Have and BE verbs

[Ulrike Zeshan]

Hi Dan and others,

At 12:02 AM 6/02/02 -0700, you wrote:
>> Why would the existentials be so important and the copula so
>> unimportant in sign
>> languages I wonder...?
>
>Isn't this true beyond the SL domain?
>But I wonder if there is a language which doesn't have an existential
>construction, but requires a "non-zero" copula.  Not much of an
>explanation, I know. Anyway, you're the typologist.

It's true I that copula constructions aren't all that common
cross-linguistically in spoken languages either. Lots of languages are
perfectly happy with the Russian type constructions. However, the total
absence of copula constructions AND the universality of existential
constructions in sign languages is striking, and there are several possible
lines of explanation: is this a creole trait in sign languages (there was a
paper recently by Meir, Aronoff and Sandler about sign languages as
creoles)? Are existentials favored due to the strong visual basis of sign
languages? Or is it just due to the fact that we do not have enough data
from enough different sign languages? Who knows.

>The information I'm presenting below is still half-baked analysis based
>on data collected in Jordan.
>
>In LIU (Jordanian SL), there is an existential (and two suppletive
>negatives -- I haven't yet cinched down the distribution):
>
>
>Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\liuexist.jpg"

Your second existential is the same I have seen in Lebanon, whereas the
first one (if I have read it correctly) is sometimes used in Turkey, but I
have not seen it in Lebanon. The positive existential looks unlike the one
used in either Lebanon or Turkey.

>And there is also a sign, which I'm not entirely sure how to gloss:
>
>
>Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\unk.jpg"

I couldn't figure out this sign. Can you give a decscription in words?
(Also for the positive existential).

>
>Need... more... data... (and analysis -- stay tuned!)

I think it would be very beneficial, at some stage, if we could exchange
data among people working in that region i.e. Greece, Arab countries,
Turkey, Israel, and Iran (if anyone has looked at the latter at all?). I
remember your comment about the 'Sprachbund' in part of this area some time
ago. The sign language in Lebanon is about halfway similar to the one in
Turkey, but is definitely a different language. But at present I am not
even sure whether it is right to refer to 'Lughat al-Isharat al-Lubnaniyya'
(Lebanese Sign Language) because Lebanon may share its sign language with
other Arab countries nearby. What do you think (and other concerned people)?

Ulrike



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Dr. Ulrike Zeshan
Research Centre for Linguistic Typology
Institute for Advanced Study
La Trobe University
Victoria 3086, Australia
ph. +61-3-94673084
fax +61-3-94673053
u.zeshan at latrobe.edu.au
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