Mecanismos de cohesión y coherencia en la organización de una narrativa en lengua de signos

In this chapter we present the findings of our research on discursive cohesion and coherence in a narrative in sign language. The analysis and interpretation of the data shows that the discursive cohesion (based on Halliday and Hassan,1976) is performed by some of the mechanisms already described for oral languages, and by other specific to the visual-gestural mode of sign languages: repetition of lexical items (with or without discourse topic); discourse topic, deictic units towards the different loci and use of space, and role change. Some of these cohesive devices also fulfill functions of narrative coherence: the discourse topic, the emphatic and contrastive focus, and the role change, all as part of parallelistic structures.