2.2.1. Agreement
DGS shows spatial verbal agreement [Morphology 3.1]. Spatial loci are linked to verbal arguments and agreement with those can take place by changing the direction of the verbal movement and (in some cases) the orientation of the palm and/or fingertips.
Discourse referents introduced into discourse earlier can be picked up via agreement verbs directed to the locations unambiguously associated with those referents. This way, verbal agreement serves to identify referents, especially in settings where these referents are easily retrievable.This is exemplified below, where each of the referents is only implicitly localized into the signing space via fingerspelling but can be easily identified through initial and final locations of the verb give.
just ixa j-u-l-i-a ixb m-a-x acallb.ixa++a askbix1+2pllater meet where.
‘Julia just called Max. She asked where do they meet later.’
While agreement verbs agree with locations arbitrarily assigned to a referent, spatial verbs agree with topographically defined locations [Pragmatics 8.1.2] and are mainly used to track reference to a source and/or goal [Morphology 3.1, Lexicon 3.2.3]. This is exemplified below, where the goals bakery and moscow are associated with a particular spatial area and the spatial predicates drive and fly are signed in the direction of that goal.
a. ix1 bakery ix(loc)a drivea
‘I am driving to the Bakery.’
b. l-e-a moscow ix(loc)a flya
‘Lea flies to Moscow.’