In LIS, morphosyntactic features of agreement, tense and aspect can be conveyed through both manual and non-manual markers occurring with the lexical verb (LEXICON 3.3).
As for agreement markers, plain verbs can realize agreement with their arguments through an agreement marker that can be considered an auxiliary. The agreement marker aux (LEXICON 3.3.4) follows the verb.
giannia pietrob be_familiar aauxb
‘Gianni knows Pietro.’ (based on Bertone, 2011: 159)
Another auxiliary is a causative auxiliary, give_aux (LEXICON 3.3.4) used for causative psychological predicates with a sign expressing a psychological state, like fear. When the experiencer object (first person singular in the example below) is not overtly expressed, the causative auxiliary give_aux follows the subject.
earthquake give1_aux fear
‘Earthquakes scare me.’
When the experiencer object is expressed, the causative auxiliary give_aux may either precede (a) or follow it (b), as shown in the examples below.
a. earthquake give3_aux maria fear
‘Earthquakes scare Maria.’
b. earthquake maria ixa give3a_aux fear
‘Earthquakes scare Maria.’
As for tense (LEXICON 3.3.1), it can be conveyed through temporal adverbials usually appearing at the beginning of the sentence.
time past gianni house buy
‘Some time ago Gianni bought a house.’ (based on Zucchi, 2009: 100)
The temporal anchoring of events may also be inferred from aspectual markers: done expresses a completed event (a) and to_be_done conveys a non-completed event that is likely to happen (b) (LEXICON 3.3.2). done and to_be_done always follow the main verb defining the event. The sentences containing the lexical markers done and to_be_done favour the OV order.
a. ix1 dog CL(closed G): ‘take_dog_for_a_walk’ done
‘I took the dog out for a walk.’
b. ix1 dog CL(closed G): ‘take_dog_for_a_walk’ to_be_done
‘I will take the dog out for a walk.’
Note that the sign done cannot occur with any element of negation.
The negative counterpart of the completive aspectual marker done in LIS is the negative lexical sign not_yet (‘not yet’) (SYNTAX 1.5). The sign not_yet includes the presupposition that the event is expected to occur in the future and occurs after the verb. An example can be seen below.
neg
waiter pizza CL(curved open L): ‘bring_pizza’ not_yet
‘The waiter hasn’t brought the pizza yet.’
In order to deliver the imperfective aspect (MORPHOLOGY 3.3.1), LIS employs lexical adverbials after the verb (a) and manual modifications of the verb sign, where the verb is repeated several times (b). Examples are provided below.
a. ix1 company inside work duration
‘I’ve been working in the company for a long time.’
b. yesterday ix1 cake prepare moment pe ixa childa cry++
‘Yesterday while I was preparing a cake, the child was crying.’
Habitual aspect (MORPHOLOGY 3.3.1.1) is conveyed through time adverbials placed at the beginning of the sentence.
every_day child cry
‘The child cries every day.’ (based on Bertone, 2011: 222)
Continuative aspect is not conveyed through free markers, rather, the verbal root is modified (MORPHOLOGY 3.3.1.2). The verb sign is articulated with a longer duration (a) or it is repeated (b), with a little difference in meaning: the longer articulation indicates that the event lasts indefinitely in time, repetition instead indicates that the event is repeated an indefinite number of times. The verb can be produced with specific non-manual markings, consisting in puffed cheeks (pc) or head-nod (hn) conveying the indefinite duration of the event.
hn
a. g-i-a-n-n-i window look[prolonged]
‘Gianni is looking out of the window.’
pc
b. study++
‘(S/he) studies for an indefinite period of time.’