Verb classes in hzj--syntactic and semantic properties/Vrste glagola u hrvatskom znakovnom jeziku--sintakticke i semanticke znacajke

The aim of this thesis was to present an analysis of syntactic and semantic properties of the verbal system in HZJ with respect to aspect. HZJ verbal system has been unexplored up to this time, and there is no analysis of a sign language used in a Slavic-speaking community with respect to the verb system and aspect. The central questions that this study wanted to answer were: How does HZJ express aspect?; What language devices are used to produce HZJ verbs relevant to aspect categories similar to Croatian perfective and imperfectives verbs?; How can semantic verb classes in the Croatian verbal system be translated/ compared to HZJ?; and Whatprocesses/devices does HZJ use toproduce the same meaning? For the purpose of this research, two experiments were designed, each containing two tasks. The first task, targets in isolations, consisted of distinguishing members of aspect verb pairs. The second task, targets in context, consisted of using the appropriate verb aspect form in given context. The third andfourth tasks consisted of comic clips and pictures descripitons. Data were collected from 9 native Deaf signing participants, all fluent in HZJ. The signers 'productions were recorded using digital video camera, and transcribed in ELAN program designed for the analysis. The data were analyzed by descriptive linguistic analysis. Since grammatical aspect in Croatian exists as a binary morphological category of verbs, with a very diversified and constructed system of morphology, HZJ offers adequate resources to express the same meanings of the action denoted by the verb. Thus, aspect categories in Croatian, that is, perfective and imperfective, systematically find their reflections in HZJ. Meaning is reflected in the form of the verb signs. However, rather than just an iconic 'form-meaning' mapping, the aspectual distinctions are regularly related by alternations in phonological form or by phrasal composition. There are also pairs with unrelated (suppletive) verbs. With respect to phonological form and aspectual meaning, verbs in HZJ can be classified into two main groups. One group are verbs that have perfective root movement, while the other group are verbs with imperfective root movement. Verbs with perfective root movement are characterized as made with change of handshape, orientation, location, or setting, such that the final configuration is the opposite of the initial configuration. Verbs with imperfective root movement have multi movements characterized