A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Metaphors are also useful for understanding complex meanings since they can map abstract concepts to concrete experiences. Primary forms of metaphors, namely very basic types of metaphors, display an embodied experiential basis. To illustrate, the concept of intimacy is mapped to spatial closeness, or a great amount or degree is mapped to the high part of the signing space. The example below shows the metaphor intimacy is closeness: in particular, the fact that the signer and his/her friend are placed in close locations in space reflects their close relationship.

 

 

 

         ix₁ friend ix_{a 1}communicate_3a

         ‘I have an intimate conversation with a friend of mine.’

 

The following example illustrates another metaphoric use of space: the price raise in the housing market is visually represented by the upward movement.

 

 

 

         market house money money_­raise

         ‘There is a price raise in the housing market.’

 

Another basic category of metaphors consists in mapping a thought, a feeling or an emotion to a concrete object. In the following sentence, the expression of personal thoughts is metaphorically conveyed through the concrete act of handing something to someone, as shown below.

 

 

 

         ix₁ thought ₁CL(spread curved open 5): ‘give_from_inside’₂

         ‘I let you know my thoughts.’

 

Moreover, the fact that signs for emotions (e.g. love) are often placed in the chest, while signs for cognitive processes (e.g. think) are located close to the forehead of the signer is another basic use of metaphors.

         Lots of metaphors in LIS display this specific connection between an abstract concept, such as a feeling or a cognitive activity, and the place of the body in which people culturally or visually locate these elements. For example, a very common metaphor which has become an idiomatic expression in LIS is the combination of the signs heart black to mean a negative disposition, shown in the video below.

 

 

 

         heart black

         ‘Mean’

 

Such expression requires that both signs are produced close to the heart. Note that the sign black is conventionally articulated on the signer’s forehead. The fact that in this specific expression it is moved to the heart visually enhances the power of the metaphor. This suggests that metaphoric processes are creative and productive and belong to the dynamic part of language.

         A famous expression is perceive_with_mental_eyes. In this case, we can observe the displacement of the sign perceive, which is generally articulated close to the eyes, in an unusual, but metaphorically significant location: the forehead. Such displacement indicates that this kind of perception is referred to the mind rather than to the eye. The example of this use is shown below.

 

 

 

         perceive_with_­mental_eyes

         ‘Perceive something mentally.’

 

Interestingly, such creative processes do not only concern the poetic domain or idiomatic expressions, but are also used for referring to everyday life. An example is represented by the metaphorical use of the LIS sign university. In its citation form, this sign is realised with a forward path movement starting from the signer’s forehead combined with a closing secondary movement (a). The metaphoric version of university is realised with the same closing secondary movement combined with a slightly different path movement: at the beginning the hand moves forward, but then it suddenly moves downward (b). This particular form makes reference to a not serious attitude toward academic studies.

 

 

 

         a.            university (citation form)

 

 

 

         b.            university (metaphoric use)

         ‘Superficial attitude toward university’

 

In other cases, a metaphoric use in LIS is the transliteration of an Italian metaphor. For example, the Italian idiomatic expression avere i capelli dritti (Eng. ‘be surprised or scared’, literally ‘(to) have straight hair’). In LIS, the sign derives from the Italian version, but the idiomatic use has been visually adapted by taking advantage of the visual description of such expression, as shown in the example below.

 

 

 

         straight_hair

         ‘Being scared of something.’

 

These and many other metaphorical processes in LIS show that signers can resort to metaphor for the creation of new meanings.