The use of space with indicating verbs in Auslan: A corpus-based investigation

L. De Beuzeville, T. Johnston, A. Schembri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

One of the most salient and interesting aspects of the grammar of signed languages is their use of space to track referents through discourse. One way in which this has been observed is the spatial modification of lexical verbs to show semantic roles associated with the verb’s arguments. In this paper, a corpus of 50 narratives signed by native and near-native signers was annotated, coded, and analyzed to observe how often these verbs were modified spatially. The data indicate that the spatial modification of verbs in Auslan is far from obligatory, even for the marking of object/undergoer arguments. This may be evidence to support the hypothesis that spatial markings of this type are still in the process of grammaticalization.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)53-82
JournalSign Language and Linguistics (Online)
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The use of space with indicating verbs in Auslan: A corpus-based investigation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this