A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

An example of exocentric compound is electricity^CL(5): ‘type’, meaning ‘computer’. This compound is formed by a stem coming from the core lexicon and by a classifier.

         electricity^CL(5): ‘type’

         ‘Computer’ (recreated from Santoro, 2018: 51)

The compound is exocentric because the semantic relation between the first member (electricity) and the second member (the body part classifier) does not directly convey the concept of the whole compound, namely ‘computer’.

         Another example is ix(forehead)^transparent, which means ‘psychology’. The first member is a pointing sign toward the forehead and it is related to the head or mind. The second member is a core sign meaning ‘transparent’.

         ix(forehead)^transparent

         ‘Psychology’ (recreated from Santoro, 2018: 53)

The meaning of the whole compound is not derived by the composition of these two members, namely the sign does not mean ‘the mind is transparent’. Therefore, this compound is exocentric.

         Still, another example is yes^no, which can be paraphrased in English as ‘Do something despite uncertainty or risk’. This compound is clearly not compositional, as its meaning is not given by the combination of the concepts conveyed by the signs yes and no.

         yes^no

         ‘(To) do something despite uncertainty or risk’ (recreated from Santoro, 2018: 55)

A final example of sequential exocentric compound is the sign for Ryanair.

         plane^SASS(flat closed L): ‘little’

         ‘Ryanair’ (recreated from Santoro, 2018: 65)

The sign Ryanair is composed by the sign plane expressed by a whole entity classifier and the sign for ‘little’ expressed by a SASS classifier. The literal meaning of the sign could be roughly paraphrased as ‘cheap airplane’. This would make the compound transparent if it referred to any low cost company. As it is the name of a specific low cost company, the compound is clearly exocentric.