A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

As reported in the previous sections, most nominal modifiers in LIS preferably occur postnominally. However, some of them can be produced before the noun. This is the case of: i) some quality adjectives (SYNTAX 4.5.1), ii) the reinforcer element in the demonstrative reinforcer construction (SYNTAX 4.1.2.2), and iii) some cardinal numerals (SYNTAX 4.3.3). For the sake of comparability, the glosses of the relevant examples are repeated below: (a) shows a prenominal adjective (beautiful), (b) a prenominal reinforcer element (ix), and (c) a prenominal cardinal (twelve).

         a.            travel america ix(loc) beautiful experience

         ‘My travel to the States was a beautiful experience.’

         b.            peter ix(loc)_a man ix(dem)_a be_familiar

         ‘Peter knows that man over there.’

         c.            maria bring three cake

         ‘Maria brought three cakes.’

In the example below, we show an indefinite complex nominal expression containing a prenominal cardinal (three). The sign order is cardinal + noun + adjective.

                  om

         ix₁ see three dog black

         ‘I suddenly saw three black dogs.’