Focus and Intensification in the Semantics of Brow Raise

Abstract

We argue that in American Sign Language (ASL), Brow Raise has two sorts of functions that can be distinguished by timing: it may serve well-known information-theoretic functions that can, among others, realize focus; but it may also intensify gradable constructions – a far less well-known observation. While Brow Raise on an expression can fulfill both functions, Brow Raise right before an expression preferentially has an information-theoretic function. The main findings are replicated on some examples from LSF (French Sign Language). Strikingly, these two functions mirror those found for 'stress' (= emphasis) by Bergen 2016, who argued for a unified analysis of information-theoretic effects and of intensificational effects. We sketch a unified analysis within Alternative Semantics, and discuss a further possibility within a simplified version of Bergen's own theory of 'noise-reduction' (Bergen 2016). An extension of our ASL data shows that related generalizations hold when Brow Raise is applied to a highly iconic construction (here involving a helicopter path): depending on timing, Brow Raise may serve to evoke alternatives or to intensify part of the construction.