A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

In order to observe the most natural order of subject, object and verb in LIS main declarative clauses, we need to look at sentences with a transitive predicate. The most natural order of constituents in LIS clauses is: subject, encoding the agent argument, object, encoding the theme argument, and verb. The order SOV in LIS holds with both plain and agreement verbs, as shown in the following (a) and (b) examples respectively.

 

 

 

         a.         cat red meat eat

         ‘The red cat eats the meat.’

 

 

 

         b.         davide_a maria_b ahelp_b

         ‘Davide helps Maria.’

 

As expected, the order between the subject and verb in sentences with an intransitive predicate is SV, regardless of the thematic role of the subject: an agent (a), as with unergative verbs (SYNTAX 2.1.1.2), or a theme (b), as with unaccusative verbs (SYNTAX 2.1.1.2).

 

 

 

         a.            luca run

         ‘Luca runs.’

 

 

 

         b.            luca go_out

         ‘Luca exits.’

 

In LIS, pronominal subjects and overt noun phrase subjects occupy the same position in the clause.

 

         a.            cat red meat eat

         ‘The red cat eats meat.’

 

         b.            ix_3pl meat eat

         ‘They eat meat.’

 

Next to the SOV order, the SVO order is accepted in sentences that possess a structurally heavy object, like in the following examples.

 

 

 

         a.            yesterday ix₁ meet man ix_a hat CL(L): ‘big_hat’ plus coat colour grey

         ‘Yesterday I met a man with a big hat and a grey coat.’

 

 

 

         b.            yesterday ix₁ meet woman fat_a man tall_b child_c capricious_c

         ‘Yesterday I met a robust woman, a tall man, and a capricious child.’

 

 

 

         c.            yesterday ix₁ eat pizza CL(5): ‘all_pizza’ cheese plus mushroom

         ‘Yesterday I ate a pizza with cheese and mushrooms.’

 

We should finally point out that, although LIS is a relatively consistent language, as far as word order is concerned, some variation in the order of the main constituents in LIS clauses has been observed. The sociolinguistic factor influencing the order of subject, object and verb in LIS is the geographical origin of signers: while signers from Northern Italy seem to slightly prefer the VO order, signers living in the Central and Southern Italy seem to prefer the OV order.