A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

The present chapter explores the morphological processes that LIS nouns can undergo to convey information of number and localisation/distribution, without employing numerals, quantifiers or classifiers. These inflectional processes can be realised both manually and non-manually.

         Nouns in LIS can be divided into two classes: nouns articulated in the signing space belong to the class of inflectional nouns; nouns articulated close or on the signer’s body are comprised into the class of invariable nouns (LEXICON 3.1). The possibility of displaying inflectional processes depends on both phonological and semantic constraints for both the classes of nouns. When inflectional processes are not allowed, LIS employs other strategies involving numerals (a) (LEXICON 3.10.1), quantifiers (b) (LEXICON 3.10.2) or classifiers (c) (MORPHOLOGY 5). We provide an example for each strategy here for ease of clarification.

         a.       book twelve CL(unspread 5): ‘take’

         ‘I take twelve books.’

         b.       man many

         ‘Many men’

         c.       table book CL(unspread 5): ‘book_be_located’++

         ‘There are several books on the table.’

Notice that besides these strategies, plurality can be conveyed through inflection of the verb sign (MORPHOLOGY 3.1.2.2).