A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

LIS has several signs to express negation manually. The most common one is a sign glossed not and produced with the extended index finger (G handshape), the palm facing outward and a slight side-to-side movement of the hand. It appears as in the video below.

 

 

 

         not

         ‘Not’

 

Another way to express negation is the sign not_yet. It has two different variants that are shown below as not_yet(1) (a) and not_yet(2) (b). The variant not_yet(1) is a symmetrical sign formed by the two hands with the same configuration (F configuration): the movement is similar to the one in not, rapid and left to right. On the other hand, the variant not_yet(2), which is mainly used in northern Italy, is articulated as an unspread 5 handshape moving from side to side close to the mouth.

 

 

 

         a.            not_yet(1)

         ‘not yet’

 

 

 

         b.            not_yet(2)

         ‘not yet’

 

The two variants do not differ semantically and their position in the sentence is the same.So, when we use the gloss not_yet, we refer to both the variants without specification.

         From a semantic point of view, not_yet differ significantly from not. Indeed, the sign not_yet is a presuppositional negative marker: it is used when there is an expectation that the action that is negated should take place in the future (the meaning is similar to the English negative marker ‘not yet’).Both not (a) and not_yet (b) can be used as answer to yes/no questions, as in the examples below.

 

                                                                            y/n

         a.            A:        gianni phone_call done

                        B:        gianni phone_call not

         ‘Did Gianni call?’ ‘Gianni has not called.’ (adapted from Geraci, 2006a: 3)

 

                                                                                  y/n

         b.            A:        gianni phone_call done

                        B:        gianni phone_call not_yet

         ‘Gianni has not called.’ ‘Gianni has not called yet.’ (adapted from Geraci, 2006a: 4)

 

As for their distribution, both not (a) and not_yet (b) occupy the post-verbal position as shown in the two following examples.

 

         a.            gianni arrive not

         ‘Gianni has not arrived.’ (Geraci, 2006a: 4)

 

         b.            gianni arrive not_yet

         ‘Gianni has not arrived yet.’ (Geraci, 2006a: 4)

 

They also appear after the modal verbs, as in the example below.

 

         gianni go_out must not

         ‘Gianni must not exit.’

 

Only one negative marker at a time can appear in a sentence.

         Other two options used to express negation are the signs that we gloss neg_o and neg_s, for the oral articulations that accompany their manual realization.The sign neg_o is a symmetrical sign formed by the two hands with F handshape. The two hands perform one rapid and strong movement, from the centre to the outside, as in the video below.

 

 

 

         neg_o

 

This negation has a more radical and incisive meaning than the sign not: it refers to something that should have happened but did not, as in the example below.

 

 

 

                                                           neg

         week.last ix₁ must come ix₁ neg_o reason sick ix₁

         ‘Last week I should have come, but I did not because I was sick.’

 

The other negation, glossed as neg_s, has the same configuration of the sign neg_o, but the movement is less tense and slower and it differs in the oral articulation, as can be seen from the following video.

 

 

 

              neg

         neg_s

This sign refers to an action that a person could not do at all, like in the example below.

 

 

 

                                                              neg                   

         ix₁ child look_after ix₁ work neg_s

         ‘I looked after the child, so I did not work at all.’

 

There is one more negation carrying the meaning of a prohibition. It is produced by articulating the two fingerspelled letters n and o corresponding to the oral articulation of the Italian word no. The sign n-o can be seen below.

 

 

 

         n-o

 

Below we can see an example of its use.

 

 

 

         ix₁ repeat++. ix₁ say n-o anymore

         ‘I repeated it many times. I said no, enough!’