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Article published In:
Special Issue in Memory of Irit Meir
Edited by Diane Lillo-Martin, Wendy Sandler, Marie Coppola and Rose Stamp
[Sign Language & Linguistics 23:1/2] 2020
► pp. 38–72

Argument structure and the role of the body and space in Kenyan Sign Language

| Leiden University

This paper investigates how systematically a young macro-community sign language, Kenyan Sign Language, uses two different means to communicate about events: (i) word order, and (ii) verb agreement using spatial co-reference. The study finds that KSL signers rely primarily on word order and using the body as a referent, rather than verb agreement, when representing transitive events. Yet, by looking separately at how KSL signers use the sub-components of verb agreement, a pattern emerges that indicates a possible path toward ‘canonical verb agreement’. These sub-components are evaluated using Meir’s stages/types of grammaticalization of verb agreement (Meir 2011, 2016), and compared with other young and emerging sign languages.

Keywords: Kenyan Sign Language, argument structure, word order, verb agreement, spatial co-reference, macro-community sign languages
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Sign language agreement
    • 2.2Kenyan Sign Language
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methods
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Word order
      • 5.1.1Simple transitives with one person, one object
      • 5.1.2Simple transitives with two people
      • 5.1.3Ditransitives with two people and one object
      • 5.1.4Comparing word orders in different types of vignette
    • 5.2Verb agreement and spatial co-reference
    • 5.3KSL in Meir’s typology of verb agreement
    • 5.4Clues to grammaticalization
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.00043.mor
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