Shallow resultatives in sign language

This paper addresses two puzzles that arise from resultative sentences that have the
word order S(ubject)–O(bject)–V(erb)–R(esult) (SOVR) in sign languages: (i) the SOVR
order does not seem to be attested in spoken languages; (ii) the recursive occurrences
of resultative predicates in this construction in Japanese Sign Language (JSL) violate
Tenny’s (1994) Single Delimiting Constraint, the well-known generalization of resultative
constructions. Under the functional approach to resultatives (Embick 2004; Folli
and Harley 2020), I propose a bi-clausal coordination analysis of SOVR sentences in JSL,
which provides accounts of these two questions. The proposal has theoretical implications
for the structural depth permitted in center-embedded complementation in the
visual modality (cf. Geraci et al. 2008).