A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

LIS intransitive predicates select for one argument, the subject. On the basis of the thematic role of the subject argument, they can be distinguished into unergative and unaccusative verbs.

         The subject of LIS intransitive unergative predicates has the thematic role of agent. Activity verbs like dance, talk, run, laugh belong to this class. Intransitive unergative predicates in LIS can be plain verbs and agreement verbs. Intransitive unergative plain verbs like sleep, laugh, cry, and cough are produced on the body of the signer (a), while intransitive unergative agreement verbs are produced in the neutral space without movement displacement, like the verbs work, run, and play (b).

         a.            m-a-r-i-a laugh

         ‘Maria laughs.’

         b.            child play

         ‘The child plays.’

The subject of LIS intransitive unaccusative predicates has the thematic role of theme and is typically non-agentive. In LIS, intransitive unaccusative predicates can be plain verbs like be_born produced on the body of the signer (a), agreement verbs with two points of articulation in the neutral space, like arrive (b), and agreement verbs with one point of articulation in the signing space like die, fall_down, brake, melt, rise, collapse, leave, and grow_up (c). In some sentences, the distinction between unaccusative and unergative predicates based on the semantic role of the subject is not very intuitive, as in a sentence like ‘The teacher arrived’. However, the fact that the subject of ‘arrive’ can be inanimate (‘The letter arrived’, as in (d)) indicates that the subject is not an agent, so the verb ‘arrive’ is usually classified as unaccusative.

         a.            yesterday baby be_born

         ‘Yesterday the baby was born.’

         b.            teacher arrive

         ‘The teacher arrived.’

         c.            p-a-o-l-o grow_up

         ‘Paolo has grown up.’

         d.            letter arrive done

         ‘The letter arrived.’

When the object of otherwise transitive predicates like eat, drink, go, and run is contextually understood, they can be used intransitively. In this case, they only select for the subject argument.

         l-u-c-a eat done

         ‘Luca ate.’