A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

Reciprocals are also discussed in [Lexicon – 3.7.4.] and [Morphology – 3.1.3.]. In a reciprocal clause, the object of a transitive sentence is dropped. There are at least two participants in the subject position and their actions affect each other. Signers can reinforce the meaning of reciprocity by using a numeral in the Noun Phrase functioning as the subject. Below two is used. Also note below that the two hands go in opposite directions to express reciprocity with the agreeing verb throw.

 

ix_a                   male             friend       two                            basketball                      throw.recıp

‘Two male friends are throwing a basketball to each other.’

(Gökgöz in progress)

 

The adverb same shows up in reciprocal clauses. This time the plurality of the subject is expressed by coordination within the subject noun phrase. The signer first leans left and then right to sign the coordinated subject consisting of a woman and a man. The signer also signs the adverbial sign same in the proximal area with his dominant hand and in a more distal area with his non-dominant hand. This shows spatial agreement with the agents of the event.

 

woman                 man                      ice-cream            same                                          hold.recıp

‘A woman and a man are holding an ice-cream cone for each other.’

(Gökgöz in progress)

 

An agreement auxiliary pronoun can also occur in reciprocal clauses.  The auxiliary can be one-handed which moves back and forth between the referential loci of the participants, as ‘we, each of us’ (Kubus and Hohenberger, 2013). The auxiliary can also involve both hands. Below the two hands used as a reciprocal agreement auxiliary go to the sides of the lateral domain. The two-handed auxiliary sign can also go to the proximal and distal sides. There is free variation with this respect, i.e. the choice of where the auxiliary sign ends up is not definitive.

 

man                 man                  two                comb                                aux.recıp                comb.recıp

‘Two man are combing each other’s hair.’

(Gökgöz in progress)

 

Sometimes singers break the reciprocal meaning into two preceding sentences before they sign the reciprocal predicate. In the sentence below, the signer is setting up the two participants in the event on a proximal and distal referential locus respectively.

 

h1: man                            CL (B):'stand'

h2:                                    CL (B):'stand'

‘Two man stand opposite to each other.’

(Gökgöz in progress)

 

In the sentence below, the participant who is on a proximal referential locus is throwing a basketball to the participant who is on a distal referential locus.

 

basketball                                _atrhow_b

‘The one on this side is throwing a basketball to the other.’

(Gökgöz in progress)

 

In the sentence below, this time, the participant who is on a distal referential locus is throwing a volleyball to the participant who is on a proximal referential locus.

 

 ıx_b                      volleyball                                   _atrhow_b

 ‘The one on that side is throwing a volleyball to the other.’

(Gökgöz in progress)

 

 

Finally, the participants are throwing the balls to each other in the following sentence.

 

ball                                                     throw.recıp

‘They are throwing the balls to each other.’

(Gökgöz in progress)