Article published In:
Sign Language & LinguisticsVol. 12:1 (2009) ► pp.53–82
The use of space with indicating verbs in Auslan
A corpus-based investigation
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.
Cited by
Cited by 36 other publications
Beukeleers, Inez & Myriam Vermeerbergen
2022. Show Me What You’ve B/Seen: A Brief History of Depiction. Frontiers in Psychology 13 
BOERS–VISKER, EVELINE & ROLAND PFAU
2020. Space Oddities: The Acquisition of Agreement Verbs by L2 Learners of Sign Language of the Netherlands. The Modern Language Journal 104:4 ► pp. 757 ff.
Channon, Rachel
2015. Research Methods for Studying the Form of Signs. In Research Methods in Sign Language Studies, ► pp. 123 ff.
Cormier, Kearsy, Adam Schembri & Bencie Woll
2013. Pronouns and pointing in sign languages. Lingua 137 ► pp. 230 ff.
Cormier, Kearsy, Sandra Smith & Zed Sevcikova-Sehyr
Couvee, Sascha & Roland Pfau
2018. Structure and Grammaticalization of Serial Verb Constructions in Sign Language of the Netherlands—A Corpus-Based Study. Frontiers in Psychology 9
Ferrara, Lindsay & Trevor Johnston
2014. Elaborating Who's What: A Study of Constructed Action and Clause Structure in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Australian Journal of Linguistics 34:2 ► pp. 193 ff.
Frederiksen, Anne Therese & Rachel I. Mayberry
2016. Who's on First? Investigating the referential hierarchy in simple native ASL narratives. Lingua 180 ► pp. 49 ff.
2019. Reference tracking in early stages of different modality L2 acquisition: Limited over-explicitness in novice ASL signers’ referring expressions. Second Language Research 35:2 ► pp. 253 ff.
Hill, Joseph C.
2015. Data Collection in Sociolinguistics. In Research Methods in Sign Language Studies, ► pp. 193 ff.
Hodge, Gabrielle & Trevor Johnston
2014. Points, Depictions, Gestures and Enactment: Partly Lexical and Non-Lexical Signs as Core Elements of Single Clause-Like Units in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Australian Journal of Linguistics 34:2 ► pp. 262 ff.
Hou, Lynn
2022. A Usage-Based Proposal for Argument Structure of Directional Verbs in American Sign Language. Frontiers in Psychology 13
Jantunen, Tommi
2013. Ellipsis in Finnish Sign Language. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 36:3 ► pp. 303 ff.
Jantunen, Tommi, Danny De Weerdt, Birgitta Burger & Anna Puupponen
Johnston, T.
2012. Lexical Frequency in Sign Languages. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 17:2 ► pp. 163 ff.
Johnston, Trevor
2014. The reluctant oracle: using strategic annotations to add value to, and extract value from, a signed language corpus. Corpora 9:2 ► pp. 155 ff.
Johnston, Trevor & Adam Schembri
2012. Corpus Analysis of Sign Languages. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Johnston, Trevor, Jane van Roekel & Adam Schembri
2016. On the Conventionalization of Mouth Actions in Australian Sign Language. Language and Speech 59:1 ► pp. 3 ff.
Johnston, Trevor Alexander
2019. Clause constituents, arguments and the question of grammatical relations in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Studies in Language 43:4 ► pp. 941 ff.
Kimmelman, Vadim
2021. Acceptability Judgments in Sign Linguistics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax, ► pp. 561 ff.
Le Guen, Olivier
2022. Early Emergence of Agreement in Yucatec Maya Sign Language. Languages 7:3 ► pp. 233 ff.
McKee, Rachel, Adam Schembri, David McKee & Trevor Johnston
2011. Variable “subject” presence in Australian Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language. Language Variation and Change 23:3 ► pp. 375 ff.
Napoli, Donna Jo & Lorraine Leeson
2020. Visuo-spatial construals that aid in understanding activity in visual-centred narrative. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 35:4 ► pp. 440 ff.
Nordlund, Sanna
2019. Agent defocusing in two-participant clauses in Finnish Sign Language. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4:1
Oomen, Marloes
2021. Iconicity as a mediator between verb semantics and morphosyntactic structure. Sign Language & Linguistics 24:1 ► pp. 132 ff.
Oomen, Marloes & Roland Pfau
2017. Signing not (or not): A typological perspective on standard negation in Sign Language of the Netherlands. Linguistic Typology 21:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Otárola-Cornejo, Fabiola Andrea, Andrea Pérez-Cuello, Natalia Ortiz-Navarrete & Martin Álvarez-Cruz
2020. Construcción verbal en narraciones de estudiantes sordos, usuarios de la lengua de señas chilena. Íkala 25:2 ► pp. 395 ff.
Palfreyman, Nick
2020. Macro and micro-social variation in Asia-Pacific sign languages. Asia-Pacific Language Variation 6:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Pfau, Roland, Martin Salzmann & Markus Steinbach
2018. The syntax of sign language agreement: Common ingredients, but unusual recipe. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3:1
Sato, Asha, Simon Kirby & Molly Flaherty
2022. Language emergence can take multiple paths: Using motion capture to track axis use in Nicaraguan Sign Language. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 7:1
Schembri, Adam, Kearsy Cormier & Jordan Fenlon
2018. Indicating verbs as typologically unique constructions: Reconsidering verb ‘agreement’ in sign languages. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3:1
Schembri, Adam, Jordan Fenlon, Kearsy Cormier & Trevor Johnston
2018. Sociolinguistic Typology and Sign Languages. Frontiers in Psychology 9
van Boven, Cindy
2021. Phonological restrictions on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands: evidence from corpus and elicited data. Folia Linguistica 55:2 ► pp. 313 ff.
2021. Phonological restrictions on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands: evidence from corpus and elicited data. Folia Linguistica 55:2 ► pp. 313 ff.
Wehrmeyer, Ella
2019. Linguistic Interference in Interpreting from English to South African Sign Language. In English in Multilingual South Africa, ► pp. 371 ff.
Zwitserlood, Inge, Pamela Perniss & Aslı Özyürek
2012. An empirical investigation of expression of multiple entities in Turkish Sign Language (TİD): Considering the effects of modality. Lingua 122:14 ► pp. 1636 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 february 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.