Classifier constructions reproduce visual features of situations, actions and objects. They give spatial and motion descriptions by providing the position and orientation of the objects relative to each other and also relative to some point of view, as in the example provided below. For this reason, these constructions are considered as highly iconic.
dh: cl(A): ‘ball falling’
ndh: cl(,): ‘table’
‘The ball fell from the table.’
However, they cannot always be interpreted in a straightforward way. In the example above, for instance, previous information is necessary to know that the sphere classifier handshape articulated with the dominant hand refers to a ball and not to other round objects, and that the flat surface classifier handshape articulated with the non-dominant hand refers to a table and not to any other kind of flat surface. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a lexical sign specifying which referent the classifier is linked to before using a classifier construction, as illustrated below.
dh: table ball cl(A):‘ball falling’
ndh: cl(,): ‘table’
‘The ball fell from the table.’
Most of the times, though, classifier’s referents can be retrieved by contextual information. However, if the context is not clear enough and no antecedent has been introduced, the meaning of the classifier can be ambiguous.
Classifiers can also be accompanied by modifiers of intensity, length, size, etc. that are expressed through facial expression [MORPHOLOGY 5.1].
LSC distinguishes between three different types of classifiers: i) semantic classifiers, ii) descriptive classifiers, and iii) handling and instrumental classifiers. See the chapter on classifiers for a full description of these types [MORPHOLOGY 5].