Interpretive possibilities of role shift in Korean Sign Language

This paper investigates properties of role shift in Korean Sign Language (KSL) in contrast to those of “regular” indexical shifts induced by attitude predicates which are also available in the language. It is observed that there are complex interpretive possibilities of indexicals when these two kinds of shifts come together. Those interpretive possibilities include parallel vs. non-parallel shifts as well as all vs. mixed shifts. Parallel shifts are those where a 1st person pronoun in a complement clause shifts its interpretation to the reported author whereas non-parallel shifts are those where the 1st person pronoun surprisingly shifts its interpretation to the reported addressee. The ‘all shift’ interpretation obtains when all indexicals in a given clause shift together while the ‘mixed shift’ interpretation refers to those instances where only a subset of indexials shift. We propose that KSL has two kinds of shifty operators. One is ‘role shift operator’ which overwrites the context parameter with the locus mapping onto each individual. The other kind is a series of ‘attitude shifty operators’ in line with Deal (2020) which overwrite the context parameter with the intensional index. We demonstrate that the proposed relative hierarchy of these two kinds of shifty operators successfully accounts for the seemingly complex interpretive possibilities observed in KSL indexicals.