In:Italian Sign Language from a Cognitive and Socio-semiotic Perspective: Implications for a general language theory
Virginia Volterra, Maria Roccaforte, Alessio Di Renzo and Sabina Fontana
[Gesture Studies 9] 2022
► pp. v–vi
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Published online: 1 September 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.9.toc
https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.9.toc
Table of contents
Introduction.From spoken to signed languages back and forth, between cognition and semiotics. The case of Italian Sign Language1
Chapter 1.Historical steps towards a new description of sign languages7
1.1Historical steps towards a new description of sign languages7
1.2Sign language research: Phase 111
1.3Continuity between action, gesture, sign and word (Box 1 Gestures among children from diverse cultures)17
1.4Representational strategies21
1.5The present phase of sign language research24
Notes and suggested readings31
Chapter 2.The community35
2.1History of the deaf community in Italy35
2.2Perception and linguistic attitudes of the signing community (Box 2: Person and place names in LIS)45
2.3Artistic expressions of the community52
2.4Media, accessibility and the 2020 covid pandemic56
Notes and suggested readings60
Chapter 3.The basic units of LIS63
3.1SignWriting63
3.2The articulatory forms67
3.3Units of meaning (Box 3: Mouth actions in LIS)77
3.4Mechanisms of signification83
3.5Strategies and processes in the formation of units of meaning86
Notes and suggested readings98
Chapter 4.Constructing sentences in LIS: Pointing, describing and depicting101
4.1Expressive strategies and structural modifications101
4.2Inflecting units of meaning103
4.3Discourse in LIS (Box 4: Metaphor between visual perceptive experience and cultural constraints)116
4.4Conversing in LIS125
Notes and suggested readings131
Chapter 5.Variation and change in LIS133
5.1The different dimensions of variation133
5.2Variation in LIS: How language changes over time134
5.3The linguistic repertoire of the signing community143
5.4Diatopic variations: How language changes over geographic location146
5.5Diaphasic variations: How language changes with the communicative situation149
5.6Diastratic variations: How language changes according to social status151
5.7Contact variations: Mixing sign and spoken language152
5.8The development of a linguistic norm154
Notes and suggested readings162
Chapter 6.Sign languages and spoken languages: Toward a new description165
6.1Relevant topics arising from the description of LIS165
6.2From action to language167
6.3Rethinking linguistic components170
6.4Iconicity and arbitrariness (Box 6: Research on the transparency of signs, iconicity and arbitrariness)172
6.5Linguistic typology177
6.6A social vision of language181
6.7Concluding remarks184
Notes and suggested readings186
References191
Index217
