Sign language metaphors: Verbs of cognition and emotions in Russian Sign Language

This paper analyses strategies of metaphorical extensions in Russian Sign Language (RSL) signs of cognition and emotions (such as THINK, REMEMBER, CONSIDER, WORRY, HATE, LOVE). Sign language metaphors have been an important topic in recent years. Very few studies, however, have been done on the RSL data. The focus of this paper is on the signs that change their form when used metaphorically. To ensure the representativity of the sample, we employed a combined method of data collection using dictionaries, corpora and native signers as the source. The paper gives a detailed description of the observed mechanisms of the sign modifi cation and proposes a theoretical explanation for them.