A Grammar of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT)

Bodypart classifiers are comparable to entity classifiers, in the sense that both types represent an entity and combine with verbs of  motion, location and existence. Still, the two types differ in three aspects:

    (i)         By representing bodyparts, bodypart classifiers represent only a part of an (animate) entity, instead of the whole entity;

  (ii)     Bodypart classifiers combine only with verbs that are intransitive and unergative, instead of intransitive and unaccusative;

(iii)     The handshape set is different: some handshapes only represent bodyparts, and no other entities.

The Dutch study mentioned, makes notion of a number of handshapes that represent bodyparts, and I complemented these after consultation with two informants. The bodypart classifier handshapes are described in Table X: the first column shows the handshapes, and the second column provides examples:

Table X. Handshapes that can function as bodypart classifiers, and the represented bodyparts 

The next video clips show examples in which bodypart classifiers are used. In X.a, a signer tells about a dog sniffing food, where the I-hand visualizes the snout of the dog, sniffing. The handshape is thus the affixed classifier and the motion stem is ‘sniffing at something’. In X.b, the signer tells about two people walking towards each other, almost bumping into each other and then proceeding their ways. The two persons are first introduced lexically, and then the Y -hands are used in combination with the movement stem showing the specific movements of these persons. Note that the lexical sign for walk is also produced with the Y -hand, which shows that the use of this classifier handshape in combination with the movement stem ‘walk’ has lexicalized. However, since it can still be used productively, as can be seen in example X.b, the handshape is a bodypart classifier as well.

The next figure shows a clause in which a signer tells about a dog sniffing food, where the  I-hand visualizes the snout of the dog, sniffing. The handshape is thus the affixed classifier and the motion stem is ‘sniffing at something’.

videos