A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

Sometimes the starting and end point of the verb agrees with spatial locations, rather than with the verbal arguments. We refer to these verbs as spatial verbs (LEXICON 3.2.3). In these constructions, the path movement connecting the two points of articulation conveys the movement or spatial location of the subject or object (animate or inanimate) of the event. Verbs that can convey locative agreement are go, bring_someone, arrive, come, get_up, get_down, walk, go_in, go_out.

 

 

 

         ix₃ house_a  school_b ago_b    

         ‘He goes from home to school.’

 

Therefore, the starting and end points of the path movement of the verb correspond to source and goal locative arguments respectively.  Alternatively, only one location may be specified, as in the following example.

 

 

 

         teacher book shelf++_a CL(flat open 5): ‘put_book’_a

         ‘The teacher puts the book on one of the shelves.’

 

The example above is also interesting because it shows how the two hands can be employed to localise two entities simultaneously. We illustrate this Figure-Ground relationship in the figure below for sake of clarity: the non-dominant (left) hand represents the shelf, thus functions as ground, namely the position in which the figure represented by the dominant right hand, i.e. the book, it’s being located by means of the classifier predicate (MORPHOLOGY 5.1), which carries the locative marker.

 

                  

         dom:    CL(flat open 5): ‘put_book’_a

         n-dom: CL(unspread 5): ‘shelf’_a

         ‘(To) put a book on a shelf’

 

The two hands can also be used to locate entities with respect to each other, thus both hands carry a locative marker.

 

                  

         dom:    CL(G): ‘lamp_be_located’        

         n-dom: CL(unspread 5): ‘library_be_located’

         ‘The lamp is next to the library.’

 

Dedicated classifier constructions can also be employed to define the static location of referents in space, defining real-word locations. In these instances, the classifier predicate displays a short movement downward as to place the referent. See the example below.

 

 

 

         chair^soft CL(unspread 5): ‘be_located’

         ‘The sofa is located there.’

 

In LIS, we also find some spatial verbs that have no movement, thus they convey agreement simply by localising the sign for the verb in the position dedicated to the location argument, as in the example below.

 

 

 

         s-a-r-a three^year rome_a stay_a

         ‘Sara stayed in Rome for three years.’