Similar to the associative suffix -l-i, the agentive suffix is also borrowed from Turkish. It imparts various meanings to the form it creates such as a person selling something, or the occupation of a person. On a par with -l-i, the agentive suffix has two forms that display a reduced form of vowel harmony, yielding the forms -c-i and -c-u. One form of water+agentive suffix ‘water vendor’ (su+cu in Turkish) is given below:
water c u
‘water vendor’
(based on Göksel & Taşçı 2016: 379)
In this example, the sign for water is followed by c and u. Note that the shape of the first letter of the agentive suffix ‘c’ happens to have the same handshape of the form for the sign person which has a different orientation and a downward movement, see [Morphology – 1]. The sign person can also be used instead of -c-ı/u with an agentive meaning (e.g. work^person ‘worker’).
Agentive forms are rather infrequent in the TÄ°D lexicon, an unexpected fact given that Turkish has a vast number of words containing the agentive suffix. Commonly used signs with the agentive suffix are listed in the table below and their Turkish counterparts have the agentive suffix, too.
|
TURKISH WORD |
TÄ°D (person who sells or is associated with a thing, place etc.) |
|
|
|
|
Bankacı |
bank^c-i ‘bank clerk’ |
|
Eczacı |
medicine ^ez ^c-i ‘pharmacist’ |
|
Fırıncı |
bakery^c-i ‘baker’ |
|
Futbolcu |
sport^c-i ‘football player’ |
|
Kitapçı |
book^c-i ‘book seller’ |
|
Oyuncakçı |
toy^c-i ‘toy seller’ |
|
Postacı |
post^c-i ‘postman’ |
|
Saatçi |
clock^c-i ‘clock seller/repairman’ |
|
Sanatçı |
art^c-i ‘artist’ |
|
Simitçi |
bagel^c-i ‘bagel seller’ |
|
Tamirci |
repair^c-i ‘mechanic’ |
(Özyürek et al. 2004)