The nature of object marking in American Sign Language
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Detalles
In this dissertation, I examine the nature of object marking in American Sign Language (ASL). I investigate object marking by means of directionality (the movement of the verb towards a certain location in signing space) and by means of handling classifiers (certain handshapes accompanying the verb). I propose that object marking in ASL is licensed by two-place semantic operators. Directionality introduces a semantic variable to be bound. This variable is bound through forming a restriction based on where the object is located. I label the operator that binds the directionality variable as a Locative Operator (LocOP). A handling classifier handshape introduces a handshape variable. This variable is bound through forming a restriction based on the descriptive content of the object. I label the operator that binds the handshape variable as a Size and Shape Operator (SSOP). I support my semantic proposal by results from four experiments: gapping, wh-type, wh-clefts and sluices. These experiments show that there is really a variable and it cannot be deleted (gapping), that there is a preference for a restricting object to be d-linked and presuppositional (wh-type), and that specificity does not play a role in licensing object marking (sluicing).