著者

川崎 典子

出版者

東京女子大学論集編集委員会

雑誌

東京女子大学紀要論集 (ISSN:04934350)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.64, no.2, pp.271-282, 2014-03-13

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Verb agreement in sign languages shows properties very different from agreement in spoken languages. Unlike in spoken languages, in which subject-agreement is more common, in sign languages, verbs agree with their object and not the subject. Only a subset of the verbs however show agreement, and the similarities in the meaning of agreeing verbs across sign languages cannot be accidental. No sign language has been reported to lack verb agreement, while spoken languages vary in this respect. The present article argues that the necessity of verb agreement in sign languages stems from the fact that sign languages employ not only the signer’s hands but also the signer’s face and gaze for non-manual marking, so that the signer’s presence as a cognizer can never be ignored. Without agreement, sentences with a verb taking an animate object misrepresent the participants of the events described. Modeled on an Optimality Theoretic analysis of verbs of coming/going in four spoken languages, the articulation of agreeing verbs in sign languages can be seen as a way of avoiding misrepresentation of the relation between the signer and the event.