modifiability of indicating verbs

[Ulrike Zeshan]

The ASL example of WANT mentioned earlier in this example caught my interest, particularly the ambiguity in the meaning of adding a location specification. If this is so, then what is the difference between something like WANT and other signs like HALF, FRIEND, SIBLING, colours or numbers (not necessarily in ASL, but other sign languages) that can also add a location specification? On the one hand, having a location specification is not itself something "verbal", and on the other hand, in lots of spoken languages, items like kinship terms are verbs. In other words, why are "plain verbs" called "verbs" in the first place, and why are the other signs not "verbs"?
Ulrike


Prof. Ulrike Zeshan
Director, International Centre for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Livesey House, LH212
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR12HE, UK
uzeshan at uclan.ac.uk
Ph. +44-1772-893104

>>> "Gaurav Mathur" <gaurav.mathur at gallaudet.edu> 11/01/08 4:18 PM >>>

Christian Rathmann and I have been following the recent discussion  
with interest, because we have been interested in finding out under  
which conditions a verb can be modulated for person and number. In  
our work, we suggest that semantic factors (i.e. argument structure)  
predict which verbs are candidates for being modulated for agreement  
(i.e. selecting for two animate arguments), and that a number of  
further factors, including phonological phonetic, discourse-related  
and historical, determine whether this agreement is realized.

So, instead of asking whether a verb is plain or agreeing, it may  
make better sense to ask whether they are *candidates* for being  
modulated for agreement (or for indicating entities) or not. This  
would be one way to get around saying that verb agreement is not  
obligatory (as has been suggested here) and therefore not directly  
comparable to agreement systems in spoken languages like Spanish or  
German.

The ASL sign PITY that was given earlier as an example is a case in  
point. It is a candidate for agreement, because it selects for two  
animate arguments (a person who is doing the pitying and the person  
who is being pitied). It can be modulated for person and number by  
changing the orientation of the hands. In this case, the modulation  
does not necessarily mean that the hands move from one location to  
another.

For more details, see our paper "Is verb agreement the same cross- 
modally" in Meier, Cormier and Quinto-Pozos
(2002) as well as "Verb agreement as a linguistic innovation in  
signed languages" in Quer's volume based on TISLR8 (in press).

Best,
Gaurav

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