3.2. Verbs
Verbs in sign languages use space in order to express verbal morphology. In LSC different types of verbs can be differentiated depending on the grammatical properties derived from the use of signing space.
There are three different types of verbs in LSC: plain verbs, agreement verbs, and spatial verbs. These verb types differ from each other in the morphosyntactic information that they overtly encode about the subject and the object of the sentence.
Nevertheless, in LSC, all verbs can display a neutral or basic form regardless of the verb class they belong to. For instance, both the verb remember (a-b) and the verb help (c-d) can be articulated in a neutral form. However, the verb help can change its neutral form in order to indicate the subject and the object of the sentence, as we can see in the examples below.
a) ix1 past remember together first_time.
‘I remember my first date.’
b) ix2 ix1 know ix2 ix1 remember not?
‘You know me! Don't you remember?’
c) ix(poss)1 sibling woman homework 1help3.
‘I’m helping my sister with her homework.’
d) cv do (ix(poss)1) mother 3help1.
‘My mother is helping me with my CV’.
In examples (a) and (b) above the verb remember does not change its form depending on who remembers or what the object of remembrance is. This verb is considered a plain verb, as it does not modify its form irrespective of its arguments.
The verb help, however, changes its form in order to indicate the subject and the object of the sentence, that is to say, depending on who helps who. In examples (c) and (d) above we can observe how the path movement and the orientation of the hand in the verb help change in order to express agreement with the subject and the object locations. This verb is considered an agreement verb, as it is marked overtly for agreement with the subject and the object of the sentence.
Moreover, there is another class of verbs that modify their form: spatial verbs. They modify their form depending on the location of the action, like, for example, the verbs clean (a) and cut (b), or according to the location of the source and goal of movement, like the verb fly (c).
a) ix1 room bathroom washbasina toiletb cleana cleanb.
‘I cleaned the washbasin and the toilet of the bathroom.’
b) yesterday ix(poss)1 father car accident arma cuta.
‘Yesterday my father had a car accident and got cut in his arm.’
c) past summer holidays 1goa greecea flya capital main day two staya then aflyb islandb four day stayb finish bfly1 here barcelona.
‘These holidays I went to visit Greece. First, I flew to the capital, where I stayed for two days, then I flew to a small island where I stayed for four days, and then I flew back to Barcelona.’
In sum, LSC distinguishes three different types of verbs: plain verbs, agreement verbs, and spatial verbs. Each of these types is further explained in the corresponding sections.