3.2.1. Epenthesis
Epenthesis involves the insertion of phonemic material into a sign. Such phonological process is usually motivated by the need to repair ill-formed syllable structures and hence enhance ease of articulation. This process can affect any of the phonological parameters, but it is most frequently observed with movement. To exemplify epenthesis in LIS, we present one instance of movement epenthesis and one of movement interpolation.
Movement epenthesis occurs in the sign head. In its underlying form, this sign is realised with the G handshape located at the side of the forehead and it does not involve any path movement.
head (underlying form) (based on Geraci, 2009: 27)
Since movement is an essential component of the phonological structure of signs, the underlying form of head represents a phonotactic violation. To repair such ill-formed cluster and allow articulation in isolation, head requires insertion of movement. As a result of epenthesis, the surface form of the sign head is articulated with repeated path movement toward the signer’s head.
head (surface form)
(based on Geraci, 2009: 27)
Interestingly, when head enters a compound formation, the sonority requirement is satisfied by the other member of the compound, which provides the movement for the entire sign. As a consequence, in this case, movement epenthesis is not required by the sign head. Below, we provide some examples showing that when head appears as first part of a compound, movement epenthesis is not realised.
a. head^transparent
‘Psychology’ (based on Geraci, 2009: 29)
b. head^done
‘Known’ (based on Geraci, 2009: 29)
c. head^empty
‘Absent-minded’ (based on Geraci, 2009: 29)
d. head^ CL(Y): ‘a_lot’
‘Intelligent’ (based on Geraci, 2009: 29)
Movement epenthesis can affect signs articulated in neutral space as well. Consider, for instance, the case of initialised signs, i.e. signs whose handshape represents the first letter of the corresponding spoken language word. An instance is provided by the sign monday (Ita. lunedì), which is realised as an L handshape in neutral space. The underlying form of this sign lacks the movement component.
monday (underlying form)
The ill-formedness of monday is restored by the insertion of a circular path movement. Epenthesis can thus be observed in the surface form of the sign when produced in isolation.
monday (surface form)
The sign monday as well as the other signs for the days of the week can combine with the temporal modifier next, which is articulated with a forward arc movement, as shown below.
next
As similarly observed with the sign head, monday loses its epenthetic movement once it is combined with a sign endowed with movement specification. Indeed, the sign resulting from the combination of monday and next retains the movement of the temporal modifier and blocks the epenthetic movement displayed in the surface form of monday.
monday.next
‘Next Monday’
A less typical case of movement epenthesis is represented by movement interpolation. This phonological process implies the insertion of a straight movement in the transition between signs. Below, we show a short sentence including two signs articulated with the dominant hand: the subject woman and the predicate CL(G): ‘individual_move’.
woman transition transition transition
CL(G): ‘individual_move’
‘A woman came up to me.’
In the transition between the two signs, the signer's hand realises a straight movement from the location of the sign woman (close to the cheek) to the initial location of the classifier sign (at a certain point in the ipsilateral space). Note that such transition does not only involve movement interpolation, but also handshape change (from extended 3 to extended G) and orientation change (from outward palm to contralateral palm).
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant Agreement No 693349.