Backgrounded agents in sign language: passives or impersonals?

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Here we investigate the structure in (1) that has been analysed as a passive in American Sign Language (ASL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL) (Janzen et al. 2001; Kegl 1990; Saeed and Leeson 1999). In this construction for an agreeing verb the agent is left unexpressed with the verb agreeing with the body of the signer, which functions as the patient. Additionally, it involves role shift, a mechanism typical from signed languages where the signer adopts the role of a character of the story.

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