The verb agreement in Portuguese Sign Language and the basic word order
Analysing the basic order of words in Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) and showing
that the diversity of that order is closely linked to the type of verbs and verb agreement
processes these are the goals of this work.
Greenberg (1966) considers that most languages have several possible orders, even if
only one is dominant, the one that imposes fewer co-occurrence restrictions. Concerning
sign languages they are sometimes considered with flexible word order. The LIBRAS
(Felipe, 1989; Ferreira Brito, 1995) and the ASL (Fischer, 1975) are considered SVO
languages, although in this latter one can frequently occur SOV structures (Friedman,
1976). In the case of LGP, there are still doubts about the existence of a basic pattern,
SVO or SOV. According to Amaral et al. (1994), the order is obligatory only in three
situations: (i) when the inversion of subject and object generates different meanings (1a,
1b); (ii) when there is subject and object locus, being the subject the starting point of the
sign and the object is the end point (2); (iii) when using spatial verbs, being the starting
point of the sign reserved for an indication of the local where the object is and the end
point for the selection of the local where it was moved to (3). According to the same
authors, the order is arbitrary when the verb requires a lively subject and the object is
inanimate (4a and 4b).
For this work, it seems pertinent to relate the verbal type and the types of agreement
with the word order. According to Padden (1988), the verbs of sign languages can be
grouped into three subclasses: plain verbs, agreement verbs and spatial verbs. In (5) and
(6) the word order seems to be variable: in (5a) and (6a) is SVO; in (5b) and (6b) is
SOV. When the arguments of verbs are made by indices, referential or spatial, the SVO
order seems to remain, (5c), (6c).
We’ve analyzed children's narratives of Ruca’s episodes, available on youtube,
interpreted and translated into LGP by smile hands, analysis of (semi-) naturalistic
corpus data. Once the transcription was done, verbs were coded after Padden’s
typology (1988) and the order of words was observed, namely the positions of subject
and object relating to the verb.
The data point out to two first conclusions: sentences with no agreement verbs
(regardless the number of arguments and the type of event) seem to float between SOV
(7) and SVO (8) orders; sentences with agreement verbs seem to follow predominantly
SVO order (9); occasionally there emerge sentences with SOVO order (10), which
reflects object rising (by copy) and simultaneously realization of the object (nominal or
pronominal) in situ.
The data indicate a relationship between the word order in the unmarked sentence and
the type of agreement that the verb carries, although there may be a predominant basic
order, being potentially with a SVO order. In this perspective, the hypothesis of
treatment of the syntactic structure of the declarative sentence in LGP through a
correlation between the type of verbs and the type of agreement would seem pertinent.
Thus, we assume to explore a syntactic structure of the sentence that takes into account
this relationship, in line with the studies supported by functional categories, such as
Alexiadou’s (2001, 2006), within the framework of Distributed Morphology. For
Alexiadou (2001), a sentence is formed from the verbal root. In a sentence, the verbal
functional part consists of vP and VP, or RootP. Alexiadou (2006) includes, in addition
to TP, the VoiceP category, already introduced by Kratzer (1996) to enter the subject
argument. In (11) we present, briefly, the sentence structure corresponding to a
transitive verb.
In summary, after movement of subject NP, we’ll admit that, if the verb develops
agreement, the verbal root doesn’t rise above vP in search of agreement, remaining in
VP, which will lead to a SOV structure; if there is agreement, the verb rises to
functional categories (v, Voice) and we can have diversity orders (SVO, SOV).
Keywords: syntax of LGP, verb agreement, order of words
The verb agreement in Portuguese Sign Language and the basic word order
References:
Alexiadou, A. (2001) Functional Structure in Nominals: Nominalization and Ergativity, Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
Alexiadou, A. (2006) On the morphosyntax of (anti-)causative verbs, available in
http://ealing.cognition.ens.fr/ealing2006/handouts/alexiadou1.pdf
Amaral, M. A. et al. (1994). Para uma Gramática da Língua Gestual Portuguesa. Lisboa: Caminho.
Felipe, T. A. (1989). A estrutura frasal na LSCB. In Anais do IV Encontro Nacional da ANPOLL, Recife.
Ferreira Brito, L. (1995). Por uma gramática das línguas de sinais. Tempo Brasileiro. UFRJ: Rio de
Janeiro.
Fischer, S. (1975). Influences on word order change in American Sign Language. In Word order and
word order change, ed. C.N. Li, 1-25, Austin: University of Austin Press.
Friedman, L. (1976). The manifestation of subject, object, and topic in American Sign Language. In
Subject and topic, ed. C.N. Li, New York: Academic Press, 127-148.
Greenberg, J. H. (1966). Universals of language. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Kratzer, A. (1996). Severing the external argument from the verb. In J. Rooryck & L. Zaring (orgs.)
Phrase Structure and the Lexicon. Dordrecht: Kluwer. 109-137.
Liddell, S. (1980). American Sign Language Syntax. Mouton Publisher. The Hague.
Padden, C. (1988). The interaction of morphology and syntax in American Sign Language. New York:
Garland.
Examples:
(1) a) JOÃO AMAR MARIA/ b) MARIA AMAR JOÃO (Amaral et al., 1994)
O João ama a Maria. / A Maria ama o João. [John loves Mary]
(2) PRO1 – DAR – PRO3 (Amaral et al., 1994)
Eu dou-lhe [I give him]
(3) X – LEVAR – y (Amaral et al., 1994)
leva do sítio x para o sítio y [takes from place x to place y]
(4) a) MENINO COMER BOLO/ b) BOLO COMER MENINO (Amaral et al., 1994)
O menino come o bolo /O menino come o bolo [The boy eats the cake]
(5) a) PAI DAR BOLA FILHO /b) PAI BOLA DAR FILHO /c) PRO-3s DAR-PRO-3s BOLA
O pai dá a bola ao filho [The father gives the ball to his son]
(6) a) PAI IR PORTO LISBOA/b) PAI PORTO LISBOA IR/ b) PAI IR-M: Lx-Ly
O pai vai do Porto para Lisboa [The father goes from O’Porto to Lisbon]
(7) SOV
a) OLÁ MÃE EU TAMBOR BRINCAR (“Ruca Ler e Reler”, 1’24’’)
Olá mãe estou a brincar com o meu tambor [Hello mother I'm playing with my drum]
b) EU AQUI MÊS UM VEZ VOLUNTÁRIA HISTÓRIA LER (“Ruca Ler e Reler”, 3’36’’)
Venho cá uma vez por mês para ler uma história [I come here once a month to read a story]
(8) SVO
a) MÃE_AMIGA_MINHA LER HISTÓRIAS URSO_TÍMIDO (“Ruca Ler e Reler”, 4’54’’)
A mãe da Clementina leu-nos histórias do Ursinho Tímido [ Clementine’s mother read us short
stories about Shy Bear]
(9) SVO
a) DESENHARP:Espaço Neutro; O: recetor URSO_TÍMIDO (“Ruca Ler e Reler”, 7’02’’)
Vou desenhar o ursinho tímido [I’m going to draw the shy little bear]
(10) SOVO
a) RUCA PAI AJUDARM: direção ELE (“A mala do Ruca”, 3’57’’)
‘Ruca pai ajudar ele’
O Ruca ajudou o pai [Ruca helped his father]