Mapping Agreement onto Space: A Morphological Study of Nepali Sign Language (NSL) Verbs

This paper explores the role of space in NSL in encoding verb agreement from a morphological perspective. NSL systematically exploits signing space to mark subject-object relations. While most spoken languages primarily exhibit subject agreement, sign languages obligatorily mark object agreement, and NSL demonstrates both subject and object agreement. Within NSL, verbs are categorized into three types: plain verbs, agreement verbs, and spatial verbs. Among these, agreement verbs are inflected for person and number, making them central to the study of morphological agreement. The analysis focuses on how NSL verbs utilize spatial loci and how spatial referentiality functions to encode agreement inflection. The study draws on two types of data. Primary data were collected through video recordings of natural conversations of native NSL signers and subsequently transcribed and analysed using ELAN software. Secondary data sources included NSL dictionaries, texts, videos, and published literature, which provided additional evidence and comparative insights. The theoretical framework for the analysis is drawn from Napoli (2019), which emphasizes the morphological dimensions of sign languages.