A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

The term register refers to the relationship between the form of a language and the context in which the language is used. It also relates to some kinds of linguistic variation that are triggered by specific communicative situations. Indeed, every speaker tends to adapt his/her language to the context and to the specific features of certain communicative situations.

         Generally, registers are considered from three different perspectives: the tenor, the mode and the field involved in the communication. As for the tenor, it refers to the communicative interactions set among the participants, with a special attention on the role the participants play within the communicative exchange and to the social relations which hold among them. The mode relates to the channel, that consists of all the types of communicative means which can be used (such as the spoken, sign, or written channel), the linguistic code in use (Italian, English, LIS), the level of preparation of the discourse (spontaneous or previously planned), and the genre and the style of the communicative interactions, for example narrative, didactic, informative, or persuasive. Finally, the field concerns the whole communicative event, in his general features relating to the topics of the communications or to the matter.

         Politeness is the way in which people try to show their awareness in protecting the public self-imagine of the other people they are communicating with. It consists of a range of social skills which facilitate the self-perception of the participants among the different social interactions. It is also related to the concept of face, namely to the concept of public self-imagine that everyone would like to protect across the communicative exchange with other people.