In LIS, head tilt (reported as head nod) is used to mark affirmative responses to questions or for emphasis.
On the contrary, the movement of the head that rotates from right to left repeatedly characterizes negative clauses.Specific head movements (headshake) co-occur with all negative markers and n-words described above. Differently from other sign languages, in the variety of LIS considered here, the use of negative non-manual markers as the only signal for sentential negation is ungrammatical, but data collected for some studies show that the situation could be different in other parts of Italy.
Headshakeonly co-occurs with negative signs: it starts with the negative sign and can continue after the sign has been articulated. It generally does not spread over other signs of the sentence, as in the following examples.
hs
a. paolo contract put_signature not
‘Paolo did not sign the contract.’ (Geraci, 2006a: 5)
hs
b. gianni contract put_signature can not
‘Gianni cannot sign the contract.’ (Geraci, 2006a: 5)
hs
c. contract put_signature nobody
‘Nobody signed the contract.’ (Geraci, 2006a: 5)
The only cases of wide spreading of negative non-manual markings are the ones in which n-words occur in preverbal position, like in the example below.
nobody contract put_signature
‘Nobody signed the contract.’ (Geraci, 2006a: 5)
So, spreading of negative non-manual markers is very rare and occurs when some manual elements are in a marked position.
This peculiar spreading of negative non-manual marking can be seen also in the use of another n-word: the sign glossed dick.
dick
It corresponds to an Italian vulgar word indicating the male genital organ, but it is also used to say ‘nothing at all’ in the low register of Italian. Like in Italian, in LIS the sign dick can be used with the meaning of ‘nothing’ in negative clauses.
neg
a. gianni see dick
‘Gianni didn’t see shit.’
b. gianni dick see
‘Gianni saw a penis.’ (based on Geraci, 2006b: 126)
The only lexical difference between the sign used to refer to the male genital organ (b) and the one used to negate the clause (a), is the presence of the negative non-manual marking (neg). The use of dick as a negative marker may be influenced by Italian, but it is interesting to notice that it obeys the LIS rule concerning the position of negative elements (when dick is an n-word, it must occur post-verbally as other negative quantifiers do) and that it is marked by the negative non-manual marking.