Have and BE verbs

[Nobukatsu Minoura]

Dear Colleagues,

Japanese Sign Language (JSL) has a couple of BE verbs:  IRU (be [+animate]),
ARU (be [-animate]).  The existence of the two verbs parallels with spoken
Japanese.  (By the way, JSL 'ARU' looks very similar to DGS 'DABEI' with the
similar meaning.)

On the other hand, there is no copula used in equational sentences just like
in ASL but unlike in spoken Japanese.

There is no single equivalent of HAVE in JSL.  The above-mentioned
one-argument verbs of existence (i.e. IRU and ARU) are also used as
two-argument verbs:

PT1 ANE           IRU
me  older-sister  be [+anim]
I have an older sister.

PT1 YASUMI   ARU
me  holiday  be [-anim]
I have a holiday.

And also the verb MOTSU (hold) is used for possessive expression:

PT1 PASOKON            MOTSU
me  personal-computer  hold
I have a personal computer.

I myself have not closely studied yet the determining factor(s) of choice
between IRU/ARU and MOTSU.



Nobukatsu Minoura
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
mailto:minoura at tufs.ac.jp
mailto:nobum at gol.com