Are plain verbs really plain?: co-localization as the agreement marker in sign languages

In contrast to previous discussions on agreement, this paper argues that matching oflocation is the single morphological exponent of verb agreement in sign languages, us-ing data from Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Therefore, we reject the analysis of pathand/or directionality as agreement marker...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Guilherme Lourenço, Ronnie B. Wilbur
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFMG
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.ufmg.br:1843/77208
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.31009/FEAST.i2.06
http://hdl.handle.net/1843/77208
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4272-1282
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Morphosyntax
Verb agreement
Layering of visual information
Brazilian Sign Language
Língua brasileira de sinais
Descripción
Sumario:In contrast to previous discussions on agreement, this paper argues that matching oflocation is the single morphological exponent of verb agreement in sign languages, us-ing data from Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Therefore, we reject the analysis of pathand/or directionality as agreement markers. We argue that “plain” verbs are actuallycapable of showing agreement, as long as there is no phonological restriction, if we con-sider the sharing of location features (co-localization) as the sole agreement mechanism. Agreement is not restricted to a subset of verbs and is actually more pervasive and pro-ductive than has been argued, thus challenging one argument against calling it agree-ment.