental frequency. The results of the study indicate that (i) a rise surfaces at the right edge of the domain including the subject, (ii) a slight bump is realized on the final syllable of the object in the medial domain, (iii) the reference height preserved till the medial domain is lowered following the right edge of this domain which indicates that the immediately preverbal domain is the nuclear domain attracting main prominence within the intonational phrase, (iv) a low reference height is retained in the final domain including the verb which is labeled the post-nuclear domain. Comparing the prosody of sentences with finally stressed words with sentences composed of non-finally stressed words will shed further light on the prosodic organization of this dialect

Prosody of focus in Turkish Sign Language

Prosodic realization of focus has been a widely investigated topic across languages and modalities. Simultaneous focus strategies are intriguing to see how they interact regarding their functional and temporal alignment. We explored the multichannel (manual and nonmanual) realization of focus in Turkish Sign Language. We elicited data with focus type, syntactic roles and movement type variables from 20 signers. The results revealed the focus is encoded via increased duration in manual signs, and nonmanuals do not necessarily accompany focused signs. With a multichanneled structure, sign languages use two available channels or opt for one to express focushood