Aspects of verbal valency in Irish Sign Language

Abstract

The principle aim of this thesis is the identification of some aspects of verbal valency patterns for Irish Sign Language (ISL). The data drawn on for this study came from a variety of sources, including authentic data from Irish Deaf Society Congresses, Deaf community television programmes and documentaries, and narratives collected from Deaf informants who consider themselves to be native signers of Irish Sign Language. We argue that thematic role analysis of verbal valency in Irish Sign Language leads to a clearer awareness of the constituent order possibilities in ISL. Using macro-role analysis (Van Valin and La Polla 1997), we consider transitive utterances in ISL, using both elicited and non-elicited data. We find that patterns emerge relative to the verb class used in utterances: where plain verbs are used, signers typically utilise Actor Verb Undergoer patterns, while transitive sentences that make use of agreement verbs typically make use of Theme (Actor) Verb (Undergoer) or Theme r/s (Actor) Verb (Undergoer) patterns. Given the prevalence of Themes in the data, we consider the possibility of describing such instances as Topic constructions in ISL.