A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

As mentioned above, an agreeing verb usually agrees with one of its objects. In agreeing verbs with path movement, the movement of the verb ends at the locus of the object in forward agreeing verbs: 

 

teacher3a  ıx3a  3aask1

 

‘The teacher asked me (a question).’

 

 

The path movement starts at the locus of the object in backward agreeing verbs:

 

 

 

 

 

teacher3a ıx3a  1pıck3a

‘The teacher picked me.’

 

The grammatical role of the object can be a direct or an indirect object, and its semantic role can be theme, experiencer, source, or goal/recipient. The following are examples of possible semantic roles of objects involved in agreement:

 

 

theme

 

 

 

 

teacher3a ıx3a chıld3b ıx3b 3asee3b

‘The teacher saw the child.’

 

 

2teach1

‘You teach me.’

 

 

goal/recipient

 

 

 

 

 

teacher3a  ıx3a  ıx2 say2

‘The teacher told you.’

 

 

 

teacher3a ıx3a book3a gıve1

 

‘The teacher gave the book to me.’

 

 

teacher3a ıx3a student3b ıx3b book 3ashow3b

 

‘The teacher showed the book to the student.’

 

 

source

 

 

teacher_3a poss₁ book₁ take_3a

‘The teacher took the book from me.’

 

 

1copy2

‘You copied from me.’

 

 

In ditransitive verbs, usually, the verb agrees with only one of its objects and often this object is the indirect object and not the direct object. give is a typical example. Below, we see that the direction of the path movement of the verb changes depending on the referent of the indirect object. Below, the indirect object is 2nd person singular:

 

 

 

3gıve2

 

 

 

In contrast, here, it is 1st person singular.

 

 

 

3gıve1

 

 

 

There are also cases where the agreeing verb does not have path movement. In such cases, object agreement can be expressed by changing the orientation of the palm.

 

 

 

₃support1

 

‘He supports me.’

 

 

1support₃

 

‘I support him.’