Negation in Iranian Sign Language (Tehrani Variety)

Iranian deaf people use sign language in their interactions. It is a natural language with its own grammar independent from language itself. The purpose of this research was to investigate the construction of negation in Iranian sign language (Tehrani variety). The research method was taken from the cross-linguistic researches done by Zashen et al. (2004 & 2006), which were conducted on 38 sign languages. 7 profound deaf adults that were fluent in Iranian sign language (Tehrani variety) were selected by using a purposive sampling method. An interpreter and a sign language consultant were present at all stages of the research. To collect the data, video recording and observation of the signers’ language behaviors during the presentation of linguistic stimuli, as well as targeted observation of some films in Iranian sign language (Tehrani variety), were done. The data were entered into the ELAN software program for analysis. The data analysis showed that in Iranian sign language (Tehrani variety), negation marking could be seen in different forms both manually and non-manually. Non-manual negation was not mandatory and could include the whole clause (minus any topicalised constituents) or part/parts of a clause. The basic negators of the clause (manual negative particle) were NOT, NO, NONE, NEVER, and NOT-EXIST. A lot of negation cliticisation were observed.