3.1.1.2. Object markers
Overt manual morphological agreement with the object is displayed only by agreement verbs (LEXICON 3.2.2). The phonological realisation of agreement depends on the verb type.
In transitive agreement verbs displaying two points of articulation in the neutral space connected by path movement, the object is marked by the ending point of the path movement. If the verb selects for a first person object, the path movement ends on the signer’s body (or in a position close to it). Optionally, the verb sign can be marked by eye-gaze (eg) directed towards the locus associated with the object, thus realising non-manual object agreement.
ht: a
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eg: b
l-u-c-aa p-a-o-l-ob ahateb
‘Luca hates Paolo.’
In transitive agreement verbs whose starting point is on the body of the signer, second and third person object is marked by the final position in the neutral space of the verbal path movement. Optionally, agreement can also be marked non-manually, by means of eye-gaze and shoulders of the signer directed towards the object position. Some of these verbs are see, kiss, love.
a. g-i-a-n-n-i m-a-r-i-aa seea
‘Gianni sees Maria.’
b. g-i-a-n-n-i m-a-r-i-aa lovea
‘Gianni loves Maria.’
With a first person object, the verb sign retains its citation form and agreement is encoded through pronouns. We provide an example with the verb love below.
ix2 ix1 love
‘You love me.’
Transitive verbs such as take_care express agreement with the object through both orientation of the palm and direction of the path movement. Compare the two examples below: in (a) the verb selects for a third person object, whereas in (b) it selects a first person object. Crucially, in this instance the object does not need to be lexically realised through a noun phrase or pronoun: the direction and orientation of the verbal sign are enough to mark the object, thus showing overt manual agreement.
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a. fathera sonb ix3a atake_careb
‘The father takes care of his son.’
b. ix2 take_care
‘You take care of me.’
Notice that agreement between subject and object can optionally be marked non-manually by means of head tilt and body lean towards the position associated to the subject, and shoulder of the signer directed towards the locus in space associated with the object.
Transitive verbs (or verbs used transitively, like break) displaying one point of articulation in the signing space must agree with the direct object.
child computera breaka
‘The child breaks the computer.’
Ditransitive agreement verbs with two points of articulation in the signing space can: i) show overt manual morphological agreement with the subject (MORPHOLOGY 3.1.1.1) and the indirect object, which corresponds to the final location of the path movement (a); ii) show agreement with the three arguments, namely the subject, the direct object and the indirect object. In these instances, the direct object is marked by the hand configuration, whereas the final location of the movement agrees with the indirect object, as in (b). Notice that in (b) it is the classifier predicate that allows to incorporate the direct object.
a. marioa ix3a envelope ix3a sarab agiveb
‘Mario gives an envelope to Sara.’
b. l-u-c-aa g-i-a-n-n-ib drinking_glass aCL(unspread curved open 5): ‘give_glass’b
‘Luca gives a/the glass to Gianni.’
It is important to consider that classifier predicates also allow some plain verbs, which usually do not display overt morphological agreement with their arguments, to show overt morphological agreement with their object in transitive constructions. As we can see in the example below, when a plain verb is realised through a classifier predicate, the handshape defines the theme argument, thus it shows overt morphological agreement with the object.
l-u-c-a sandwich CL(flat open 5): ‘eat_sandwich’
‘Luca eats a sandwich.’
Ditransitive agreement verbs whose starting point is on the body, like say, show overt manual agreement with the indirect object, whose position in the space corresponds to the final location of the path movement (a). Crucially, if the verb selects for a first person object, the verb path ends on the signer’s body rather than in the neutral space, as in (b).
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a. l-u-c-aa p-a-o-l-ob lie sayb
‘Luca tells a lie to Paolo.’
b. ix2 cry 2say1
‘You are crying, tell me (why).’
Alternatively, this class of verbs can overtly mark manual agreement through the addition of a path movement connecting their point of articulation to the position in the signing space corresponding to the indirect object. This is illustrated below.
ix3a say ix3b
‘He tells him.’ (recreated from Pizzuto, 2004: 194)
It is worth mentioning the case of the verb explain, which is articulated close to the mouth and displays a repeated alternating circle movement directed outward (PHONOLOGY 1.3). The direction of the movement marks the indirect object. For second and third person indirect object, the movement is directed towards the dedicated location in the neutral space (a), whereas to mark a first person indirect object the verb sign modifies the direction of the movement and thus starts its articulation in the neutral space, rather than from the mouth, and moves inward (b). Again, in these instances the indirect object does not need to be lexically specified since the verb movement addresses the signer’s body, which corresponds to the first person. Optionally, agreement can be marked non-manually through head tilt and body lean towards the subject position, and eye gaze directed towards the indirect object.
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eg: 3pl-coll
a. ix3a teacher ix3pl-coll studentix3a explain3pl-coll
‘The teacher explains to the students.’
b. ix2 mathematics 2explain1
‘You explain mathematics to me.'
Ditransitive verbs such as teach, show, ask, show overt morphological agreement with the indirect object through both path movement and orientation of the palm. This holds either with a first person object (a), or with second and third person objects (b).
a. sistera poss1 sonbateachb
‘My sister teaches her son.’
hs
b. ix3 mirko 3teach1 chess rule ix1 understand impossible_pa_pa
‘Mirko tried hard to teach me the rules of chess, but I cannot understand them.’
A peculiar example is the verb tell, a two-handed asymmetrical sign (PHONOLOGY 1.4.2) in which the dominant hand displays a repeated movement outward. The direction of the movement marks agreement with the indirect object, be it a second or third person indirect object (a). Crucially, this verb can be morphologically modified to show overt manual agreement with a first person indirect object by changing the starting point of the movement and moving inward, as illustrated in (b). Once again, the first person indirect object does not need to be lexically specified since the verb movement addresses the signer body, which corresponds to the first person.
a. mothera sonb ix3a fairy_tale tellb
‘The mother tells her son a fairy tale.’
b. ix2 fairy_tale 2tell1
‘(You) tell me a fairy tale.’
In backward verbs (LEXICON 3.2.2), the object (or the source) marker corresponds to the starting point of the movement in the neutral space, whereas the ending point marks the subject (or the goal). Some verbs belonging to this class are: copy, take_advantage_of, invite, take, receive, choose.
blackboarda texta student acopy
‘The student copies the text from the blackboard.’
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant Agreement No 693349.