A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Processes of sequential derivation result in morphologically complex signs composed of a stem, a free lexical element, and an affix, which is a bound morpheme that cannot occur alone. The affix carries a specific meaning and its presence leads to a phonological reduction of the base sign. In so doing, the resulting construction behaves like a single lexical unit.

This process is clearly displayed in the difference between the sign beautiful (a) and its intensive counterpart (b). In (b), we see that the presence of the intensive morpheme, glossed ‘int’ reduces the articulation of the sign beautiful. The intensive morpheme is illustrated in (c) for clarity.

         a.            beautiful

         b.            beautiful-int

         ‘Really beautiful’

         c.            Intensive morpheme

Manual sequential processes can be marked by dedicated non-manual markers.

It is important to notice that sequential processes are rare in LIS, as in other sign languages. However, we do find some examples of manual sequential derivation, which are described below.