A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

In a discourse, signers can hold the handshape of a sign with the non-dominant hand, while the dominant hand continues to sign independently. This phenomenon is called weak hand holds and it can have two different functions. One concerns the discourse level, where the non-dominant hand simply expresses discourse relations, while in other cases the information held with the non-dominant hand still represents a co-referential meaning: these latter cases are called buoys (LEXICON 1.2.3). 

         In LIS, several types of buoys can be identified: list buoys, pointer buoys, theme buoys and fragment buoys.

         List buoys are the outstretched fingers which function to track a certain number of referents. Each finger ensures a co-referential link to the discourse referents, as in the example below, where the signer refers to his fingers to keep track of his brothers in the discourse.

 

 

 

         dom:    ix₁ brother three exist ix_[thumb] lawyer ix_[index] doctor ix_[middle] teacher

         n-dom:      brother                    three----------------------------------------------------

         ‘I have three brothers, the first is a doctor, the second a lawyer, and the third a teacher.’

 

The signer may also point to the fingers with the dominant hand in order to retrieve that specific co-referent.      

         Pointer buoys are pronominal elements realised by the non-dominant hand. These buoys are very similar to pointing pronouns, but they are articulated simultaneously to the other signs. The example below shows this phenomenon.

 

 

 

         dom:    bear see_b. ix_3b mean ix_3b

         n-dom:                 ix_3b------------

         ‘The bear sees it and considers it mean.’ 

 

Theme buoys are holding signs which represent prominent information at the discourse sentence. They are realised through pointing and their function is to preserve the saliency of these referents along the signed discourse, unlike the pointer buoys which are just arguments of a single sentence. In the example below, the theme buoy refers to some bad situation happened to the signer.

 

 

 

         dom:          sad ix_3a be_obsessed q_artichoke ix₁ understand not

         n-dom: ix_3a-----------------------------------------------------------

         ‘He is sad and he is obsessed with something I don’t understand.’

 

Sometimes, these prominent referents can be realised through a full lexical sign, which has been held for the whole duration of the related discourse. In these cases, the referents are called fragment buoys.

 

 

 

         dom:    book ix(dem) ix₁ read ix₁ think interesting

         n-dom: book---------------------------------------------

         ‘I read this book and think it is interesting.’