Intergenerational Study of Verb Agreement Development in Kufr Qassem Sign Language

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The proposed research will investigate verb agreement as a morphologically complex system in Kufr Qassem Sign Language (KQSL), a severely under-studied young sign language which emerged around a 100 years ago in a small community in Israel (Kastner et. al., 2014).Verb agreement systems are a classic example of morphological complexity in sign languages, in that they feature spatial morphology, a type of morphology unique to sign languages due to their visualspatial modality. Spatial morphology is manifested in using the physical space in front of the signer to produce the language (Aronoff, et al., 2005). In sign languages, agreeing verbs move between predetermined location(s) of the argument(s) in the signing space (Meier, 1982; Meir et al., 2006; Padden, 1988). Additionally, studies have found evidence of agreement systems found in emerging and young sign languages (Kegl et al., 1999; Senghas, 2000; Senghas et al., 1997), unlike young spoken languages such as creoles (Aronoff, et. al., 2005).Sign languages that emerge in heterogenous larger communities are usually more established and considered the national sign languages in the region. Other sign languages, known as village sign languages, emerge in homogenous smaller communities (Meir et al., 2010). While multiple studies have investigated verb agreement in established sign (e.g. de Beuzeville et al., 2009; Fenlon et al., 2018; Meir, 2012) , in-depth studies on verb agreement in village sign languages are scarce. Village sign languages are characterized by different social dynamics, and demographically and socially different emerging process, both of which have influenced the language and led to unique grammatical typologies and lexicons (de Vos & Pfau, 2015), including verb agreement systems (Aronoff et al., 2004; Zeshan, 2006).