q's about existentials in SLs

[Theresa Smith]

Hello all,

Responding (perhaps rashly) as a non-linguist but thoughtful user, interpreter,
teacher of ASL I would support the thesis of the sign "have" being used to at
least function in ways similar to "exist" as in the phrase "[index] have
program.".  The meaning is clearly not that "That school has a program." but
rather that "A program exists there."

Theresa

Theresa B. Smith, Ph.D. Director ASLIS

James MacFarlane wrote:

> 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