A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Irregular negation refers to those instances in which verbs display a completely different form for their negative counterpart. In such signs, the negative element cannot be identified and distinguished from the lexical verb. For these reasons, they are also referred to as opaque irregular negatives (SYNTAX 1.5.1.1.2). In LIS, we find several examples. The negative counterpart of the positive existential glossed exist (a), which in LIS also corresponds to the verb ‘have’ (SYNTAX 2.1.5), is a manual sign that is completely different from its positive counterpart. This sign, exist.not (b), is marked by the specific non-manual marker for negation, i.e. headshaking (hs).

 

 

 

         a.       exist

         ‘There is’

         ‘(To) have’

         ‘(To) exist’

 

 

 

                              hs

         b.       exist.not

         ‘There is not’

         ‘(To) not have’

 

To realise the negative counterpart of want (a), LIS employs the sign want.not, occurring with the non-manual marker for negation (b). See how they differ in the examples below.

 

 

 

         a.       want

 

 

 

                               hs

         b.       want.not

         ‘Do not want’

 

Note that this negative irregular form (b) is a variant of the regular negative modal want^not  illustrated in MORPHOLOGY 3.5.1.1.

         One further example is provided by the verb like (a), whose negative counterpart is the sign like.not, which is lexically specified for furrowed eyebrows (fe) and tongue protrusion (tp)(b). Notice that LIS employs the same sign for the verb want and the verb like, but like displays a slower articulation.

 

 

 

         a.       like

 

 

 

                                  fe

                                   tp

         b.       like.not

         ‘(To) dislike’

 

To convey that an event has not taken place or it has not been completed, LIS employs a specific manual marker not_yet (b), which is considered a negative completive/perfective marker (LEXICON 3.3.2), namely it is the negative counterpart of the aspectual marker done in (a), (which cannot co-occur with negation).

 

 

 

         a.       done

 

 

 

         b.       not_yet

 

The deontic negative counterpart of the sign be_able (a) conveying ability (LEXICON 3.3.3.1) is impossible_pa_pa (b), which refers to a situation in which the desired result cannot be achieved despite several attempts.

 

 

 

         a.       be_able

         ‘(To) be able’

 

 

 

                                          hs

         b.       impossible_pa_pa

         ‘(To) not be able’

 

The negative counterpart of the sign be_able (a) encoding epistemic certainty (LEXICON 3.3.3.2) is impossible_no_way (b). This indicates that there is no possibility at all that the event can happen due to absence of favourable conditions.

 

 

 

         a.       be_able

         ‘Can’

 

 

 

                                              hs

         b.       impossible_no_way

         ‘(To) be absolutely unlikely to happen’