2.1.2.1. Noun-verb pairs
In LIS, it is not always easy to distinguish a noun sign from a verb sign, at least at first sight. Factors that allow us to distinguish if the sign is a noun or a verb are the linguistic context, mouth actions and movement articulation.
Often, the position occupied by the sign within the sentence is a way to understand its syntactic role, whether the sign is a noun or a verb. Below we show an example in which both the noun scissors and the verb cut_with_scissors appear in the same sentence:
ix1 draw person++. draw done then scissors cut_with_scissors
‘I drew some people. After that I cut them with scissors.’
As expected, the instrumental noun scissors precedes the sentence-final verb cut_with_scissors.
Another factor that can help to distinguish between a noun and a verb sign is the labial articulation of the corresponding Italian word or of part of it (mouthing), which generally appears on nouns or adjectives, rather than on verbs (PHONOLOGY 1.5.2). Verbs, on the other hand, are often accompanied by mouth gestures (PHONOLOGY 1.5.1) or no labial movement at all. In the examples below, the verb drive (a) and the noun car (b) differ in that the verb is marked by specific non-manuals (puffed cheeks ‘pc’ and lips protrusion ‘lp’), which are usually found with verbs, whereas the noun has no specific non-manual marking nor labial movement. The role of mouthing in noun-verb pairs in LIS is discussed in MORPHOLOGY 2.2.4.
pc
lp
a. drive
b. car
Furthermore, noun and verb signs in LIS can be distinguished by considering the different movement performed by the manual sign. It may concern: i) movement articulation, ii) movement amplitude, iii) movement directionality, and iv) duration.
As for movement articulation, in nouns the movement is usually short, tense, repeated and contained, while in verbs it is never contained and can be single, repeated, or continued. Sometimes the difference is in the virtual absence of movement in the noun and, conversely, movement or more complex movement in the verb sign. For example, this phenomenon has been observed in the articulation of the verb play with respect to the articulation of the noun toy, as shown in the example below.
son poss1 ix toy new ix3 play
‘My son plays with his new toy.’
As for movement amplitude, the verb movement is wider than the noun movement. For example, this phenomenon has been observed in the pair chair (a) and sit (b), where the verb is articulated in a broader way.
a. chair
b. sit
In the ‘open and shut’ signs, the movement is bidirectional when the sign is a noun, while the movement is single and has a monodirectional movement when the sign is a verb. An example is the pair of signs book (a) and open_the_book (b).
a. book
b. open_the_book
The execution of the verb tends to be longer than that of the noun. In some cases, the length of the verb may be twice the length of the noun. An example is the pair rocket (a) and CL(G): ‘rocket_take_off’ (b).
‘missile’
a. rocket
lp
pc
b. CL(G): ‘rocket_take_off’
‘The rocket is taking off.’
The examples above are further evidence that usually stem modification is combined with the simultaneous articulation of mouthings or dedicated non-manual markers. The noun rocket (a) is accompanied by the labial articulation of the corresponding Italian word missile. On the other hand, the corresponding classifier predicate CL(G): ‘rocket_take_off’ (b) occurs with the mouth gestures puffed cheeks (pc) and lips protrusion (lp).
