O RYGORYSTYCZNOŚCI OGRANICZEŃ DOTYCZĄCYCH MORFEMU NEGACJI W PJM. DYSKUSJA Z ARTYKUŁEM PIOTRA TOMASZEWSKIEGO
ON RIGIDNESS OF CONSTRAINTS ON THE NEGATION MORPHEME. DISCUSSION WITH PIOTR TOMASZEWSKI’S PAPER

Summary/Abstract: This paper constitutes a discussion with Piotr Tomaszewski’s work Constraints on Negative Prefixation in Polish Sign Language, where he claims that morphological negation marker taking the form of circular movement of the wrist preceding positive signs is a prefix subject to several grammatical constrains. As part of a large-scale project aiming to examine negation markers in PJM, we conduct a study similar to the one proposed by Tomaszewski. We rely our research on the linguistic material available in the PJM corpus that is being currently compiled by the Section for Sign Linguistics at the University of Warsaw. We investigate videos showing more than a dozen of native PJM signers using their language in natural communicational situations. We find most Tomaszewski’s conclusions and findings accurate. However, we cannot agree with all of the proposed constraints on the negation morpheme. We argue that the morpheme in question is used more freely by the PJM users than Tomaszewski is willing to admit.

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