A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

The prosodic word is the constituent that dominates the foot and is dominated by the phonological phrase. In most of the cases, it corresponds to one single lexical sign, as in the monosyllabic sign football.

 

 

 

            football

 

However, there are also cases in which prosodic words involve more than one sign: compounding and cliticisation. As we will see, prosodic words in LIS may be marked by mouthing and other non-manuals as domain markers and may involve phonological phenomena aimed at reducing contrastive features, such as different handshapes or different movements.

            As for compounds (MORPHOLOGY 1), the two stems constitute a potential single prosodic word. It has been observed a tendency to reduce phonological contrasts between the stems, for example through assimilation (PHONOLOGY 3.1.1) or non-dominant hand spread. By making the stems look more similar, a more well-formed prosodic word is produced. For example, in the citation form of the compound head^CL(Y): ‘a_lot’ (meaning ‘intelligent’), the stems display very different handshapes: G and Y. In a widespread variant of this compound, shown below, regressive handshape assimilation is observed: the handshape of the first stem, G, assimilates the selected fingers of the handshape of the second stem (i.e. extended thumb and extended pinky).

 

              

            head                                    CL(Y): ‘a_lot’

            ‘Intelligent’

 

The stem head is thus produced with a complex handshape, which is phonologically more similar to the handshape of the second stem. The reduction of phonological contrast between the two stems results in a more well-formed prosodic word.

            In cliticised forms, a functional sign such as a weak pointing sign attaches to a lexical host. In this configuration, handshape assimilation (PHONOLOGY 3.1.1) or coalescence (PHONOLOGY 3.1.2) may occur. The example below shows a prosodic word formed by a lexical sign, house, and a cliticised determiner, ix(B), which has undergone progressive assimilation.

 

              

            house                                 ix(B)

            ‘That house’

 

Prosodic words formed by more than one sign may also include a negative sign. In the example below, the negative sign exist.not attaches to the predicate need. The prosodic word is accompanied by a slight side-to-side headshake, which is the typical non-manual marker conveying negation (SYNTAX 1.5.2). In this case, it spreads regressively from the negation to the predicate, thus functioning as a domain prosodic marker.

 

 

 

                                       hs

            need^exist.not

            ‘It’s not necessary.’ 

 

According to their citation forms, need is articulated with S handshape and exist.not with L handshape. When the two signs form a prosodic word, we may observe two phonological processes. Some signers produce need with L handshape, thus realising regressive assimilation. Other signers produce a handshape change opening from closed G handshape to L handshape, as shown above.

            A similar example is the prosodic word formed by the predicate see and the negative sign never. In their citation forms, see is articulated with V handshape, while never requires I handshape. To reduce the phonological distance between the two handshapes, the first one is reduced from V to G (i.e. from extended index and middle finger to extended index only). The movement component also undergoes assimilation: while in the two basic forms two different path movements are produced (forward in see and ipsilateral in never), the prosodic form displays one movement only.

 

 

 

            see^never

            ‘I’ve never seen it.’

 

Another example of prosodic word formed by two signs is woman person. In this case, the lexical sign woman is followed by a functional sign localising the referent in the signing space. The insertion of the sign person is functional to verb agreement, as shown by the indexes in the glosses.

 

 

 

                              ‘donna’

            woman person_{3 3}flirt₁

            ‘The woman is flirting with me.’

 

An effect of the prosodic word is that the movement repetition required by the citation form of the sign woman disappears. Interestingly, the mouthing associated with woman, ‘donna’, spreads over the whole prosodic word. In this case, mouthing functions as domain marker.