A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC)

Verbal agreement is used for reference tracking in LSC, because when arguments are associated with certain locations in the signing space, the verb can unambiguously show coreference or non-coreference through spatial agreement. A verb agreeing with subject and object is directed towards the spatial location established with these referential functions ([LEXICON 3.2.2]; [MORPHOLOGY 3.1.1]; [SYNTAX 2.1.2.3]). Agreement is marked with the direction of the movement, palm or fingers orientation and, according to some studies, with non-manual markers. The direction of these mechanisms indicates coreferential binding with the arguments of the predicate established in that particular spatial location.

In the following example the antecedent ‘brother’ is established in location a in the first sentence. In the second sentence the agreeing verb ‘teach’ in LSC is articulated with the spatial location a for the subject (3^rd person) and the tips of the finger are directed to the object (1^st person).

          ix₁ brother male small_a. ₁ixlanguage sign teach_3a.

          ‘I have a younger brother. I teach him sign language.’