The grammaticalization of a motion verb into an imperative marker in two sign languages
Temas
Detalles
This study examines the grammaticalization of a motion verb, glossed asMOVI MPGintoan imperative marker in two sign languages: German Sign Language (DGS) and GreekSign Language (GSL). We suggest thatMOVI MPGhas transitioned from its original use asa lexical motion verb with the meaning ‘go’ or ‘send’ to an imperative marker in both lan-guages. Using data from the Hamburg DGS Corpus and newly designed elicitation tasksin both DGS and GSL, we demonstrate thatMOVI MPGis systematically used in impera-tive contexts, either alone or in combination with deictic and non-deictic verbs. WhileMOVI MPGretains its lexical meaning in some contexts, it also increasingly functions asa pragmatic marker of commands. Notably, our elicitation data show that, when usedas a marker of commands,MOVI MPGresists embedding, exhibits locative agreement de-pending on the referent’s location, and is incompatible with first-person subjects. InGSL,MOVI MPGis restricted to commands, while in DGS it also appears in permissivecontexts. These morphosyntactic constraints and the semantic shift from a verb of mo-tion to a marker of imperatives suggest ongoing grammaticalization. This grammati-calization process, which is rare among spoken languages, reflects a (perhaps modality-specific) grammaticalization path in sign languages. Our results thus contribute to abetter understanding of grammaticalization across modalities, while emphasizing theunique linguistic properties of sign languages.