Where does that [EyeGaze] go?

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the non-manual marker EyeGaze as a grammatical function marker in motion predicates in American Sign Language (ASL). We detect the use of EyeGaze in endpoint locatives only (as opposed to potential goal locatives) and in the head of the classifier predicate itself. Along the lines of Nichols’ (1986) typology, we identify the former as GF-marking on the constituent (that is, Case) and the latter as GF-marking on the Head (that is, agreement). We also identify the coexistence of these two patterns in the same utterance: Case in the endpoint locative and agreement on the classifier. Therefore, ASL falls under the Double-Marking language type. In this respect, thus, ASL aligns with crosslinguistic patterns documented elsewhere.