3.3.4. Agreement markers
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 ix3a neighbor new ix3b like 3apam3b
‘(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. father3b 3bpam3a grandmother3a garden 3bshow3a
‘Father shows grandmother the garden.’
b. new work^person++3b poss3bpl new boss3a accept 3bpam3a
‘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 certificate3a look_for 1pam3a
‘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 ix3b 1pam3b proud
‘I am proud of my son.’
b. teacher 3bpam3a++ student++ content repeat
‘The teacher repeats the content for the students.’
For the syntactic position of pam see [Syntax 2.3.1.2.].