q's about existentials in SLs

[E. Arik]

Dear list members,

I have a couple of questions concerning 'existentials' in sign language
research. First of all, is there any research done 'there is/exists'
type of predicates on very much studied sign languages? Secondly, does
any sign language have verb 'exist' in the lexicon? Then, if any, what
is the function of this predicate? Does it have a function simply as
that of 'have' in English? Another one, does this 'exist' predicate
need locatives such as 'deixis' and/or 'locatives'? Finally, does an
existential verb have any other syntactic function, say, in embedded
sentences?


Best,
Engin Arik
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Sign Linguistics, MA