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

Wed Jan 9 08:45:47 UTC 2008

Scholastica
Padden (11983, 1988) does recognise that some so-called plain verbs  
can be modified spatially, but she does not consider these to be  
examples of agreement verbs because the spatial modifications do not  
always unambiguously identify agent/source versus patient/goal (see  
her work for the details). You will probably find similar examples in  
HKSL. Engberg-Pedersen (1993) is one of the few scholars to discuss  
this subtype of verb sign - she refers to them as 'pragmatic agreement  
verbs'.
In our work on Auslan, we refer to these signs as 'locatable  
indicating verbs' (signs in which the whole sign may be displaced in  
space but in which beginning and end points do not necessarily  
identify agent/source and patient/goal) versus 'directional indicating  
verbs' (which may begin and end at locations associated with agent/ 
source and patient/goal). Statistical analysis of indicating verbs in  
data collected from a corpus of Auslan narratives suggest that  
locatable indicating verbs do indeed exhibit spatial modification, but  
significantly much less often than directional indicating verbs.
Note that we use Liddell's (2003) term 'indicating verb' because we  
share his view that these signs do not show person agreement, a view  
supported by Greville Corbett's (2006) recent book on the typology of  
agreement systems.
Adam
PS My understanding is that Padden's term 'plain verb' was meant to  
contrast these signs with those she claimed showed spatial  
modifications for person ('agreeing/agreement verbs') or locative  
information ('spatial verbs') and was not related to any claims about  
aspectual modifications.
--
Adam C Schembri, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Deafness, Cognition and Language (DCAL) Research Centre
University College London
49 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7679 8680
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal


On 9 Jan 2008, at 08:04, Daniela Happ wrote:

> 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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