A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Intonational phrases constitute a larger prosodic domain, composed of one or more phonological phrases. They generally correspond to syntactic constructions, such as topicalisation (SYNTAX 2.3.3.3), parentheticals, restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses (SYNTAX 3.4). Layering of different non-manual markers in this prosodic domain is expected.

            As in other sign languages, the boundaries of intonational phrases in LIS are often marked by signing pauses, lowering of the hands, eye blinks, and head nods. Manual signs and gestures with discourse function (e.g., well and palm_up, shown below) may also occur at the beginning or at the end of this prosodic domain.

            a.         well

            b.         palm_up

As for domain markers, main clauses usually appear with neutral non-manuals and differ from embedded clauses, which conversely display marked non-manuals spreading over the whole clause. The type of non-manual domain markers depends on the type of embedded clause (for an overview, see PHONOLOGY 2.3). To illustrate, we present below a case of topicalisation (PRAGMATICS 4.2).

                                        hn

                                        eb

                                   sq                         hs

            cake ix(dem)    flour empty

            ‘This cake, it has no flour.’

The topicalised constituent, cake ix(dem), is separated from the rest of the sentence by two boundary markers produced right after the pointing sign: head nod and eye blink. The two parts of the sentence are further distinguished by domain markers, in that the topicalised constituent is marked by squinted eyes, while the rest of the sentence is not. Note that the side-to-side headshake co-occurring with the negative quantifier empty is not a prosodic marker, but the typical non-manual associated with negative signs.

            As similarly observed at the end of phonological phrases, the right edge of intonational phrases is also marked by final lengthening. This prosodic phenomenon has been found in particular on sentence-final wh- signs (e.g. what, how, who) and with sentence-final aspectual marker done, but it is likely to be a general phrase final lengthening effect.