AW: [SLLING-L] Plain verbs in signed languages

[Daniela Happ]

Hi Scholastica,

 

in my research I found that the so called plain verbs aren´t really plain.
They contain morphemes of person and space, f.e. the DGS (German Sign
Language) verb BEZAHLEN (to pay). But the person/space morphemes aren´t
strong enough to identify exactly personal agreement or space agreement. In
my work I call these verbs weak agreement verbs (schwach kongruente Verben).
I´m sorry, my work is in German and not English, but if you understand
German, contact me and I will send you an excerpt of the article I wrote
with a colleague (D.Happ & M.-O. Vorköper 2005: Einige Bemerkungen zur
syntaktischen und morphologischen Repräsentation von Numerus in Deutscher
Gebärdensprache. In: Leuninger, Helen & Daniela Happ (Hrsg.):
Gebärdensprachen: Struktur, Erwerb, Verwendung (Linguistische Berichte.
Sonderheft 13). Hamburg: Buske, P. 97 ff.)

To all: sorry for my ill english.

Best regards,

Daniela

 

 

 

  _____  

Von: slling-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
[mailto:slling-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu] Im Auftrag von Schola Lam
Gesendet: Dienstag, 8. Januar 2008 17:54
An: A list for linguists interested in signed languages
Betreff: Re: [SLLING-L] Plain verbs in signed languages

 

Hi everyone,

 

I think I need to rephrase my question. Sorry for any misunderstandings
caused. 

 

I tried to adopt Padden's (1983, 1988) verb classification for my HKSL data.
Yet I want to clarify the notion plain verbs. I wonder if what have been
called plain verbs may not be really "plain" in terms of morphology (e.g.
verb agreement, aspect, etc) when more studies are done on ASL and other
signed languages. 

 

Did anyone observe that the so-called plain verbs may actually be marked
with morphemes in signed languages?

 

Scholastica 


"Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at ldc.upenn.edu> wrote:

"Scholastica" (Nini Hoiting?) wrote:

#I am a research student who works on Hong Kong Sign Language. My focus of 
#study is verbs. I would like to confirm if plain verbs are generally
#unmarked for verb agreement and spatial locations.

Dan Slobin answered:

#By defnition, a "plain verb" is one that cannot move in space, and so it
#cannot mark agreement and spatial locations in itself. But in many sign
#languages (including Sign Language of the Netherlands, Taiwanese Sign
#Language, and others), there are "auxiliary" verbs that accompany a "plain"
#verb. Such accompanying verbs do move in space to indicate relations such
#as source-goal, agent-patient, and so forth.

Denise Wetzler added:

#In American Sign Language, verbs move. The movement itself contains a great
#amount of information. If want to show that I will go from my house to the
#bank and then to the library, these three locations are first established
in
#the signing space. How I sign the verb 'go-to' then will show where I
#started from; went to; and where I ended up. [...]


It's essential to know what Scholastica means by "plain verb". Dan is
evidently 
assuming that S. has the same definition for it that he does. 

A sign that does not move in space can nevertheless mark agreement with a 
spatial location, by its orientation and possibly its location as well.
Example: 
ASL PITY (open-8 handshape, palm toward object, middle finger repeatedly 
bending).

Clarification of Denise's answer: in ASL, *many* verbs move [in space], but
by 
no means all of them.

-- Mark A. Mandel
Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania

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