A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

In the pronoun copying phenomenon, the copied argument can be realized as a full noun phrase (NP) (SYNTAX 4), as an overt pronoun (LEXICON 3.7), or as a null pronoun. In LIS, a commonly copied argument is the ‘aboutness topic’, namely the entity the sentence is about. Since this type of topic usually coincides with the subject, often the pronoun copying refers to the subject of the clause. Example (a) shows the copy of a subject realized as a full NP, whereas in the example (b) the subject is realized as a pronoun.

 

 

 

         a.            cat_a ix_a kibble_b like ix_3a

         ‘The cat likes the kibble, he.’

 

 

 

         b.            ix_3a kibble like ix_3a

         ‘He (the cat) likes the kibble, he.’

 

The pronoun may also refer to a subject which is otherwise left unexpressed, as shown in the sentence below.

 

 

 

         chocolate ix_b like ix_3a

         ‘(She) likes chocolate, she.’

 

In LIS, pronoun copying may also appear in other types of sentences, such as matrix polar interrogatives, as in the example below.

 

 

 

               bl: a                     y/n

         mother fruit like ix_3a

         ‘Does mum like fruit?’

 

Copying pronouns may also appear in complex sentences, which contain an embedded clause. In this situation in LIS, the pronoun can refer to either the matrix or the embedded subject. In the following example, ix refers to the matrix subject mother.

 

 

 

         m-a-r-i-a fruit eat most must mother_a say ix_3a

         ‘My mum said that Maria should eat more fruit, she (my mum).’

 

In the following example, ix refers to the embedded subject sister.

 

 

 

         father_a remember ix_b sister_b adventure like ix_3b

         ‘My father remembers that his sister loves adventures.’

 

What decides whether ix refers to the embedded or to the matrix subject seems to be its position: if ix immediately follows the matrix clause, it refers to the matrix subject, if ix immediately follows the embedded clause, it refers to the embedded subject.

         Based on present knowledge, pronoun copying cannot be used as a specific tool for distinguishing subordination from coordination in LIS. However, pronoun copying naturally occurs with subordination as in the following example (repeated from above).

 

 

 

         m-a-r-i-a fruit eat most must mother_a say ix_3a

         ‘My mum said that Maria should eat more fruit, she (my mum).’

 

On the contrary, in the case of two or more coordinated sentences, the final copying pronoun is hardly found.