A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

Transitive predicates select two arguments, typically an agent and a theme or patient. Ditransitive predicates take three arguments; a source, a theme, and a goal or recipient. The source is realized as the subject of the sentence, while the theme surfaces as the direct object and the goal or recipient as the indirect object. Ditransitives often encode a notion of transfer, which may be a physical transaction as in ‘give’, or a metaphorical one as in ‘teach’. Transitive and ditransitive predicates may show agreement [Morphology 3.1] with their arguments [Syntax 2.1.2.3], so that the agent or source of a predicate is encoded through subject agreement and the theme (in transitives) or goal/recipient (in ditransitives) through object agreement. In the ditransitive example below, the verb agrees with its source argument maria and its recipient argument peter. The transitive example (b) shows that not all verbs show agreement; neither the agent woman nor the theme cake are marked on the predicate.

a.       maria_3a peter_3b cake _3agive_3b

‘Maria gave Peter a cake as a gift.’                         


 

b.      woman sweet cake bake

‘The woman baked a sweet cake.’