Superstructure and cohesion in the narratives of Jakarta sign language signers

This chapter deals with the narrative structure and connecting elements of narrative discourse in Jakarta Sign Language (JakSL). Two research questions are discussed in this paper: (1) what is the narrative structure of fairy tales proposed in the JakSL? and (2) what are elements in the JakSL that create the narrative cohesion in the narratives of the Deaf? The first question pertains to the narrative structure of sign language, while the second question relates to cohesion in sign language. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. The data are taken from the transcription of two narrative signing videos about a fable-The Hare and The Tortoise-narrated by two JakSL signers. The results of this research show the story order delivered by two informants of JakSL speakers which corresponds to the order of narrative structure as proposed by Labov and Waletzky (Essays on the verbal and visual arts: proceedings of the American Ethnological Society. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1967 ) In this study, the structure is formed both by manual movements and nonmanual movements. Two types of grammatical cohesion, namely reference and ellipsis, are found. Meanwhile, in lexical cohesion, repetition and collocation are found.