Relative clauses. Theoretical perspectives

The lack, in many cases, of functional markers introducing relative clauses makes their identification difficult in sign languages. However, pioneering studies show that modality-specific features like non-manual markers are commonly employed to unambiguously mark relative clauses, and that sign languages exhibit the same syntactic and semantic typologies of relativization observed for spoken languages. Furthermore, syntactic tests and prosodic markers such as eye blink, head nod, and pauses signaling phrase boundaries are used as diagnostics to investigate the hierarchical relation holding between the relative clause and the main clause and to disentangle core properties of relative constructions. In some cases, the evidence gathered from sign languages provides a better understanding of constructions for which no agreement has been reached in the literature on spoken languages, like, for instance, non-restrictive relative clauses.