A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

LIS verbs behave differently in expressing a reciprocal relation between their arguments depending on the class they belong to (plain verbs, agreement verbs, spatial verbs).

LIS has a reciprocal marker glossed each_other (LEXICON 3.7.4) that can be employed to express reciprocity with plain verbs that, due to articulatory restrictions, don’t mark reciprocity on the verb (SYNTAX 2.1.3.4).

 

 

 

         ix₁₊₂ understand each_other

         ‘You and I understand each other.’

 

Alternatively, plain verbs express reciprocity through zero marking, namely, the object slot of a transitive verb is left empty, as shown below:

 

 

 

         ix₁₊₃ love

         ‘We love each other.’

 

As opposed to plain verbs, agreement and spatial verbs can inflect to convey reciprocity:

i) One-handed signs, such as give, are produced as two-handed signs in which the two hands move alternatively as independent signs, thus marking the two members of the reciprocal relation through simultaneous reduplication.

 

 

 

         dom:    ₁give_{2 2}give₁

         n-dom: ₂give_{1 1}give₂

         ‘We give (something) to each other.’

 

ii) Two-handed signs, such as donate, can realise reciprocity through sequential reduplication, namely the two-handed sign moves from the subject to the object and backwards.

 

 

 

         every_year christmas ix_3a+3badonate_bbdonate_a

         ‘Every year at Christmas they give each other a present.’

 

Alternatively, the two-handed sign is produced as if the two hands functioned as independent articulators, moving alternatively between the positions of the two arguments of the predicate.

 

 

 

         dom:    ₁donate_{2 2}donate₁

         n-dom: ₂donate_{1 1}donate₂

         ‘(To) donate to each other.’

 

The reader is referred to SYNTAX 2.1.3.4 for a more detailed description of reciprocity in LIS.