Serial Verb Constructions in Hong Kong Sign Language

This research explores Serial Verb Constructions (henceforth SVCs) in Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) with respect to their syntactic and semantic aspects within the Minimalist Program (the MP). Specifically, it aims to study SVCs in HKSL with regard to characteristics such as types of serial verbs, range of semantic notions that can be expressed by these verbs, and the syntactic representation of each type of serial verbs. Based upon the restriction of the limited set of verbs that can occur in the series, eight types of SVCs are classified in HKSL, namely Motion-directional SVCs, Take-SVCs (Instrument), Take-SVCs (Theme), Give-SVCs, Transitive-SVCs, Resultative-SVCs (Theme), Resultative-SVCs (Agent) and Manner-SVCs.;The data from HKSL shows the property of obligatory argument sharing in these types of SVCs, which conforms to the robust cross-linguistic observation about SVCs. These constructions can either be a.) the agent argument sharing; b.) the theme argument sharing; or c.) both.;With respect to the syntactic behavior among SVCs in HKSL, the placement of VP adverb and obligatoriness of VP tests show that the eight types of SVCs have a homogeneous structure, i.e. a complementation structure. In addition, this research concludes that the syntactic dependencies of arguments in SVCs in HKSL can be realized in two major ways: 1.) an empty category; 2.) an overt pronominal. In terms of the former, the empty category can be realized as either an NP trace, or a free empty category. Specifically, the shared agent argument and the shared theme argument in some types of SVCs can be realized by an NP trace via A-movement triggered by theta-role feature checking suggested by Hornstein (1999, 2001), and the shared theme argument can be realized as a free empty category which is base-generated in Transitive class-SVCs, and its interpretation is pragmatically licensed by the antecedent or base-generated topic. In terms of the latter, in the types of SVCs that the two verbs are expressed as classifier predicates, the shared agent or/and theme argument can be observed through the use of the classifier which is realized as an overt pronominal in the syntactic structure, and is licensed by its antecedent in the discourse/pragmatic context.;The claim that HKSL has two ways to show the syntactic dependency of the shared argument(s) is significant to the current study of SVCs in the literature. It not only shows an agreement with the general analysis in spoken language literature, where the linguistic evidence of the shared argument(s) in SVCs in sign languages can also be conceptualized through the stipulation of explicitly constructed linguistic principles, i.e. by means of an empty category, it also contributes to the linguistic evidence for the concept of shared argument(s) of SVCs across languages, by showing that the syntactic dependency of the shared argument in certain types of SVCs in sign languages can be explicitly realized as an overt pronominal in the form of a classifier.