A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS)

4.1.2. New information focus

In new information focus, only a part of the sentence conveys new information. Generally, it can be used as an answer to a specific question, as in the discourse stretch below.

 

 

 

                                                   wh

         A:           ix2 buy qartichoke

                                       foc

         B:           ix1 car new buy ix1

         โ€˜What did you buy?โ€™ โ€˜I bought a new car.โ€™

 

In the example above, new car is the part of the sentence conveying new information. On the other hand, the subject (ix1) and the verb (buy) represent the background, which conveys old information. Generally, new information focus follows the background. Another similar example is presented below.

 

 

 

                                                                                        wh

         A:           food various ix2 impossible_no_way which

                                                   foc

         B:           ixc-a-p-p-e-r-i pe ix1 impossible_no_way

         โ€˜What kind of food do you hate most?โ€™ โ€˜I hate cappers.โ€™

 

However, in LIS it is also possible to find ellipsis in place of the part of the sentence conveying background information. Indeed, for signers this is the most natural strategy to answer a specific question. The example below reports a case in which new information (pizza) is conveyed by focus and background information is elided as a result of ellipsis.

 

 

 

                                                                   wh

         A:           food various like most which      

                            foc

         B:           pizza     

         โ€˜What kind of food do you like most?โ€™ โ€˜Pizza.โ€™

 

New information focus can also be expressed by question-answer pairs, specifically by the answer of the construction. This is a strategy often used by signers to give prominence to the item contained in the answer. Note that the question part of this construction and typical content interrogatives (SYNTAX 1.2.3) have different non-manual markers.

 

 

 

                                     wh     foc

         ix1 food like which pizza     

         โ€˜The kind of food I like is pizza.โ€™

List of editors

Chiara Branchini & Lara Mantovan

Copyright info

ยฉ 2020 Chiara Branchini, Chiara Calderone, Carlo Cecchetto, Alessandra Checchetto, Elena Fornasiero, Lara Mantovan & Mirko Santoro

Bibliographical reference for citation

The entire grammar:
Branchini, Chiara and Lara Mantovan (eds.). 2020. A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series). (http://sign-hub.eu/grammars/...) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

A Chapter:
Smith, Mary. 2020. Syntax: 3. Coordination and Subordination. In Branchini, Chiara and Lara Mantovan (eds.), A Grammar of Italian Sign Language (LIS). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series), 230-237. ((http://sign-hub.eu/grammars/...) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

A Section:
Smith, Mary. 2020. Phonology: 1.1.1.2. Finger configuration. In Mary, Smith, Ben Smith and Carlo Smith (eds.), A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC). 1st ed. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series), 230-237. (http://sign-hub.eu/grammars/...) (Accessed 31-10-2021)

Smith, Mary. 2020. Syntax: 3.1.2.1.3. Manual markers in disjunctive coordination. In Mary, Smith, Ben Smith and Carlo Smith (eds.), A Grammar of Catalan Sign Language (LSC). 1st edn. (SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammar Series), 230-237. (http://sign-hub.eu/grammars/...) (Accessed 31-10-2021)