A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

A verb is inflected with a reciprocal marker when it expresses a mutual relation between the subject and the object. In English, this meaning is expressed with a reciprocal pronoun, each other, in examples such as Ali and Yeşim sent gifts to each other. So, when a verb such as send is inflected with a reciprocal marker in TİD, this marker expresses the meaning that ‘Ali sent a gift to Yeşim and Yeşim sent a gift to Ali.’ This section focuses on inflecting verbs with reciprocality. See [Lexicon – 3.7.4.] for reciprocal pronouns.

 

Since plain verbs are not inflected for the features of their arguments, only agreement verbs show reciprocal marking. When an agreement verb is inflected for reciprocality, this can be expressed in a number of ways. Before we describe these ways, let us introduce the indexing convention: when a verb has both superscripts and subscripts with indices such as x and y, the superscripts indicate the movement of the dominant hand while the superscripts indicate the movement of the dominant hand.

With some of the one-handed verbs, reciprocal marking can be realized in the following ways: 

 

 

(i) The non-dominant hand copies the dominant hand and moves in reversed direction.

 

 

xygıveyx

 

 

 

(ii) The verb undergoes sequential backward reduplication. If the verb is a forward agreement verb, the articulation of the verb is followed by backward reduplication.

 

 

 

 

 

xaskyaskx

 

 

If the verb is a backward agreement verb, the articulation of the verb is followed by forward reduplication.

 

 

xchooseychoosex

 

 

 

With two-handed agreement verbs that are articulated with moving both hands symmetrically, the movement may be reduplicated. The direction of the movement depends on whether the verb is a forward or backward agreement verb.

 

 

xxfollowyyfollowxx(forward agreement verb)

 

 

 

xxınvıteyyınvıtexx(backward agreement verb)

 

 

Some one-handed and two-handed verbs are articulated in neutral signing space, i.e. the loci of their arguments are not as clear as in the cases described above. The articulation of an agreement marker in neutral space is represented with a 0 in the super- and subscripts in the examples below. 0 means the locus of the argument is completely dropped and x0 or y0 mean the loci of the arguments are not easily identifiable.

 

The following are examples of one-handed verbs that use both movement reduplication and copying to the non-dominant hand in neutral signing space: affect, someone, fax, see, ınform and badmouth. As can be seen in the videos of the examples, the way the reciprocal marking affects the articulation is not the same across these verbs. The different modifications the verbs undergo are provided below.

 

1. The subject agreement marker is dropped (or reduced):

 

 

00affectx0y0

 

 

(ii) The object agreement marker is dropped (or reduced):

 

x0fax0y ++

 

 

 

(iii) Body-anchoring of the verb is dropped:

 

x0y0see00

 

 

 

(iv) Internal movement of the verb is dropped:

 

x0 0ınform0y0ınformx0 0 ++

 

 

 

(v) Path movement of the verb is reduced:

 

 

x00badmouth0y0 badmouth x00

 

 

 

Some two-handed verbs that are inflected with the reciprocal marker also get reduplicated but in a reduced way and their argument markers are neutralized. In support, each hand represents a different supporting relation. 

 

 

x0 y0supporty0 x0 support x0 y0 ++