A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

In regular agreement verbs with path movement, the subject marker is the starting point of the movement.

            ix₁neighbor ₃hate₁.

            ‘My neighbor hates me.’

 

In transitive agreement verbs, the subject of a sentence is marked through the use of the location associated with the subject argument. First person subject, for instance, may be articulated at the location of the signer (except for body-anchored verbs in which the initial location in contact with the body does not always mark first person subject). Moreover, different locations at different heights in the vertical axis of the body of the signer are distinguished:

 

-       The verb can be located at the eyes (i.e. see),

 

            ₃see_1.

            ‘Look at me!’

 

-       at the mouth or the chin (i.e. hate or tell),

 

 

            please ₃tell₁what_happens.

            ‘Please, tell me what happens.’

 

-       and at the chest (i.e. give).

 

  ix₁father book ₁give₃.

            ‘I gave my father a book.’

 

Second and third person subjects are marked using locations in the signing space in front of the signer. In the case of body-anchored agreement verbs, second and third person subjects start their movement at the location of the body where the verb is anchored, and then move to the location in the signing space that is linked to the second or the third person subject.

 

 

 

            _3aaaask_3b toilet where.

            ‘She asked him where the toilet was.’

 

 

On the contrary, in backward agreement verbs [LEXICON 3.2.2], the subject marker is the end point of the path movement, as shown in the following example.

 

 

            ₁understand₃me perfectly.

            ‘He understood me perfectly.’

 

As for intransitive verbs, first person subject agreement is marked through the location of the subject near the body of the signer. This is the most common strategy for the other persons as well. In these cases agreement is not marked, as exemplified below.

ix₃ answer quick.

‘She answered quickly.’

 

However, there are some examples in which second and third person subject marking are expressed through the articulation of the non-agreement verb in the location of the signing space where the second or third person is placed. In both cases, the locus itself is the agreement marker of subject.

 

 

a)       girl_ahands draw_a.

            ‘The little girl draws with her hands.’              

(based on Ribera, 2015: 232)

      

b)      please ix₂sit.

            ‘Please, sit down.’                                                    

(based on Ribera, 2015: 232)

 

Thus, intransitive plain verbs can also sometimes show agreement with the subject, as shown in example (b) above.

In the case of body-anchored plain verbs, agreement with the subject is blocked due to the phonological restriction, so it is expressed through the use of a pronoun [LEXICON 3.7] or an auxiliary sign [LEXICON 3.3.4].