Context shift (im)possible: Indexicals in German Sign Language

Role shift is a sign language specific mode of quotation, combining properties of direct and indirect discourse. By using non-manual markers, sign languages offer the possibility to shift into the role of the person whose utterances or thoughts are reported. There is consensus that personal indexicals are shiftable in sign languages. This means that signers shift their reference to the context of the reported utterance in the scope of role shift. However, relatively little is known about the interpretation of local and temporal indexicals in role shift. This paper presents an analysis of elicited examples in German Sign Language and ascribes their inhomogeneous behaviour to modality-specific phonological properties of the particular signs. To describe the meaning of the indexicals, I build on basic assumptions and formal approaches that have been developed for the analysis of free indirect discourse.