A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Verbs that support attitude role shift include utterance predicates (like say) and propositional attitude predicates (like think). The following sentences contain a representative, but not complete, list of verbs that can introduce attitude role shift.

 

 

 

                                                                                     rs

         a.            gianni_a ix_a think ix₁ leave soon

         ‘Gianni thinks that he will leave soon.’

 

 

 

                                                                              rs

         b.            gianni doubt ix₁ leave soon

         ‘Gianni doubts that he would leave soon.’

 

 

 

                                                                            rs

         c.            gianni warn ix₁ leave soon

         ‘Gianni warned that he would leave soon.’

 

 

 

                                                                                  rs

         d.            gianni confirm ix₁ leave soon

         ‘Gianni confirmed that he would leave soon.’

 

 

 

                                                                           rs

         e.            gianni text ix₁ leave soon

         ‘Gianni said by text message that he would leave soon.’

 

As shown by the following sentence, attitude role shift can occur in an indirect question introduced by an interrogative verb.

 

 

 

                                                              rs

         gianni ask++₁ ix₁ leave soon

         ‘Gianni wonders whether he will leave soon.’

 

Attitude role shift is not restricted to cases where the subject of the main verb is a proper name or an expression denoting a definite individual, like in the examples above. Provided that spatial anchoring is possible, the subject of the main verb can be a quantification (SYNTAX 4.4). This is shown in the following examples.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                        rs

         a.            ix_3pl nobody say ix₁ contract put_signature done

         ‘Nobody (among them) said that s/he signed the contract.’

 

 

 

                                                     re                                                                     rs

         b.            somebody ix_3pl say ix₁ contract put_signature done

         ‘Someone (among them) said that he signed the contract.’

 

 

 

                                                                                                       rs

         c.            all say ix₁ contract put_signature done

         ‘Everybody said that s/he signed the contract.’

 

Role shift is possible also when the subject of the main verb is an interrogative expression, as in the following example.

 

 

 

                                                                      re

                                                                      rs                       wh

         ix₁ contract put_signature done ix_3pl say who 

         ‘Who (among them) said that s/he signed the contract?’