A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

LIS transitive predicates select for two arguments. The prototypical thematic roles for the two arguments of transitive predicates are agent and theme, syntactically realized as subject and direct object, respectively. As for the thematic roles of the two arguments required by LIS transitive predicates, however, some variation is attested. The subject of a transitive predicate like forget, for example, has the thematic role of experiencer, while the object of a verb of movement like go, when used transitively, has the thematic role of goal.

         LIS transitive predicates belong to all verbal classes: plain verbs, agreement verbs, and spatial verbs (LEXICON 3.2).

         Transitive predicates in LIS can be plain verbs like eat, drink, photograph, want, forget articulated on the body of the signer. In the following example, the verb forget is a plain verb selecting an experiencer, luca, and a theme, key.

 

         l-u-c-a key forget

         ‘Luca forgot the keys.’

 

Transitive predicates in LIS can also be agreement verbs with two points of articulation in the neutral space, like kill (a); agreement verbs with one point of articulation in the neutral space, like break (b); and agreement verbs articulated on the body of the signer and moving towards the neutral space, like see (c).

 

         a.            m-a-r-i-o thief kill

         ‘Mario kills the thief.’

 

         b.            child computer break

         ‘The child breaks the computer.’

 

         c.            l-u-c-a television see

         ‘Luca watches the television.’

 

Transitive verbs are also a subclass of LIS agreement verbs, called backward verbs, whose peculiarity is that they start in the location of the neutral space associated with the theme, object of the verb, and move towards the agent, subject of the verb. LIS backward verbs like take, copy, invite, receive, and choose belong to this class.

 

 

 

         l-u-c-a key take

         ‘Luca takes the keys.’

 

Transitive predicates can finally be spatial verbs, like move, taking two arguments (the agent and the theme) and optionally two locative adjuncts, represented in the following example by the locations in space corresponding to the beginning and end of verb movement.

 

 

 

         ix₁ book _aCL(flat open 5): ‘move_book’_b

         ‘I move the book (from here to there).’

 

On the other hand, the syntactic structure of verbs of movement, like go, run, and arrive, is difficult to determine, as they select for the subject argument and for an implicit argument, the goal or locative argument, school in the following example. In these verbs, the goal argument is semantically obligatory, that is, it must be shared by the interlocutor, but syntactically optional, as verbs of movement can also be used intransitively. In order to be omitted, the goal argument must be contextually given.

 

         child school arrive

         ‘The child arrived at school.’

 

LIS ditransitive predicates select for three arguments. The prototypical semantic roles for the three arguments of ditransitive predicates are agent, theme and goal. They are syntactically realized as subject, direct object and indirect object respectively, and often express some notion of transfer.

         LIS ditransitive predicates can be agreement and spatial verbs. Ditransitive predicates in LIS are agreement verbs with two points of articulation in the neutral space, like donate (a) and agreement verbs whose starting point is on the signer’s body, like say (b).

 

         a.            woman child book donate

         ‘The woman donates a book to the child.’

 

         b.            l-u-c-a p-a-o-l-o lie say

         ‘Luca tells a lie to Paolo.’

 

Likewise, classifier predicates conveying the concept of transfer select for three arguments: the agentive subject, the theme direct object, and the goal indirect object, as shown below.

 

         a.            l-u-c-a g-i-a-n-n-i drinking_glass CL(unspread curved open 5): ‘give_glass’

         ‘Luca gives a/the glass to Gianni.’       

 

         b.            l-u-c-a g-i-a-n-n-i car CL(closed 5): ‘lend_car’

         ‘Luca lends the car to Gianni.’ 

 

Ditransitive spatial verbs, like CL(flat open 5): ‘put_book’, select for a subject, direct object, and locative argument.

 

         teacher book shelf CL(flat open 5): ‘put_book’

         ‘The teacher puts the book on the shelf.’