Event categorization in sign languages

Spoken languages share the property of discrete infinity: an infinite number of meaningful expressions is generated from a finite repertoire of basic meaningful forms. Classifier predicates of sign languages, at first blush, represent events of motion and location in a continuous way, by exploiting handshape movements and locations in the signing space. Since movement and locations are regarded as basic components of signs, it seems that classifier predicates are based on a potentially infinite number of basic meaningful components. I examine different accounts of classifier predicates and argue that, in fact, they may be assimilated to demonstrative predicates of spoken languages.