3.1.1. Person and locative markers

In this part of the GramLSE, we will describe how Spanish Sign Language (LSE) marks agreement with subject, object, and location. This agreement is expressed through verbs by changing their location, path movement, and palm orientation.

Verbs change according to the locations associated with their arguments. These locations may coincide with or be near the actual position of referents when they are present in the signing environment. When referents are not physically present, they are assigned locations in the signing space based on their previous mention in discourse.

When a verb agrees with both subject and object, its movement starts at the location associated with the subject and ends at the location associated with the object.

(1) MONEY youASK-FORme (You ask me for money)

The movement of ASK in (1) begins at the subject's location (you) and ends at the object's location—in this case, where the signer is (me). The fingertips also point toward the object (me). Many verbs modify both their path movement and the orientation of the palm or fingertips.

However, some verbs indicate subject and object through movement alone, without changing orientation.

(2) meMESSAGEyou (I send you a message)
(3) youMESSAGEme (You send me a message)

In both (2) and (3), palm orientation remains constant. Only the path movement shows that in (2) the subject is me and the object is you, while in (3) the subject is you and the object is me.

For backward agreement verbs, the movement begins at the object's location and ends at the subject's location.

(4) MARY meINVITEMary (Mary has invited me)

INVITE in (4) starts at the object (the signer, me) and ends at Mary's location (the subject).

Some verbs express agreement through orientation alone, typically directing the palm or fingertips toward the object. This occurs mainly with verbs whose movement cannot express agreement.

(5) I meCONVINCEyou NO (I haven’t convinced you)
(6) YOU youCONVINCEme (You has convinced me)

In (5), the palm faces the object you. When the object is me, as in (6), the palm faces the signer.

In summary, verbs can agree with one or two arguments in these ways:

  1. changing both path movement and hand orientation (or fingertip direction),
  2. changing path movement direction,
  3. changing hand orientation (or fingertip direction) only.
  4. For locative arguments, agreement follows origin and destination rather than grammatical roles of subject and object. Many verbs that agree with locations involve transferring an entity, as shown in example (7).
(7)

WOMAN BOOKCASEup BOOKCASEdown BOOK upCL:TAKE-BOOKdown (The woman placed the book that was on the top shelf on the bottom one)
  1. When agreeing with just one argument, the verb is positioned at that argument's location, as shown in (8) for subject agreement.
(8) JUANA SHEleft DIEDleft (Juana has died)

Costello, B. y Villameriel García, S. (2025). Morphology: verbal inflection: agreement: person and locative markers. En S. Villameriel García (Ed.), Gramática de la Lengua de Signos Española (GramLSE) / Grammar of Spanish Sign Language (GramLSE). Real Patronato sobre Discapacidad-Centro de Normalización Lingüística de la Lengua de Signos Española. Recuperado el dd de mes de aaaa de https://cnlse.es/es/recursos/gramlse/ingles/index/morphology/chapter-3-verbal-inflection/3-1-agreement/3-1-1-person-and-locative-markers/