Verbchanges

[Kristín Lena Þorvaldsdóttir]

Dear all

I am a graduate student at the University of Iceland. I am writing my
masters thesis on verbs in Icelandic Sign Language (ITM).
My preliminary results on the three different verb groups in ITM; plain
verbs, agreement verbs and spatial verbs (if you will), show a diachronic
change between these three groups (see explanation below).
I haven´t found any literature on similar findings in other sign
languages. Do you know of any accessible research or discussion on this
matter? If so, I would be most grateful if you could point me in the right
direction either by answering me here on the list or contacting me
privately at kth4 at hi.is,

My preliminary results on ITM show that verbs in the group ´plain verbs´
are devided into two subgroups, that is ´original plain verbs´ and
´classifier plain verbs´ and the latter seems to be orginated in the group
´spatial verbs´ but has lost its ability to move in space.
Plain verbs (that denote transfer) seem to be able to move to the group
´agreement verbs´ by altering the verbs orientation or movement to denote
subject or object.
Spatial verbs also seem to be able to alter their orientation and movement
to denote subject or object and become agreement verbs.

So, plain verbs can become agreement verbs, spatial verbs can become plain
verbs or agreement verbs, but agreement verbs are not able to change into
verbs of the other two groups. As I said, these are only the preliminary
results of my research and this is still only a hypothesis.

I would be grateful for anything you could tell be on this matter, in
other sign languages.

Best regards

Kristín Lena Thorvaldsdóttir
The University of Iceland
kth4 at hi.is