Forthcoming: Serial verbs in sign languages

Roland Pfau (ed), Beyza Sümer (ed), Cornelia Loos (ed)

Synopsis

Traditionally, research on serial verb constructions (SVCs) has been based almost exclusively on spoken languages, while sign languages have only recently been added to the typological picture, confirming that SVCs are attested in the visual-spatial modality. The present volume offers a cross-modal re-examination of SVCs, including data from both spoken and signed languages, and proposes a broader analytical framework based on the notion of serial predicate constructions (SPCs). This shift is motivated by the observation that predicate combinations are not restricted to elements that are clearly verbal in nature but rather may also involve multifunctional elements or constructions that defy an unambiguous categorization – the latter in particular in the visual-spatial modality.

Adopting such a cross-modal typological perspective allows us to address a central question: To what extent are serialization patterns shaped by modality-specific affordances, and to what extent do they reflect modality-independent grammatical principles? The contributions demonstrate that SPCs are attested across modalities, but that their realization is sensitive to modality effects, including the possibility of simultaneity in sign languages and differences in linearization constraints. Taken together, the studies presented here argue for a reconceptualization of constructions involving multiple predicates as a flexible, cross-modal phenomenon that integrates typological, theoretical, and developmental perspectives.

Chapters

  • Rethinking serial verb constructions
    A cross-modal approach to serial predicates
    Roland Pfau, Cornelia Loos, Beyza Sümer
  • Multi-verb Constructions in Palestinian Arabic
    Nadine Abdel-Rahman
  • The lexical entry problem in serial verb constructions
    Enoch O. Aboh, Corrine Foko Mokam
  • Pseudo-Coordination in Modern Hebrew
    The role of deixis
    Nora Boneh, Dikla Abravanel
  • Causatives with cognates of GIVE in French Sign Language and Haitian
    Patricia Cabredo Hofherr, Adrien Dadone
  • Serial verb constructions in Zinacantec Family Homesign
    Austin German
  • Habitual serial verb constructions
    A cross-linguistic survey
    Sune Gregersen, Eva van Lier
  • Serialization as cosubordination
    Kees Hengeveld
  • How direct is direct enough?
    Testing directness constraints on resultative constructions in English and ASL
    Cornelia Loos
  • Classifying, systematizing and analyzing asymmetric multi-verb constructions in Libras
    Cilene Rodrigues, Josep Quer, Isaac Gomes Souza
  • Encoding motion events in Turkish Sign Language
    A developmental perspective
    Beyza Sümer, Roland Pfau

Biographies

Roland Pfau

Roland Pfau is associate professor in sign language linguistics at the Department of General Linguistics of the University of Amsterdam. In his research, which focuses on aspects of sign language morphosyntax, syntax, and grammaticalization, he often takes a typological and cross-modal perspective on the subject matter by comparing, on the one hand, sign languages to spoken languages and, on the other hand, sign languages to each other. He has authored numerous journal articles and (hand)book chapters, and he is co-editor of the journal Sign Language & Linguistics.

Beyza Sümer

Beyza Sümer currently works as an assistant professor in sign language linguistics in the Department of General Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on multimodal and embodied language development, with particular emphasis on sign language acquisition, spatial language, gesture–speech–sign relations, iconicity, and language learning across spoken and signed modalities. She combines experimental and corpus-based approaches to investigate how language, gesture, and cognition interact during development in deaf and hearing populations. She acts as an associate editor for the journal Applied Psycholinguistics, member of the editorial board for the journal Sign Language & Linguistics, and the section editor for the journal Open Linguistics.

Cornelia Loos

Cornelia Loos is a sign language researcher at the University of Cologne, Germany. Her work explores phenomena at the interface of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. She uses experimental and corpus-based approaches to improve our understanding of the grammars of different sign languages, including German Sign Language (DGS), American Sign Language (ASL), Dutch Sign Language (NGT), and Uruguayan Sign Language (LSU). Most recently, she has focused on simultaneity in bimanual signing, the semantics and syntax of classifier constructions, and multi- and crossmodal investigations into the nature of polar questions and responses in German Sign Language and German.

Book cover

Published

July 16, 2026
LaTeX source on GitHub

Series

Research on Comparative Grammar

Online ISSN

2749-781X

Print ISSN

2749-7801
Cite as
Pfau, Roland, Sümer, Beyza & Loos, Cornelia (eds.). Forthcoming. Serial verbs in sign languages. (Research on Comparative Grammar). Berlin: Language Science Press.
Copyright (c) 2026 Roland Pfau, Beyza Sümer, Cornelia Loos; Nadine Abdel-Rahman, Enoch O. Aboh, Corrine Foko Mokam, Nora Boneh, Dikla Abravanel, Patricia Cabredo Hofherr, Adrien Dadone, Sune Gregersen, Eva van Lier, Kees Hengeveld, Cilene Rodrigues, Josep Quer, Isaac Gomes Souza, Austin German

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.