Partitivity and Space: Evidence from Spoken and Sign Language

In this work, we investigate partitivity marking in spoken and sign languages, focusing on the locative and ablative strategies. We aim to extend the typology of partitive constructions by including evidence from sign languages and to explore the semantic component allowing locative and ablative markers to serve as both spatial and partitivity expressions. We report on finding a new ablative construction in Czech Sign Language (ČZJ) using the sign FROM^IX-a, which differs from the [high] vs. [low] position strategy found in other sign languages. The sign language data further indicates the tight semantic relationship between the spatial use of locative and directional expressions and their use as partitive markers. We submit that the facts potentially support a mereotopological perspective on part-whole structures that treats parthood not as a primitive notion but rather as a notion that is derived from more general topological concepts.