Abstract Most sign languages have a class of verbs that possess the ability to mark agreement with the subject and/or object by spatial markers within the signing space. The size of this verb class is comparatively small, ranging from zero verbs to as many as 148 verbs. One factor that determines this size is the type of sign language. There are deaf community sign languages, that are spoken predominantly among d/Deaf people, and rural sign languages that emerged in small communities with a higher than usual ratio of hereditary deafness; here, both hearing and d/Deaf people use the sign language. My data of 18 sign languages, including rural sign languages, confirms what has been suggested recently; rural sign languages, too, can make use of the signing space for agreement. My language sample also defeats other previous assumptions about sign languages. For one, the inventories of the agreeing verb class is organised highly differently among sign languages. Their sizes can differ considerably and their makeup shows that semantics and thematic roles play no crucial role in being the motivator for agreement. I conclude that while sign language agreement seems to be universal among deaf community sign languages, the content of the inventory of this class is highly language specific and follows no universal concept as to semantic motivation.
Kevin Behrens (Tue,) studied this question.