Verb agreement in Brazilian Sign Language: morphophonology, syntax & semantics

Building on the assumption that signed languages are both similar and different from spoken languages (universal principles vs. modality effects), this dissertation discusses verb agreement in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Agreement in sign languages has been described as a change in orientation...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Guilherme Lourenco de Souza
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFMG
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.ufmg.br:1843/LETR-B7NEZ5
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/1843/LETR-B7NEZ5
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:event structure
Brazilian Sign Language
verb agreement
layering of visual information
syntax
Língua brasileira de sinais Sintaxe
Descripción
Sumario:Building on the assumption that signed languages are both similar and different from spoken languages (universal principles vs. modality effects), this dissertation discusses verb agreement in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Agreement in sign languages has been described as a change in orientation and direction of movement of the verb. However, I propose that agreement in Libras, and possibly in all sign languages, is not marked by the movement of the verb. Instead, the matching of location between the verb and its argument(s) is the sole agreement marker a process I will call co-localization. The different types of path movement, on the other hand, are related to the event properties of the predicate, such as marking of telicity, for example (Event Visibility Hypothesis). Additionally, assuming a Minimalist framework within Generative Syntax, I will claim that the different agreement patterns found in Libras can be derived by assuming a single underlying syntactic structure and by the basic syntactic operations MERGE and AGREE. Finally, I will argue that there is a layering of visual information within the verb internal structure, in such a way that different morphological operations will target specific nodes of the phonological specification of the verb.