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MEANS OF EXPRESSION OF THE INCHOATIVE IN RUSSIAN SIGN LANGUAGE // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2014. Issue 2 (4). P. 34-41

The paper examines means of expression of the inchoative in Russian Sign Language. It has been shown that the inchoative can be marked both morphologically and lexically. The choice of inchoative marker is determined by verb’s aspectual class and singleness/iteration of event. The beginning of single event can be expressed by the sign STAND (for statives) and by the sign BEGIN (for activities or accomplishments). The beginning of iterative event can be marked by the sign BEGIN or by the context (structure ‘before it was X, now it is Y’). The most regular markers of the inchoative are verbs BEGIN, BEGIN1, STAND. The verb BEGIN is labile phase verb, in other words it can convey meanings ‘to perform the first or earliest part of some action’, ‘to come into action’. The verb STAND develops the meaning ‘become’ under the influence of Russian spoken language; this sign is basically used as inchoative verb. The sign BEGIN1 conveys special type of inchoative meaning: the action is characterized by further development and improvement. Morphological means of expression of the inchoative are suppletive forms and modification of sign. Most of the modifications contain moving hand or fingers up which is the realization of typical conceptual metaphor ‘beginning is up’. Morphological marking inchoative is not very productive in Russian Sign Language: only few signs have suppletive and modified forms. It is pointed out that synthetic forms of the inchoative are used only for marking beginning of the single situation. Marking inchoative in Russian Sign Language is not obligatory since this meaning can be extracted from context. When context is not enough it can be specified by sign now and structure ‘before it was X, now it is Y’.

Keywords: Russian sign language, inchoative, phase verbs

Chaining Reciprocal in Russian Sign Language // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2023. Issue 4 (42). P. 65-75

The paper examines classifier constructions to express chaining reciprocals in Russian Sign Language. Typological studies of reciprocity show that the chaining reciprocal can be mediated by markers of prototypical reciprocal meaning or by special markers. As a visual modality language, Russian Sign Language has unique and iconic means of expressing reciprocal meaning. Studies on reciprocity in sign language show that classifier constructions are used to describe chaining situations. Classifiers are morphologically complex signs that some researchers consider to be a mixture of signs and gestures. It is, therefore, to be expected that the chaining reciprocal semantics in sign languages can be described in a more iconic and complex way than in spoken languages. The results of this study, which was carried out using corpus data and elicited data, show that three types of classifier constructions are used in Russian sign language for spatial chaining situations: They represent the process of forming a chain of objects, the presence of the chain and the movement of the chain. 19% of the sentences contain two types of classifier constructions that always occur in a specific order. These three classifier constructions can be applied to at least 15 classifier handshapes. Not all parameters of these classifier constructions are equally mandatory and important. The mandatory elements of these constructions are the position and function of the dominant and non-dominant hand and the movement of the trajectory from the beginning to the end of the chain. In addition, the wholeness of the discontinuity of the chain can be expressed by reduplication. The secondary movement and orientation are very iconic and depend on the characteristics of the situation. The use of these parameters to describe the characteristics of objects and their placement and movement varies greatly between informants, which can be explained by the fact that these parameters are closer to the gesture than to the linguistic element of the classification construction.

Keywords: Russian sign language, reciprocal, reciprocal concatenation, classifiers, classifier constructions, dominant hand, non-dominant hand, reduplication, hand configuration, movement, orientation