Plain verbs in signed languages

Wed Jan 9 14:52:48 UTC 2008

For my dissertation work (with Karen Emmorey) we looked at eye gaze  
occurring with plain verbs as well as eye gaze with verbs that move  
in space to indicate location (spatial verbs) or person (agreeing  
verbs). We found that for plain verbs eye gaze was not directed  
toward locations associated with referents whereas for agreeing and  
spatial verbs it was.
Crucially- this was true whether or not the plain verb was spatially  
modified-- This (at a minimum) suggests that the two types of  
movement/spatial displacement are not the same. If you want to think  
of it in terms of morphemes, Carol Padden suggested that plain verbs  
that indicated either the subject or object (e.g., WANT produced on  
the right could mean "She wants something" , or "Someone want that  
thing" -it is ambiguous ) were occurring with clitics.

Overall- my recollection of the data we collected is that plain verbs  
which could be displaced in space (i.e., are not are produced on the  
body) ARE with (fairly) high frequency.

Happy New Year to all!
Robin

Robin Thompson, Ph.D.
Research Fellow
Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL)
University College London
49 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PD
Web: www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk
robin.thompson at ucl.ac.uk

On 9 Jan 2008, at 13:56, Bencie Woll wrote:

> In the following paper we discuss optionality in relation to  
> agreement in the input to children acquiring BSL as a first  
> language. Morgan G, Barrière I, & Woll B  (2006) The influence of  
> typology and modality on the acquisition of language. First  
> Language 26: 19-43.
>
>
>
>
>
> Bencie Woll, BA, MA, PhD
> Chair of Sign Language and Deaf Studies
> Director, UCL DCAL Research Centre
> 49 Gordon Square
> London WC1H 0PD
> +44 20 7679 8670 (voice)
> +44 20 7679 8691 (fax)
> +44 20 7679 8693 (textphone/minicom) www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk
>
>
>
>
>
> From: slling-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu [mailto:slling-l- 
> bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu] On Behalf Of I.Zwitserlood
> Sent: 09 January 2008 08:26
> To: A list for linguists interested in signed languages
> Subject: Re: [SLLING-L] Plain verbs in signed languages
>
>
>
> Dear Scholastica,
>
> Uou touch on an important issue here. It seems as if "plain verbs"  
> in a sign language are taken to be a fixed group of verbs that  
> never show any agreement, whereas "agreement verbs" do show  
> agreement and "spatial verbs" also show agreement, though in a  
> different way from agreement verbs. However, it is also observed  
> that verbs that are reported (e.g. in the literature or  
> dictionaries) to be "agreement verbs" are used without showing  
> agreement (viz. there is a lot of variability in the use of  
> agreement). E.g. In discourses in Sign Language of the Netherlands  
> (NGT) we sometimes see verbs that can show agreement, used without  
> agreement or only carrying a subset of the possible agreement  
> markers. Sometimes they are accompanied by an auxiliary carrying  
> the agreement marking, but not always. Also we see that verbs that  
> are reported to be "plain verbs" sometimes do show agreement. It is  
> by no means clear when, how and why the agreement marking varies,  
> no systematic studies have been done on NGT so far. During the  
> CISLR conference in Cologne last year Diane Lillo-Martin and Adam  
> Schembri also report unexpected agreement patterns in ASL  
> (children) and Auslan (adults), respectively.
> I'm not sure whether this answers your question, but I think it is  
> important to notice that the issue of sign language agreement is by  
> no means clear yet and needs a lot more study. As you plan to do.  
> Good luck!
>
> Inge Zwitserlood
> Radboud University Nijmegen
>
>
> At 17:53 8-1-2008, you wrote:
>
>
> 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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