Syllables and the word-prosodic system in Sign Language of the Netherlands

This paper argues for the relevance of the notion syllable in the analysis of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). Starting from a specific phonological model for sign languages, we put forward phonotactic evidence for the claim that the syllable is the phonological domain to which several constraints on the form of signs apply. We then show that stress in polysyllabic signs is sensitive to the type of movement in the sign (repeated path movement vs. complex path shape) rather than to syllabic complexity. Preliminary evidence indicates that the syllable is also a necessary notion for the analysis of prosodic phenomena above the word-level in NGT, as the addition of sentence-final pointing signs (‘indexes’) is not possible in contexts where the index cannot form a bisyllabic foot with the preceding syllable.