A Grammar of German Sign Language (DGS)

In addition to extending the argument structure of a predicate it is also possible to reduce the number of arguments that have to be expressed. In the passive construction, the agent argument of a verb is backgrounded while the patient argument is promoted to the subject position. The reduction in argument structure is typically marked through special passive morphology on the verb. While DGS does not have a syntactic passive construction, it can still use semantic and pragmatic strategies for foregrounding the patient argument of a predicate. The patient can be shown to be the central argument through a combination of eye gaze behavior, the direction of the movement of a predicate, and role shift [Syntax 3.3.3 and Pragmatics 6]. In the transitive sentence (a) below, the signer’s eye gaze is directed towards the point in space where ix_3b ‘he/she’ is set up and the verb shows subject and object agreement. In the (b) version, the signer’s gaze is directed downwards and the verb only agrees with its first person patient argument. The starting point of the verb is not associated with the locus of any participant.

                                          eg

a.       some deaf think: ix_{3b 3}pam_{1 3b}exploit₁

         ‘Some deaf people think: Is he/she exploiting me?’

                       eg-down

b.      some deaf think: exploit₁ pam₁

            ‘Some deaf people think: Am I being exploited?’