The single argument of a plain intransitive verb [Syntax - 2.1.1.2.] bears the semantic role of agent, experiencer, or theme. It functions as the subject of the sentence. The subject predominantly precedes the verb. In the following example, athlete is the single argument of the intransitive verb run and it is also the subject of the sentence.
athlete run
‘The athlete ran.’
In a transitive construction with a plain verb, the agent/experiencer subject typically precedes the theme object.
girl pencil break
‘The girl broke the pencil.’
In a clause with a transitive verb where the theme as well as the agent/experiencer is animate, Animacy Constraint holds on the order of the arguments. Animacy Constraint states that the thematic role and grammatical function of the arguments as the agent/experiencer and theme is determined by word order in such constructions. The agent/experiencer precedes an animate theme object, as in the following sentence.
girl boy love
‘The girl loves the boy.’
(adapted from Dikyuva 2015; 252, 5.9)
In the sentence above, the nominal that occurs in sentence initial position girl is interpreted to be the experiencer subject and the nominal that follows it boy to be the theme object of the verb.
In constructions with a single agreement verb, the grammatical function of the arguments is determined by word order and the directionality of the verb movement. The agent/experiencer functions as subject and precedes the theme object. The theme is also marked by verbal morphology by the movement of the hand in the direction of the locus of the theme in the signing space. Animacy constraint on the order of constituents also holds in constructions with a single agreement verb. The subject/experiencer/agent precedes the animate theme/object.
womana manb seeb
‘The woman saw the man.’
(adapted from Kayabaşı, et.al., in press, Fig. 1)
This sentence can only be interpreted as woman being the experiencer/subject and man the theme/object. The movement path of the hand movement of the verb see is towards the locus of the referent of the theme/object man.
In constructions with a double agreement ditransitive verb, word order and verbal morphology determine the grammatical functions of the arguments. The word order is S-IO-DO-V. With forward agreement verbs, the movement of the hand is from the locus of the subject to that of the indirect object.
ix2 friendb pencil 2giveb
‘You are giving a pencil to your friend.’
ix2 ix3b money 2pay^not3b
‘You are not paying money to him.’
ix2 which occurs in sentence initial positionin each of the above examples is interpreted to be the agent/subject of its clause and the constituent immediately following it, i.e. friendb and ix3b in the two respective examples, is interpreted to be the recipient/indirect object.
With backward agreement verbs [Lexicon - 3.2], the movement of the hand is from the locus of the object to that of the subject.
ix2 ix3 debtb 3take2^not
‘You did not borrow money from him/her.’
Moreover, the position of an object embedded clause with the semantic role proposition is determined by the semantic category of the matrix verb. See [Syntax - 3.3].
However, deviations from the basic word order of the constituents is possible. The object can precede the subject. This is due to topicalization [Pragmatics - 4.2]. Topicalization is also constrained by animacy constraint. Only nominals with inanimate referents can be topicalized.
ix(dem)a book all student read
‘That book, all students read’.
(adapted from Kayabaşı, et.al., 7a)
The animacy constraint on topicalization is overridden by the use of a resumptive pronoun which is a pronominal sign that occurs in the position where the sign of the referent of its antecedent is expected to occur. One resumptive pronoun strategy is a buoy which is a pointing sign - with 1- or flat handshape with extended figers - produced by the nondominant hand and held throughout the utterance.
childb birthday
childb ____________ ix3 fathera present giveb
but sisterc cgive^notb
‘It is the boy’s birthday. To the boy, the father is giving (him) presents, but not the sister.’
(r. f. Kayabaşı, et.al. in press, Fig.4)
In the above example, first ‘child’s birthday’ is introduced with the signs child birthday. Then the sign of birthday is partially held on the non-dominant hand (the index finger pointing upwards) and starts as functioning as the buoy for the ‘birthday child’. This buoy is held constantly throughout the utterance, and the signer points to it with ix3 at the syntactic position where the antecedent of the referent, ‘birthday child’, is predicted to occur.
Another resumptive pronoun strategy is using an index sign which is articulated by pointing to the position of the locus of the antecedent.
ıx(dem) balli ix1 child
what_time ixi take know^not
‘That ball, I don't know when the boy took (it).’
(r. f. Kayabaşı, et.al. in press, Fig. 3)
In the above example, ıx(dem) ball ‘that ball’is the theme/object of the backward agreement verb take, which is produced as topic in the sentence-initial position. As the signer is producing the embedded question clause, what_time ixi take know^not, she is pointing to the locus of the antecedent the theme/object.
Spreading of a non-manual marker may also differentiate between subjects and objects. A non-manual marker can spread over a constituent that contains the verb and its object (a verb phrase), excluding the subject. In the following examples, brow raise, one of the negative non-manual markers [Syntax - 1.5.2.], spreads over the object and the verb, excluding the subject.
hs
re
ix1 sign know^not none
‘I don’t know any sign.’
(Gökgöz 2009; 48)
ht-b
re
aunt yesterday house sit.compl^not
‘Yesterday my aunt didn’t sit at home.’
(adapted from Gökgöz 2009; 84)