Strategies of relativization in Italian Sign Language (original) (raw)
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On relativization and clefting in Italian Sign Language
The work is a contribution to the understanding and discussion of two syntactic structures employed by Italian Sign Language (LIS) to express the functional equivalent of relative and cleft constructions. Aim of the study is, furthermore, to find new evidence in the LIS data to confirm the empirical generalizations and typologies of relativization and clefting established for spoken languages. The investigation is based on elicited data coming from seven informants, native signers of LIS living in the central regions of Italy.
Italian Sign Language relative clauses in a typological perspective
Italian Sign Language displays a dedicated structure expressing relativization: a biclausal construction consisting of an embedded clause containing an antecedent, followed by a main clause containing a gap or a pronoun coreferential with the antecedent. This paper compares two possible analyses for this type of construction: as a correlative structure, as recently proposed by , or as a non-correlative internally headed relative clause. Evidence for the nominal status of the clause, for its extraposed nature, and for the trace-like nature of the gap in the main clause is provided and discussed. This leads to the conclusion that the noncorrelative analysis is more suitable. As for their interpretative status, we argue that these clauses are restrictive relative clauses in the light of a battery of diagnostics.
Relativization in Italian Sign Language (LIS): the missing link of relativization 0. Introduction Relativization in LIS (Lingua dei Segni Italiana, Italian Sign Language 1) is one of those still rather few cases in the field of sign language linguistics where there is some literature, a number of diverging analyses, and some debate. This literature and this disagreement will constitute the base for this article. We refer in particular to two 'families' of analyses: the first, pioneering discovery of a relativization strategy in LIS by the Milan group (Carlo Cecchetto and Carlo Geraci, Sandro Zucchi), described in Cecchetto, Geraci and Zucchi 2006; the alternative approach pursued by Chiara Branchini in her thesis (Branchini 2007/in press), developed and summarized in Branchini and Donati (2009). The aim of this talk is to reconcile the opposing views proposed in these papers under a new general analysis of relativization. We will first start from what we know about relativiz...
Italian Sign Language relatives: A contribution to the typology of relativization strategies
Liptàk, A.(a cura di), On Correlatives. Amsterdam: North …
Italian Sign Language displays a dedicated structure expressing relativization: a biclausal construction made of an embedded clause containing the antecedent, followed by a main clause containing a gap or a pronoun coreferent with the antecedent. This paper compares two possible analyses for such a construction: as a correlative structure, as recently proposed by , or as a non correlative internally headed relative clause. Evidence for the nominal status of the clause, for its extraposition, and for the trace nature of the gap in the main clause is provided and discussed leading to the conclusion that the noncorrelative analysis is more suitable. As for their interpretative status, we argue that PE-clauses are restrictive at the light of a battery of diagnostics.
Nominal Modification in Italian Sign Language
Nominal Modification in Italian Sign Language, 2017
This book is a revised version of my 2015 dissertation which was approved for the PhD degree in Linguistics at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. When I first plunged into the world of academic research, almost five years ago, I would never have imagined it was possible to achieve such an important milestone. Being so close to finalizing this book, I would like to look back briefly and remember and thank all the people who showed me the way, supported me, and encouraged me to grow both academically and personally. First and foremost, I would like to thank Carlo Geraci and Anna Cardinaletti for guiding me through my PhD project. I thank them both for having supported me with great professionalism throughout the process, and for providing me with a wealth of knowledge and skills. I am deeply grateful to Carlo Geraci, the first person who talked to me about the chance to start this new experience and saw my potential before anyone else. Despite the geographical distance between us, I could count on him during all the stages of this work. With unceasing dedication, he was always ready to address my doubts and correct my mistakes. His rigorous scientific methodology and technical expertise inspired me and gave me confidence. I would like to express my gratitude to Anna Cardinaletti because she has been a constant reference point in Venice. With patience and understanding, she was always willing to take into consideration my ideas-sometimes expressed in a confused way-and she helped me develop convincing arguments to sustain them. I am also very grateful to Roland Pfau, Carlo Cecchetto, Natasha Abner, and Caterina Donati for having perused and evaluated this work. Their sharp observations and useful suggestions guided me during the whole revision process and helped me improve both the content and the general form of this work. Deep gratitude must be expressed to Annika Herrmann, Markus Steinbach, and the other members of the editorial staff for giving me the valuable opportunity to turn my PhD thesis into this book for the Sign Languages and Deaf Communities (SLDC) series. Special thanks go to all my LIS informants without whom a key part of this work would have not seen the light of day: Mirko Santoro, Gabriele Caia, Rosella Ottolini, and Fabio Scarpa. In particular, I thank them for their great helpfulness, willingness to collaborate, and friendship. I wish to thank Luca Des Dorides for having provided me with historical details concerning the Deaf community.
A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)
2020
A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS) is a comprehensive presentation of the grammatical properties of LIS. It has been conceived as a tool for students, teachers, interpreters, the Deaf community, researchers, linguists and whoever is interested in the study of LIS. It is one output of the Horizon 2020 SIGN-HUB project. It is composed of six Parts: Part 1 devoted to the social and historical background in which the language has developed, and five Parts covering the main properties of Phonology, Lexicon, Morphology, Syntax and Pragmatics. Thanks to the electronic format of the grammar, text and videos are highly interconnected and are designed to fit the description of a visual language.
The syntax of noun modification in Italian Sign language (LIS)
2009
In this paper I will discuss noun modification in LIS. Before starting the discussion some clarification is at stake. The grammatical categories of Italian Sign Language (LIS) are not morphologically distinguished: nouns, verbs or adjectives have the same lexical form. How can words of LIS be categorized in different classes? At first glance it seams that there are no distinctions in LIS. In recent syntactic literature, the noun phrase has been analysed as having a structure similar to clausal structure (Abney 1987; Bernstein 1991, 2001; Cinque 1994; 2000; Giusti 1993, 1996, 2002). This leads us to the prediction that in LIS a phrase is initially indistinguishable if verbal or nominal. In the next section I try to delineate the principal facts that signal if a word functions as a noun, an adjective or a verb. I will claim that the presence of a determiner is a means to distinguish a nominal constituent. In this introductive part I introduce two key factors to interpret the phenomena...
The syntax of nominal modification in Italian Sign Language (LIS)
Sign Language and Linguistics, 2017
In this paper, we investigate structural aspects of nominal modification in Italian Sign Language (LIS), a language with a relatively flexible word order. In order to tackle the issue, this study combines different approaches, including generalizations from typological universals on word order, their formal counterparts, and a variationist approach to language facts. Data come from the largest corpus of LIS currently available. Despite the absence of categorical rules, our mixed approach shows that LIS data are consistent with the general tenets of nominal modification. Results from the statistical analysis indicate that the attested language-internal variability is constrained both by linguistic and social factors. Specifically, a fine-grained structure of nominal modification is able to capture the internal variability of LIS. Processing effects, age, gender, and early exposure to the language also play a relevant role in determining order preferences.
Relative clauses in French Sign Language (LSF): some preliminary results
2018
International audienceWe report preliminary findings on the morpho-syntactic structure of relative constructions in French Sign Language (LSF). We describe two manual markers that are analyzed as d-like relative pronouns and we show that LSF has both internally and externally headed relative clauses. We offer a unified derivation for both types of relative clauses
The Syntax of Predicate Ellipsis in Italian Sign Language (LIS
We analyze a hitherto undescribed case of ellipsis in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and show that it has common properties with VP ellipsis in languages like English. For example, the ellipsis site can contain a wh-trace and semantic restrictions on the type of predicate that can be omitted are only derivative. We thus propose a phonological deletion approach for the LIS construction. We also consider the issue of how the content of the ellipsis site is recovered from its linguistic antecedent. We present new arguments for a syntactic identity condition, although a limited number of mismatches between the ellipsis site and its antecedent, notably including vehicle change cases, must be accommodated.