Abstract
In this paper, basic verb classes and argument structure alternations in Russian Sign Language (RSL) are described, and the implications of these data for the theory of argument structure are discussed. The analysis is based on data elicited using a list of 80 verbal meanings from the Valency Classes in World’s Languages project (Hartmann, Haspelmath & Taylor 2013) and on data collected from the corpus of RSL (Burkova 2015). The study shows that RSL has lexical verbs with different sets of arguments (from zero up to three arguments), and a number of argument structure alternations, such as causative-inchoative, impersonal, reflexive, and reciprocal. It is found that argument structure of lexical verbs and argument structure alternations that apply to them in RSL are typologically common. This implies that the semantic basis of argument structure is independent of modality. In addition, RSL uses classifier predicates whose argument structure is determined by the type of the classifier and by the context. Although such predicates in other sign languages have been used to argue for a syntactic approach to argument structure, RSL classifier predicates do not provide a strong support for this approach.
Highlights
In this study, I provide a first basic description of argument structure in Russian Sign Language (RSL)
I have shown that Russian Sign Language has various verb classes and various argument structure alternations
RSL uses a number of alternations: an unmarked causative-inchoative alternation that applies to a small number of labile verbs, an unmarked impersonal alternation used to express an impersonal agent, unspecified object alternation, reflexive and reciprocal alternations
Summary
I provide a first basic description of argument structure in Russian Sign Language (RSL). Argument structure is one of the most well researched topics in l inguistics It has been at the centre of descriptive and typological as well as theoretical research (Borer 2003; Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005; Ramchand 2013; Malchukov & Comrie 2015). An important milestone in the research on argument structure is Levin’s (1993) book where she provided a first systematic description of verb classes and argument structure alternations in English. In a typological project inspired by Levin’s book, basic verb classes and alternations were described for 37 typologically and geographically distinct languages (Hartmann, Haspelmath & Taylor 2013; Malchukov & Comrie 2015). The current paper aims at describing arguments structure in RSL in a way to make direct comparison with spoken languages possible in order to test typological generalizations and theoretical approaches to argument structure
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