3.1.1.1. Subject markers

Person in Spanish Sign Language (LSE) is represented in the signing space:

  1. first person coincides with a point of articulation near or on the signer's body,
  2. second person corresponds to the interlocutor's location,
  3. third person is marked at a point in the signing space distinct from both signer and interlocutor.

For present referents, their spatial reference matches their actual position. For absent referents, the signer assigns them a specific location within the signing space.

Person can be indicated through pronouns or through verb modifications. These modifications involve changing phonological features of the verb when performing it in the argument's associated location and/or modifying its movement to show agreement.

Some LSE intransitive verbs (verbs that don't require an object) can show agreement with their subject by being articulated in that argument's associated location. This is called single argument agreement, as the verb marks only one argument when articulated in its associated location (Costello, 2016), as shown in (1) and (2).

(1) CHILD WOMAN SHEleft GROWleft (The girl grows)
(2) TELEVISIONleft WORKleft RADIOright NOright (The television works and the radio doesn’t)

In LSE, simple transitive verbs (those requiring one object) or ditransitive verbs (those requiring two objects) do not change spatially to show argument agreement. However, subject and/or object positions can be marked in a non-manual way by tilting the head or body while signing the verb, establishing non-manual agreement.

  body inclined to right
body oriented to left
_______________
(3) MARIA SHEright LUIS HEleft
 rightLISTENleft (Maria listens to Luis)

In (3), the signer indicates the positions of the subject (Maria) and object ( Luis) non-manually by tilting their body toward the subject's location and orienting it toward the object's location. This subject-marking technique relates to role shift, which is covered in GramLSE's syntax, semantics, and pragmatics sections. As previously noted, agreement can also be marked using the AUX sign, as in (4).

(4) MARIA SHEright LUIS HEleft LISTEN rightAUXleft (Maria listens to Luis)

In LSE, transitive or ditransitive agreement verbs are modified to show agreement with some of their arguments. These verbs agree with subject and/or object by adjusting the path movement and/or the orientation of the palm and/or fingers. The verb's movement begins at the subject's location and ends at the object's location.

Body-anchored transitive verbs may or may not show subject agreement. WARN, for example, starts at the body but can indicate subject agreement even when the subject is not first person. Consider these examples:

(5) WARNyou (I warn you)
(6) SHEleft WARNyou>left (Warn her)

In (5), although the pronoun is omitted, the subject is first person I. The sign moves from the signer's chin to the object's location (you). In (6), the subject is you and the object is her. Although the verb begins at the signer's chin, it moves first to the subject's location (you) before moving to the object's location (her).

Some LSE verbs don't start on the signer's body and can agree with both subject and object (Herrero Blanco, 2009, pp. 278-280).

(7) MARIAright LUISleft THEORY rightEXPLAINleft (Maria explains the theory to Luis)

In (7), EXPLAIN's path movement and fingertip orientation show who is the subject (Maria) and who is the object (Luis).

Among agreement verbs, there exists a subgroup called backward verbs. In these, movement begins at the object's location and ends at the subject's location.

(8) youUNDERSTANDme (I understand you)
(9) meUNDERSTANDyou (You understand me)

In (8) and (9), the verb starts at the object's location (you and me respectively) and ends at the subject's location me in (8) and you in (9). Despite UNDERSTAND's reversed path, the palm consistently orients toward the object.

Not all inverse verbs mark agreement through palm or finger orientation. The sign INVITE, for instance, only shows agreement through path movement from object to subject location, as shown in (10) and (11).

(10) youINVITEme (I invite you)
(11) meINVITEtyou (You invite me)

(10) youINVITEme ()

(11) meINVITEyou (You invite me)

Costello, B. y Villameriel García, S. (2025). Morphology: verbal inflection: agreement: person and locative markers: subject 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/3-1-1-1-subject-markers