3.2.1. Plain verbs
Plain verbs do not include information about the subject or object or the location or source and goal of the movement. The most characteristic feature of plain verbs is that they do not inflect, regardless of the arguments of the sentence. Thus, in principle they need to be accompanied by a referential expression, a personal pronoun or an agreement auxiliary [SYNTAX 3.3] in order to make the arguments explicit.
Some of these verbs are body-anchored, i.e. the place of articulation of the sign is on the body of the signer, and not in signing space. For example, the verb think is articulated on the forehead, and the verb eat is articulated at the mouth of the signer. These verbs are typically accompanied by an overt referential expression such as a pronoun in order to the express the information of the subject and object arguments.
a) ix3 pasta eat.
‘He eats pasta.’
b) topic future ix3 think reflect_on too_much.
‘He thinks too much about the future.’
However, there are other plain verbs that are articulated in neutral signing space, like for instance cook and play.
a) yesterday ix3 zucchini cook.
‘Yesterday, he cooked zucchini.’
b) all_day child played.
‘The child played all day long.’
It is important to take into account this subtype of plain verbs in the analysis of person agreement, as they are not always signed in a neutral position. In an intransitive sentence, for instance, the verbal sign is sometimes placed in the referential locus of the subject. By contrast, in a transitive sentence the verbal form can be placed in the referential locus of the object or, in the case of a ditransitive sentence, of the indirect object [SYNTAX 2.1.2.3].