Verb classifiers as noun incorporation in Israeli sign language

Abstract

This paper focuses on verb classifiers in Israeli Sign Language (ISL). Classifiers in sign languages are morphemes consisting of particular hand configurations, which classify a group of nouns on the basis of a salient characteristic feature. This feature could be their size and shape, some semantic similarity, or the way in which they are being handled. Verb classifiers attach to verbal roots denoting motion and location, to form a complex verb expressing spatial relations as well as a class of possible referents of which these spatial relations obtain. Classifiers have been the focus of numerous studies in a variety of sign languages.1 Investigations of the phonology and semantics of classifiers have revealed that (a) despite their iconic nature, classifier systems of sign languages are discrete, grammatical and rule governed, and as such are part of the linguistic structure of the language; and (b) the semantic categories expressed by sign language classifiers are basically the same categories found in spoken languages (see Supalla 1982, 1986, and Mcdonald 1983).