A Study of Classifier Constructions in Japanese Sign Language Based on Corpus Data

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Motion expressions in Japanese Sign Language(JSL) typically include verbs with what we call"classifiers(CL)". In typical motion expressions, a predicate usually forms a serial verb construction(SVC), consisting of 3 verbs at most ; one manner verb, and two motion verbs with CLs. Our analysis of JSL data shows that the last motion verb in this construction can loose its CL, be grammaticalized, and become a grammatical marker when it co-occurs with a manner verb which is semantically less"congruous"with the motion event(an action verb, for example). It is this SVC that systematically produces grammatical functional words in JSL.