2.1.1.3. Attenuative
In LIS, we do not find instances of sequential derivation to convey attenuation. However, LIS can employ a dedicated manual sign (glossed ‘attenuative’) to mark attenuation of colours, conveying that they are vague or less strong with reference to the standard. A few examples are shown below.
fe
sq
tp
a. light_blue attenuative
‘Bluish’
fe
sq
tp
b. green attenuative
‘Greenish’
As the examples show, the sign conveying the attenuative is marked by specific non-manual markers consisting in furrowed eyebrows (fe), squinted eyes (sq) and tongue protrusion (tp), which convey the concept of vagueness related to the colour. This sign is specifically employed to convey attenuation of colours and thus cannot occur alone. However, it does not show the other properties usually displayed by derivational suffixes (i.e. productivity, phonological reduction), so it is better to consider it an independent lexical sign. It is possible, though, that in future it will grammaticalise in the attenuative morpheme, but this process takes time and LIS, as other sign languages, is still too young to display morphological processes of this kind.
A different strategy attested concerns the possibility to employ the adverb more_or_less or adjectives like light which convey attenuation following the colour adjective. We provide an example for each strategy below for sake of completeness.
a. yellow more_or_less
‘Yellowish’
sq
tp
b. red light
‘Reddish’
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant Agreement No 693349.