A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

2.3.1.4. Order of negation with respect to verb, modals and auxiliaries

In a LIS sentence displaying an unmarked word order, negation follows the verb, as well as modals and aspectual markers, regardless of the type of negative element employed, such as negative particles, negative words and negative adverbials (SYNTAX 1.5.1.1).

The VO order is not accepted by signers in sentences that contain a negative sign. Here we have an example of a negative sentence displaying the SOV order.

neg

ix₁book buy not

‘I don’t buy the book.’

The following are examples of sentences with different types of modals and negative elements.

neg

a. hospital accompany can nobody

‘Nobody can accompany (her) to the hospital.’

neg

b. ix₁ film ix₁ see want not

‘I don’t want to watch the/a film.’

neg

c. gianni exit must not

‘Gianni must not go out.’

neg

d. gianni smoke be_able not

‘Gianni is not allowed to smoke.’

As can be seen, negation follows the modal. When the modal incorporates the negative sign, the sign that expresses both the modal and negation is at the end of the sentence, as in the following example.

gianni smoke can^not

‘Gianni cannot smoke.’ (based on Geraci, 2006b: 103)

Despite the fact that negative quantifiers are regularly right-dislocated, some signers do allow them to occur in preverbal position according to their argument position: in (a) the sign nobody is the sentence subject, therefore it occurs in subject position, in (b) the same sign is the sentence object and it appears in object position.

neg

a. nobody put_signature sign

‘Nobody signed the contract.’ (recreated from Cecchetto, Geraci & Zucchi, 2009: 287)

neg

b. gianni_a nobody_{b a}help_b

‘Gianni did not help anybody.’ (Cecchetto, Geraci & Zucchi, 2009: 287)

It is important to notice the spreading domain of the negative non-manual marking in the two examples above: they start being articulated when the negative quantifier is signed (in argument position) and spread over the manual material following it. As illustrated in SYNTAX 2.3.1.2, the agreement marker, that can be considered an auxiliary, follows the verb.

gianni_a pietro_b be_familiar _aaux_b

‘Gianni knows Pietro.’

When negating the previous sentence, our informants produce the auxiliary either before the verb (a) or after the negative sign (b).

neg

a. gianni_a pietro_b_aaux_b be_familiar not

‘Gianni doesn’t know Pietro.’

neg

b. gianni_a pietro_b be_familiar not _aaux_b

‘Gianni doesn’t know Pietro.’

The sign must can be used both as a modal and as an aspectual marker expressing a non-completed event. In this second case, we gloss it as to_be_done and it is produced with a variant. In both cases, it follows the sentence verb.