A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Signs do not represent unanalysable wholes, but rather entities that have an internal structure and can be decomposed into smaller units called phonemes. This chapter describes the phonological organisation and the inventory of phonemes in LIS.

            As any other language, LIS contains a finite set of phonemic units. These can be grouped into five classes, also known as phonological parameters. Four classes are related to the hands: handshape, orientation, location, and movement. Hands are not equally functioning, as one of the two acts as the dominant hand. This is the most active one while signing and it is typically the hand the signer feels most comfortable with. The fifth class is represented by non-manuals, a term that refers to facial expressions, head and body movements. Note that many signs are characterised by neutral facial expressions, hence do not realise a specific phoneme for non-manuals.

            To see how the five classes of phonemes are integrated into one sign, we observe the phonological structure of the sign thin.

 

              

            thin

 

This sign is a one-handed sign because it is realised with the dominant hand only. It can be decomposed into the following phonemes: i) handshape: extended pinky; ii) orientation: wrist side directed toward the endpoint of the movement; iii) location: neutral space (the space in front of the signer's upper body); iv) movement: straight downward; and v) non-manuals: contracted cheeks and/or protruding tongue.

            Phonemes do not carry any meaning per se. However, when they combine with each other to form signs, the presence of a phoneme rather than another can produce a change of meaning. When two signs differ in only one phonological parameter, share the others, and have distinct meanings, they form a minimal pair. An example of minimal pair in LIS is provided by the signs family and full.

 

 

 

            a.         family

 

 

 

            b.         full

 

These two signs form a minimal pair because: i) they carry distinct meaning and ii) differ in only one phoneme. As shown in the video examples, they have the same handshape (dominant hand open), orientation (palm directed toward the location), location (non-dominant hand) and non-manuals (neutral facial expression), but different movement (circular in family and straight in full).

            Because of their capability to produce change of meaning, phonemes are considered contrastive units. In this chapter, the presentation of the inventory of LIS phonemes is accompanied by relevant minimal pairs showing their contrastive nature. When minimal pairs are not available, near-minimal pairs are shown.

            Notice that phonemes in LIS represent a limited inventory which does not include all the possible articulatory forms. For instance, one phoneme may be realised in the language through different articulatory variants called phones. Although visually recognizable, they do not cause any meaning difference. Therefore, differently from phonemes, phones are not contrastive. To illustrate, the phonological form extended pinky can have two different phonetic realisations: one with adducted thumb (a) and the other with the thumb crossed over the folded fingers (b).

 

           

            a.         adducted thumb

 

           

            b.         crossed thumb

 

Crucially, the difference between (a) and (b) is not meaningful: they both can be used to produce the sign thin (see example above) without any change in meaning. In other words, the sign thin with handshape (a) and the sign thin with handshape (b) do not form a minimal pair. Because of their non-contrastive nature, phones are not considered two distinct phonemes, but rather two alternative phonetic realisations of the same phoneme. The use of one or the other may depend on independent factors, such as the form of neighbouring signs and the signing speed. Note that this chapter aims at abstracting away from all the possible phonetic realisations, providing an overview of the distinctive phonological forms only.

            In the next sections, the five classes of phonemes are described: handshape and orientation (PHONOLOGY 1.1), location (PHONOLOGY 1.2), movement (PHONOLOGY 1.3), and non-manuals (PHONOLOGY 1.5). The section PHONOLOGY 1.4 illustrates the phonological patterns emerging from two-handed signs, namely those signs articulated both by the dominant and non-dominant hand.