The Syntactic And Semantic Characteristics Of Demonstrative [zhè][ Nà] In Chinese Sign Language

Deixis is a very common phenomenon in our daily life.The study of demonstratives in Sign Language Linguistics is still in its infancy.In order to better understand the characteristics of the demonstratives in Chinese Sign Language,this paper analyzes them from three perspectives: the syntactic roles,the semantic functions and definiteness,and finds out three characteristics of the demonstratives in Chinese Sign Language and some similarities and differences compared with demonstratives in Chinese and English.The Chinese Sign Language data of daily conversation and story telling are collected from the Deaf.When recording data,Deaf participants are guided by topics,and are assisted by wordless pictures and videos if necessary.After transcription and translation by the author through the software ELAN,the data involving the key words [zhè] and [nà] is sorted and extracted.Then these sentences are analyzed by Immediate Constituent Analysis,the Mental Space Theory and the theory of identifiability to see the syntactic roles and the semantic functions of the demonstratives [zhè] and [nà].After the analysis,the author discovers:1.The syntactic roles of demonstratives in sentences can be used as subjects,objects,attributes and adverbials.The most basic syntactic role of demonstratives is the subject.When a demonstrative works as a determiner,The noun the demonstrative modifies is mostly concrete noun.This type of demonstratives can also work together with numeral with a head noun.For the demonstratives which exist in sentences independently,it can appear not only before or after nouns and verbs,but also in front of adjectives.2.the demonstratives [zhè] and [nà]can works as proximal and distal demonstratives in terms of semantic functions.Sometimes the choice of demonstratives can reflect the attitudes of the Deaf participants towards the referents.Besides spatial distance,psychological distance is a main factor as well.3.The demonstratives in Chinese Sign Language not only have the regular usage of being definite,but also can be indefinite.According to the identifiability,the demonstrative is definite when the Deaf presupposes the referent he refers to can be identified by the recipient.However,when the Deaf expects that the referent he refers to cannot be identified by the recipient,the demonstrative he chooses is indefinite.The indefinite demonstratives can be further divided into the specific and the non-specific,when the referent cannot be identified by the recipient but can be identified by the Deaf participant,the demonstrative is specific.When the referent the demonstrative refers to cannot be identified even by the Deaf participant themselves,the demonstrative he uses is non-specific.Among our data,the demonstratives which are indefinite can be either specific or non-specific.4.There are some similarities and differences among Chinese,English and Chinese Sign Language demonstratives in syntactic and semantic aspects.Within the range of data we have obtained and analyzed,only the demonstratives [zhè]and [nà] in Chinese Sign Language can be used separately when they are followed by nouns.In addition,the demonstratives in English,Chinese and Chinese Sign Language have different degrees of grammaticalization.In English,the demonstrative "this" is used to refer to what the speaker has said,while “that” is often used to refer to what his interlocutor has said.The Deaf may use demonstratives to refer to the referent that cannot be identified even by themselves.Therefore,the demonstrative in Chinese Sign Language can be sometimes indefinite,but in Chinese and English,the demonstratives having the determining function are mostly definite.