A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

The signing space is also used to convey temporal information at both lexical and discourse level. Such information is realised through an imaginary time line perpendicular to the signer’s body. At the lexical level, temporal information is expressed by adverbials, such as yesterday and then, and other signs referring to time, such as three^year^last and tuesday^next. All these signs conform to the time line strategy. Time lines are relevant to the discourse level as well, since different events can be spatially projected to different points of the time line.

         Three types of time lines are distinguishable in LIS: a basic time line, a sequence time line, and an anaphoric time line. The former is set perpendicularly to the signer’s body and extends forward from his dominant shoulder, as shown in the picture below.

 

         

         Figure: The deictic time line in LIS

 

The default use of the basic time-line is deictic, namely it refers to the time of the utterance. The temporal description involves a symbolic use of the signing space; according to this strategy, time information referring to the past is signed over the signer’s dominant shoulder, present information is signed right in front of the signer’s torso and the future is realised in the area further away. The example below shows the use of the basic time line.

 

 

 

         university ix₁ start three^year^last

         ‘I started the university three years ago.’

 

The sequence time line is parallel to the signer’s shoulders and extends from left to the right on the horizontal plane. It represents early to later periods or moments in time.

 

         

         Figure: The sequence time line in LIS

 

In the sequence time line, hours, days, weeks, months, years, seasons, and general periods of time may be articulated. The example below shows such use.

 

 

 

         monday until friday ix₁ work++

         ‘From Monday to Friday I work continuously.’

 

Another strategy to indicate hourly sequences is to place hours around an imaginary clock in the vertical plane in front of the signer’s body, as shown in the example below.

 

 

 

         school ix₁ stay at_eight_[contra] at_nine_{[contra_up]} at_ten_[up] until at_two_[ipsi] go_out

         ‘I remain at school at eight, at nine, at ten… until two, when I go out’.

 

The anaphoric time line follows an imaginary diagonal trajectory. Anaphoric temporal references are determined within the discourse and are expressed with respect to a point of reference marked along this line. In the sentence below, the point of reference is represented by the birth of the signer’s nephew, which is signed close to the signer’s body on the ipsilateral side. The move to Bologna realises a relation of posteriority and is expressed farther from the signer’s body on the contralateral side.

 

 

 

         nephew be_born ix₁ bologna move

         ‘After my nephew was born, I moved to Bologna’.