This paper investigates agent-backgrounding constructions in Turkish Sign Language (TİD). TİD displays many of the
agent-backgrounding strategies reported in the literature that signed (and spoken) languages employ (Barberà & Cabredo Hofherr, this volume). Use of non-specific indefinite pronominals is a major
strategy, and this paper is the first study that identifies these forms in TİD. Moreover, we show that TİD has ways of marking
clusivity distinctions of indefinite arguments, and has a special sign that derives exclusive indefinite pronominals,
other. We argue that (i) whereas lateral-high R-locus is unambiguously associated with non-specificity, non-high
(lateral and central) loci are underspecified in terms of specificity; (ii) the R-locus of indefinite arguments observed in
agent-backgrounding contexts in TİD consists of two spatial features [+high] and [+lateral] which express non-specificity and
exclusivity. This study further shows that clusivity, usually associated with personal pronouns, must be extended to indefinite
pronouns.
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