Table of contents
Introduction.From spoken to signed languages back and forth, between cognition and semiotics. The case of Italian Sign Language
1
Chapter 1.Historical steps towards a new description of sign languages
7
1.1Historical steps towards a new description of sign languages
7
1.2Sign language research: Phase 1
11
1.3Continuity between action, gesture, sign and word (Box 1 Gestures among children from diverse cultures)
17
1.4Representational strategies
21
1.5The present phase of sign language research
24
Notes and suggested readings
31
Chapter 2.The community
35
2.1History of the deaf community in Italy
35
2.2Perception and linguistic attitudes of the signing community (Box 2: Person and place names in LIS)
45
2.3Artistic expressions of the community
52
2.4Media, accessibility and the 2020 covid pandemic
56
Notes and suggested readings
60
Chapter 3.The basic units of LIS
63
3.1SignWriting
63
3.2The articulatory forms
67
3.3Units of meaning (Box 3: Mouth actions in LIS)
77
3.4Mechanisms of signification
83
3.5Strategies and processes in the formation of units of meaning
86
Notes and suggested readings
98
Chapter 4.Constructing sentences in LIS: Pointing, describing and depicting
101
4.1Expressive strategies and structural modifications
101
4.2Inflecting units of meaning
103
4.3Discourse in LIS (Box 4: Metaphor between visual perceptive experience and cultural constraints)
116
4.4Conversing in LIS
125
Notes and suggested readings
131
Chapter 5.Variation and change in LIS
133
5.1The different dimensions of variation
133
5.2Variation in LIS: How language changes over time
134
5.3The linguistic repertoire of the signing community
143
5.4Diatopic variations: How language changes over geographic location
146
5.5Diaphasic variations: How language changes with the communicative situation
149
5.6Diastratic variations: How language changes according to social status
151
5.7Contact variations: Mixing sign and spoken language
152
5.8The development of a linguistic norm
154
Notes and suggested readings
162
Chapter 6.Sign languages and spoken languages: Toward a new description
165
6.1Relevant topics arising from the description of LIS
165
6.2From action to language
167
6.3Rethinking linguistic components
170
6.4Iconicity and arbitrariness (Box 6: Research on the transparency of signs, iconicity and arbitrariness)
172
6.5Linguistic typology
177
6.6A social vision of language
181
6.7Concluding remarks
184
Notes and suggested readings
186
References
191
Index
217
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