q's about existentials in SLs

[James MacFarlane]

Hello Engin,

I wrote my MA thesis on "The Grammaticization of Predicative Possession and
Existentials in American Sign Language".  This work traces the development
of the ASL verb HAVE from physical possession, to inalienable possession, to
inanimate possession, to the existential.  I doubt that it is available
anywhere except from the Univ. of New Mexico Library.  I've been meaning to
re-work it for publication elsewhere.  Also, I believe that Ronnie Wilbur is
currently working on Possession but I don't know if she is working on
existentials as well.  I think it is worth contacting her, however.


--
James MacFarlane
University of New Mexico
Department of Linguistics
www.unm.edu/~jmacfarl/home.html



> From: "E. Arik" <Engin.Arik at student.uva.nl>
> Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2002 12:41:00 +0100
> To: SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
> Subject: q's about existentials in SLs
>
> 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