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Cross-linguistic comparison of agreement verbs in sign languages, their inventory sizes and motivation for verb class affiliation

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Published/Copyright: July 29, 2025

Abstract

Most sign languages have a class of verbs that possess the ability to mark agreement with the subject and/or object by spatial markers within the signing space. The size of this verb class is comparatively small, ranging from zero verbs to as many as 148 verbs. One factor that determines this size is the type of sign language. There are deaf community sign languages, that are spoken predominantly among d/Deaf people, and rural sign languages that emerged in small communities with a higher than usual ratio of hereditary deafness; here, both hearing and d/Deaf people use the sign language. My data of 18 sign languages, including rural sign languages, confirms what has been suggested recently; rural sign languages, too, can make use of the signing space for agreement. My language sample also defeats other previous assumptions about sign languages. For one, the inventories of the agreeing verb class is organised highly differently among sign languages. Their sizes can differ considerably and their makeup shows that semantics and thematic roles play no crucial role in being the motivator for agreement. I conclude that while sign language agreement seems to be universal among deaf community sign languages, the content of the inventory of this class is highly language specific and follows no universal concept as to semantic motivation.


Corresponding author: Kevin Behrens, Faculty 10: Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

Some of the results of this paper have been presented at the Vielfaltslinguistik 7 at the University of Münster (2–3 June 2025). I thank the participants for their questions and interesting input. My thanks also go to Thomas Stolz with his steady support of my PhD project and to all my colleagues at the University of Bremen, Julia Nintemann, Maike Vorholt and Nataliya Levkovych, for their ongoing help and the valuable feedback to my work and this paper.

Abbreviations

ABSL

Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language

AdaSL

Adamorobe Sign Language

ASL

American Sign Language

Auslan

Australian Sign Language

BSL

British Sign Language

DGS

German Sign Language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache)

DTS

Danish Sign Language (Dansk tegnsprog)

HKSL

Hong Kong Sign Language

IndSL

Indian Sign Language

IPSL

Indo-Pakistani Sign Language

IrSL

Irish Sign Language

IsrSL

Israeli Sign Language

IUR

Inuit Sign Language (ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐆᒃᑐᕋᐅᓯᖏᑦ) [Inuit Uukturausingit]

KQSL

Kafr Qasem Sign Language

KSL

Korean Sign Language

Libras

Brazilian Sign Language (Língua Brasileira de Sinais)

LSC

Catalan Sign Language (Llengua de signes catalana)

LSF

French Sign Language (Langue des signes française)

LSSiv

Sivia Sign Language (Lengua de Signos Sivia)

NGT

Dutch Sign Language (Nederlandse Gebarentaal)

NS

Japanese Sign Language (日本手話) [nihon-shuwa]

NZSL

New Zealand Sign Language

OLSF

Old French Sign Language

ÖGS

Austrian Sign Language (Österreichische Gebärdensprache)

PJM

Polish Sign Language (Polski język migowy)

TİD

Turkish Sign Language (Türk İşaret Dili)

TSL

Taiwanese Sign Language

YMSL

Yucatec Maya Sign Language

1, 2, 3a, 3b

First, second and two third persons

0

body contact

1-SIGN-3a

The numbers stand for spatial loci for persons in the signing space, the first number of the verb gloss marks the beginning and the second the ending position of the verb’s articulation within the space

++

replication or triplication of a sign

arc-rightward

plural marking on a third person (to the right)

BAV

backwards agreement verb

cl:…

classifier; specified by a description thereafter

IX-…

Index sign for personal pronouns, modifiable by spatial loci like 1, 2, 3

PROX

personal pronoun, subscript numbers give the person 1, 2, or 3

RAV

regular agreement verbs

SIGN2

glosses are in capital letters, numbers indicate synonyms

SL, SLs

sign language, sign languages

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Published Online: 2025-07-29
Published in Print: 2025-07-28

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