A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

1.3. Indefiniteness

Indefinite noun phrases are nominal arguments which refer to those discourse referents that are unknown to the interlocutor. They fulfil the function of introducing new entities in the conversation. This is exemplified below.

today morning office_a poss₁ man one(indef)_b_bcome_a

‘This morning a man came to my office.’

Indefinite noun phrases can refer to non-unique discourse referents, for example to elements which display their properties with a class of other elements. For this reason, these elements are not uniquely identifiable, as displayed in the example below.

night star CL(5): ‘shine’. beautiful-int

‘Tonight, the stars are shining and it’s very beautiful.’

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List of editors

Chiara Branchini & Lara Mantovan

Bibliographical reference for citation

The entire grammar:
Branchini, Chiara and Lara Mantovan (eds.). 2020. A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series). (http://sign-hub.eu/grammars/...) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

A Chapter:
Smith, Mary. 2020. Syntax: 3. Coordination and Subordination. In Branchini, Chiara and Lara Mantovan (eds.), A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series), 230-237. ((http://sign-hub.eu/grammars/...) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

A Section:
Smith, Mary. 2020. Phonology: 1.1.1.2. Finger configuration. In Mary, Smith, Ben Smith and Carlo Smith (eds.), A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series), 230-237. (http://sign-hub.eu/grammars/...) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

Smith, Mary. 2020. Syntax: 3.1.2.1.3. Manual markers in disjunctive coordination. In Mary, Smith, Ben Smith and Carlo Smith (eds.), A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC). 1st edn. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series), 230-237. (http://sign-hub.eu/grammars/...) (Accessed 31-10-2021)