A Grammar of Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT)

The marking of number on a noun expresses whether the noun is singular or plural. NGT presents us with several options to express plurality. The manual markers are described in MORPHOLOGY 4.1.1 and the non-manual markers in MORPHOLOGY 4.1.2.

Noun signs that are articulated in neutral space or on the weak hand may be articulated at a specific location that is different from the location of their citation form, i.e. a noun may be localized. The non-standard location then functions as an affix that attaches to the noun. The function of this process is to demonstrate the location of the entity, often in relation to other entities, and in some cases to facilitate verb agreement (see MORPHOLOGY 3.1). Note that the locational affix does not need to represent a factual location in the real world. Compare the sign plant (plant) in citation form in Figure X.a to the localized sign plant_3a in Figure X.b:

Figure X. The sign plant in neutral form (X.a) and in localized form (X.b) (Signbank 2020).

The form as shown in Figure X.b can either be used to demonstrate that a specific real-life plant is situated somewhere on the left, seen from the signer’s perspective; or, it can refer to a hypothetical plant which could have been localized on the right just as well, because the location is abstract and not factual. There are no restrictions on which locations in the signing space can become locational affixes, and there is thus an infinite number of options, but locations outside the neutral space are only acceptable if they convey additional meaning, such as a meaningful (absolute) real-life location.

To express the spatial distribution of multiple entities, nouns can be localized repeatedly at several locations. Thus, this constitutes a combination of plurality (expressed by reduplication) and localization. The repetitions can be articulated across the whole signing space. When the two hands are used to demonstrate the distribution of a one-handed sign, there seem to be two different strategies, depending on whether the entities are organized in rows or more-or-less randomly, and whether the entities are all identical. Consider the following pictures involving lamps and flowers in rows and random arrangement:

When all entities are identical, such as in Figures X.a and X.b, the two-handed reduplications can be realized simultaneously (X.a) or in alternating movement (X.b):

When the entities are not exactly identical, however, such as in Figures X.c and X.d, where the flowers differ in height, only the two-handed strategy involving alternating movement is possible:

Often, signers will not reduplicate the noun itself to indicate its spatial distribution, but they will use classifiers instead. When (verbal) classifier constructions are used to indicate distribution of identical entities in a row, there is a third option in which the dominant hand is used as an anchor point while the other hand articulates the iterations. Classifier constructions are addressed in the next chapter.