A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

Reciprocal expressions [Morphology 3.1.3] describe a relation between two (or more) entities that are at the same time the agent and patient/goal of the action described by the predicate. To illustrate, the referents in the example below act on each other such that each of them both gives (agent) and receives (goal) flowers:

 

dominant hand:            ix_1+2pl flower  cl(f):₁give₂                                      

non-dominant hand:                flower  cl(f):₂give₁

                                                  ‘We are giving flowers to each other.’

 

 

 

DGS has four different strategies for marking reciprocal relations. Which strategy is selected depends on whether the sign is one- or two-handed, on the verb type (agreement versus plain), and on dialectal variation. All four marking strategies involve changes to the form of the predicate rather than a reciprocal noun phrase or pronoun.

 

Two-handed agreement verbs encode reciprocality through sequential backwards reduplication. The following example illustrates this type of reduplication of the verb for help: The hands first move from location 1 to location 2, then both path and internal movement are reversed moving from 2 to 1. Agreeing verbs without path movement are reduplicated with a change in orientation from the location of one argument to that of the other.

 

         ix_{1+2pl 1}help₂++ ₂help₁++

         ‘We help each other.’

 

 

 

The one-handed agreement verbs give, kiss, and email also use backwards reduplication to mark reciprocal relations. However, instead of repeating the predicate sequentially, reduplication happens simultaneously on the non-dominant hand. The hand configuration of the dominant hand is copied onto the non-dominant hand and both move in opposite directions from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 1, respectively:

 

h1:           ix_1+2pl flower cl(f):₁give₂                                      

h2:                      flower cl(f):₂give₁

                                               ‘We are giving flowers to each other.’

 

 

 

Two strategies are used to indicate reciprocity on plain predicates that cannot show agreement (e.g. trust, search, understand). Signers of one DGS variety consistently drop the object of a plain reciprocal verb, effectively creating an intransitive sentence.

 

       ix_1+3pl trust

         ‘We trust each other.’

  

 

 

 

In a second variety of DGS, signers mark reciprocal relations with the help of the person agreement marker pam [Lexicon 3.3.4]. Though one-handed, pam is realized with sequential backwards reduplication such that the dominant hand first moves from 1 to 2 and then reverses from 2 to 1.

 

         ix_1+2pl trust ₁pam_{2 2}pam₁

         ‘We trust each other.’

 

 

 

 

Intrinsically reciprocal verbs including meet, argue, shake-hands, and discuss do not use any form of reduplication. Reciprocal situations can include more than two participants. To express that several participants act on each other, randomized reduplication is used: The predicate movement is repeated multiple times in random  directions. Whether the reduplication occurs simultaneously or sequentially or with the help of pam depends on verb type, handedness, and variety of DGS.

 

         ix_{arc a}help_{b b}help_{c c}help_a 

         ‘They help each other.’