A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

A foot is a prosodic constituent that dominates the syllable and is itself dominated by the prosodic word. So, a foot is composed of syllables and, in turn, feet compose prosodic words. The discussion about this intermediate prosodic level is relevant to this chapter because, contrary to other sign languages (which show a tendency toward monosyllabic signs), LIS shows a tendency for signs to be at least disyllabic, and hence to be internally more complex.

            To provide an inventory of LIS rhythmic structure, it is worth looking at the patterns that are attested in the language. The possible combinations of syllables are the following: light + light (with repetition), light + light (with no repetition), heavy + heavy (with repetition), heavy + heavy (with no repetition), light + heavy, and heavy + light. Below, one example for each pattern is provided and discussed.

            By definition, the light + light syllable alternation includes two simple movements. These can be of the same type and repeated twice, as in stupid, which requires the repetition of an orientation change.

 

 

 

           stupid

 

Note that the same type of movement can be produced twice with a change in the angle of the second movement. For example, the sign table_cloth is articulated with two path movements interpolated with a 90° angle change: as a consequence, the first one is straight and horizontal, while the second one is straight and vertical.

 

 

 

            table_cloth

            ‘Table-cloth’ (recreated from Geraci, 2009: 15)

 

A similar case, which however is obtained through a 180° angle change, is the sign tennis.

 

 

 

            tennis

            (recreated from Geraci, 2009: 15)

 

Another (less frequent) possibility is light + light with no repetition: it combines two simple movements that look different. One such case is the sign league, which displays a circular path movement followed by a straight horizontal path movement.

 

 

 

            league

 

The heavy + heavy syllable alternation includes two complex movements, which again can be the repetition of the same kind of movement, as in dirty (a) or two different movements, as in disregard (b).

 

 

 

            a.         dirty

            (based on Quer et al., 2017: Prosody, 44)

 

 

 

            b.         disregard

            (based on Quer et al., 2017: Prosody, 44)

 

The sign disregard includes two different complex movements: a path movement combined with handshape change (closing from curved open L to closed G) followed by a path movement combined with handshape change (opening from closed G to L).

Heavy and light syllables can also be combined together, even if such configurations are not frequent in the LIS lexicon. We can find both the light + heavy and the heavy + light patterns. An example of light + heavy is the sign important, which is composed by a downward path movement followed by an upward movement combined with handshape change (opening from A to L handshape).

 

 

 

            important 

 

An example of heavy + light is the idiomatic sign make_fun_of, which is realised in the first syllable with forward path movement and handshape change (closing from curved open L to closed G) and in the second syllable with a circular path movement.

 

 

 

            make_fun_of

            ‘(To) make fun of (someone)’

 

The variation between light and heavy syllables determines prominence in the signing flow.