As mentioned in LEXICON 3.2, agreement verbs can change its form depending on the arguments of the sentence. Namely, they change the direction of the movement path, and sometimes the orientation of the hand, the palm or the fingers, depending on locations associated with the subject and the object of the sentence. In this way they mark agreement with the subject and the object of the sentence when they refer to animate entities.
Agreement verbs can be divided into different subtypes. Four subclasses of agreement verbs have been attested in LSC: (1) regular agreement verbs, (2) backward agreement verbs, and (3) reciprocal agreement verbs.
In regular agreement verbs, the movement of the sign begins at the subject location and ends at the object location, as we can see in the examples below. In example (a) below, the subject is first person, so the movement starts at the body of the signer, and the object is third person, so the movement ends in the area of signing space where the third person is located. By contrast, in example (b) below, the movement begins in the location in the signing space where the subject has been located, and ends in the object location, namely, the one associated with the signer.
a) ix(poss)1 father hat 1give_gift3.
‘I gave a hat to my father.’
b) ix(poss)1 sister book 3give_gift1.
‘My sister gave a book to me.’
In both examples, the verb gives information about the subject and the object by displaying a trajectory movement, namely, the start and end points of the path movement indicate the grammatical subject and object, respectively.
Other regular agreement verbs do not display such path movement but, instead, they show agreement of the subject with the object by changing the orientation of the fingertips or the hand palm. In these verbs, the fingertips or the palm of the hand are always oriented towards the object, as illustrated in (a) and (b) below.
a) everyday ix1 work finish ix(poss)1 grandmother 1take_care3.
‘I take care of my grandmother every day after work.’
b) past ix1 ex child school class finish then grandmother 3take_care1.
‘When I was a child my grandmother used to take care of me after classes.’
It is important to notice that regular agreement verbs usually agree with the locations of the subject and the object of the sentence (if transitive, with the direct object, as with take_care; if ditransitive, with the indirect object, as with help).
Some regular agreement verbs are body-anchored, namely they are articulated at a particular location of the body. In these verbs, different parts of the body of the signer can serve as a point of articulation: the forehead, the nose, the cheeks, the mouth, the chin, the ear, the neck, or the chest. Some examples are the verbs give_advice, infect, or phone.
Contrary to regular agreement verbs, in backward agreement verbs the path movement begins at the object location instead of the subject one, and it ends at the subject location. Some common verbs in this category are take, choose, buy, call_for, copy, invite, steal, guess, collect_taxes, among others.
y/n
a) tennis partner couple ix1 1choose3.
‘Would you choose me as your tennis partner?’
b) yesterday restauranta ixa cl(x)b ‘menu’ pasta bchoose1.
‘Yesterday at the restaurant I chose pasta.’
It is also important to notice that although the path movement is realized backwards, the fingertips are still oriented towards the object. Moreover, backward agreement verbs usually agree with locations the subject and the object of the sentence through path movement. For instance, in the previous examples the verb choose agrees with both the subject and the direct object.
There are also some agreement verbs that have a body-anchored first component, like the verb ask.
a) teacher ix3 ix1 3ask1 topic++ important list-2 two important.
‘In class, I asked my teacher two important questions.’
b) ix(poss)2 bossa 2aask3 topic space change allow?
‘Have you asked your boss if you can change your (work) space?
In the examples above both the basic form and the agreement form of the verb ask begin at the chin of the signer but does not express agreement, which is encoded by the path movement of the verb.
Lastly, reciprocal agreement verbs are a type of agreement verbs that can be used in its reciprocal form when the subject is plural and its referents are both interpreted as subject and object at the same time.
both understandrecp(1, 2).
‘We understand each other very well.’
In this type of verbs, the sign changes its form from one-handed to two-handed in order to express the reciprocal meaning. Moreover, each hand is agreeing with the referents in opposite distribution of subject and object roles, so the path movement and orientation of each hand are inverse with respect to each other. Some reciprocal forms are understand-each-other, attract-each-other, call-each-other, see-each-other, never-want-to-see-each-other-again.
Some agreement verbs only exist in their reciprocal form, so they are always two-handed, like, for instance, argue, agree, meet, consult, contact, discuss_in_group.
morning all ix1pl debate++.
‘We were debating the whole morning.’
List of regular agreement verbs:
| say | |
| narrate/explain | |
| inform | |
| order | |
inherit |
|
| give | |
| give_gift | |
| teach | |
| pay | |
| name1 |
|
| name2 | |
| advise | |
| accuse | |
| oblige |
|
| send_letter | |
| show | |
| subsidize | |
| ask_for | |
| answer | |
| call | |
| win/be_superior | |
| cheat | |
| scold | |
| defend | |
| arrest | |
| pester | |
| fire1 | |
| fire2 | |
| fire3 | |
| train | |
| annoy | |
| punish |
|
| sms | |
| bribe | |
| chase | |
| discriminate_against | |
| motivate |
|
| fax | |
| recommend | |
| say_no | |
|
tease |
|
| allow | |
| let_know |
|
| vote | |
| insult | |
| help | |
| infect | |
| correct | |
| take_care | |
| influence | |
| spoil | |
| bite | |
| ignore | |
| obsess | |
| hate | |
| harm | |
| press | |
look |
|
| affiliate | |
| include | |
| abandon | |
| examine | |
| research | |
| attack | |
| corner | |
| affect | |
| surround | |
| photograph | |
| reject | |
| miss |
|
| support |
List of backwards agreement verbs:
| choose | |
| copy | |
| attract | |
| guess | |
| steal | |
| take | |
| understand | |
| absorb/record | |
| hook_on | |
| hire | |
| ask | |
| borrow | |
| summon | |
|
invite |
|
| pay_taxes |
List of reciprocal verbs:
| interchange | |
| discuss | |
| meet | |
| talk_to_each_other | |
| fight | |
| approve | |
| substitute | |
| collaborate | |
| share | |
| shake_hands | |
| dialog | |
| agree1 | |
| agree2 | |
| contact | |
|
disagree
|
|
| argue |