2.2.3.1. Full forms

When the mouthing reproduces the corresponding Italian word in its entirety, it is classified as full form. Full mouthings may be redundant in that they express the same meaning of the associated manual signs, or they may be used to disambiguate the meaning of homonyms (i.e. signs with identical manual forms but different meanings) (PHONOLOGY 1.5.2).

            Full mouthings are usually found in combination with nouns, such as name (‘nome’), doctor (‘dottore’), and house (‘casa’).

 

 

 

            ‘nome’

            name

 

However, they can also co-occur with other word classes. We find full mouthings in combination with adverbials, such as yesterday (‘ieri’) (a), never (‘mai’), and well (‘bene’), as well as with adjectives, such as good (‘buono’) (b), new (‘nuovo’), and beautiful (‘bello’).

 

 

 

                                 â€˜ieri’

            a.         yesterday

 

 

 

                        ‘buono’

            b.         good