Realizations of syntactic agreement in American sign language: Similarities between the clause and the noun phrase

Abstract

ASL syntax makes essential use of specific non‐manual expressions of syntactic features (e.g., +neg, +wh) that co‐occur with manual signs. These markings occur obligatorily with manual material contained in the node of origin and optionally extend over the c‐command domain of that node, thus providing important evidence for hierarchical structure. In this article, we show that agreement features, both within the clause and the noun phrase, also have non‐manual correlates that exhibit the predicted distribution. Interestingly, transitive IPs and possessive DPs pattern together in their manifestation of agreement marking, while intransitive IPs pattern with non‐possessive DPs.