A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

The articulation of LIS signs is frequently simultaneously combined with mouthing, i.e. mouth movements that voicelessly reproduce the full or partial articulation of the corresponding Italian word. The significant use of mouthings in LIS is probably due to the strong oralist tradition in Italian deaf education (SOCIO-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1). From a functional perspective, mouthing represents a form of co-sign gesture (similar to co-speech gestures in spoken languages) and enhances intelligibility.

            The relevant section in the Phonology Chapter (PHONOLOGY 1.5.2) describes the phonological role of mouthing and its relationship with the associated manual sign. In this section, the focus is on the role of mouthing as part of LIS non-native lexicon. Indeed, it represents a clear case of borrowing from spoken Italian. Since the linguistic competence in Italian is not homogeneous among the signing community, the use of mouthings shows a great degree of variation across signers. Generally speaking, mouthing tends to reproduce: i) high-frequency words, ii) lexical words (rather than functional words), iii) more frequently nouns and adjectives and less frequently verbs.

            The extension of mouthing is usually dependent on the duration of the associated manual sign. To illustrate, the sign street (Ita. strada) and the corresponding mouthing are articulated at the same time.

 

 

 

             ‘strada’

            street

 

In some cases, we can observe a prolonged articulation in correspondence with a particular Italian phoneme. In the example below, the sign long_lasting (Ita. lungo) is articulated with a prolonged movement and the associated mouthing is typically characterized by the prolonged articulation of the vowel [u].

 

 

 

            [luuuuuuuuuuŋgo]

            long_lasting

 

This lengthening in the mouthing component matches the timing of the hand movement.

            In signed discourse, we often observe the spreading of the mouthing of a single Italian word over more than one sign. This is shown in the two examples below: in the first one, the mouthing corresponding to book (Ita. libro) spreads over both book and the verb CL(flat open 5): ‘give_book’; in the second one, the mouthing usually associated with coffee (Ita. caffè) spreads over the entire interrogative clause.

 

 

 

                                                                         ‘libro’

            a.         book ₁CL(flat open 5): ‘give_book’₂

            ‘I give you the book.’

 

 

 

                                        ‘caffè’

                                                     y/n

            b.         coffee want ix₂

            ‘Do you want coffee?’

 

As we can observe in the examples above, the use of mouthings is constrained by the articulation of signs and deviates from the combinatory rules typical of Italian. An exception to this generalisation is represented by a few phraseological routines. These are high-frequency Italian constructions usually containing functional elements such as negation that are faithfully reproduced in a string of mouthings despite the different ordering of the co-articulated manual signs. The example below shows a mismatch between sign order and mouthing order: as required by LIS syntax, the negative predicate exist.not follows the noun problem, whereas the negative mouthing ‘non c’è’ (Eng. ‘there is not’) precedes the noun mouthing ‘problema’ (Eng. ‘problem’), as required by Italian syntax.

 

 

 

                  ‘non c’è problema’

                                           neg

            problem exist.not

            ‘There is no problem.’