A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

DGS distinguishes plain, spatial and agreement verbs [Lexicon 3.2.]. Whereas agreement verbs show agreement with their subject and/or (indirect) object arguments via modulating path movement and/or finger- and hand orientation, plain verbs are not modulated to show agreement with their associated arguments [Morphology 3.1.]. In those cases, the agreement marker pam (person agreement marker) can combine with plain verbs and expresses agreement with the subject and/or object argument by modulating movement and orientation. As shown in (a), the path movement of pam starts at the location in space associated with the subject and ends at the location associated with the object and the fingertips are orientated towards the object argument.

a. mother ix_3a neighbor new ix_3b like _3apam_3b

‘(My) mother likes the new neighbor.’                      

(based on Steinbach & Pfau, 2007:322)

 

 

 

pam has been grammaticalized from the noun person in DGS and is not only restricted to plain verbs. Furthermore, pam occurs with inflected agreement verbs as in (a) or with uninflected agreement verbs as in (b).

 

a. father_3b 3bpam_3a grandmother_3a garden _3bshow_3a

‘Father shows grandmother the garden.’

 

 

b. new work^person++_3b poss_3bpl new boss_3a accept _3bpam_3a

‘The new employees accept their new boss.’

 

As demonstrated above, pam usually combines with animate arguments, but it can also combine with inanimate arguments that have a strong personal value for the signer as shown below.

ix₁ poss₁ certificate_3a look_for ₁pam_3a

‘I am looking for my certificate.’

 

 

Additionally, pam can occur with adjectival predicates as demonstrated in (a) and can extend the argument structure of a verb as in (b).

a. ix₁ poss₁ son ix_3b 1pam_3b proud 

‘I am proud of my son.’

 

 

b. teacher _3bpam_3a++ student++ content repeat

‘The teacher repeats the content for the students.’

 

For the syntactic position of pam see [Syntax 2.3.1.2.].