Modality and linguistic change in Spanish Sign Language (LSE)

Abstract

Our aim in this paper is to research the historical process of grammaticalization of the modal meanings of necessity (deontic and epistemic) in Spanish Sign Language (lengua de signos española, abbreviated LSE). We will use as our data source the Diccionario usual de mímica y dactilología (‘Usual dictionary of mime and fingerspelling’), published by Francisco Fernández Villabrille in 1851, in order to identify the signs which expressed the meanings we are interested in and to trace the possible motivations for the forms that conveyed them and their relation to other similar signs. Then, we will compare these data with some of the current signs provided by the Diccionario normativo de la lengua de signos española (DNLSE, ‘Standardized Dictionary of Spanish Sign Language’, cf. Fundación CNSE 2008.