Carlo Geraci | Institut Jean Nicod, Département d’études cognitives, ENS, EHESS, CNRS | PSL Research University
In this paper, we investigate structural aspects of nominal modification in
Italian Sign Language (LIS), a language with a relatively flexible word order.
In order to tackle the issue, this study combines different approaches,
including generalizations from typological universals on word order, their
formal counterparts, and a variationist approach to language facts. Data come
from the largest corpus of LIS currently available. Despite the absence of
categorical rules, our mixed approach shows that LIS data are consistent with
the general tenets of nominal modification. Results from the statistical
analysis indicate that the attested language-internal variability is constrained
both by linguistic and social factors. Specifically, a fine-grained structure of
nominal modification is able to capture the internal variability of LIS.
Processing effects, age, gender, and early exposure to the language also play a
relevant role in determining order preferences.
2009Universal 20 without the LCA. In José M. Brucart, Anna Gavarró & Jaume Solà (eds.), Merging features: computation, interpretation, and acquisition, 60–79. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Abels, Klaus & Ad Neeleman
2012Linear asymmetries and the LCA. Syntax 15(1). 25–74.
Abner, Natasha
2012There once was a verb: the predicative core of possessive and nominalization structures in American Sign Language. Los Angeles, CA: University of California, PhD dissertation.
2011L’ordine dei costituenti in LIS: risultati preliminari. In Anna Cardinaletti, Carlo Cecchetto & Caterina Donati (eds.), Grammatica, lessico e dimensioni di variazione nella LIS, 113–126. Milano: Franco Angeli.
Brunelli, Michele
2011Antisymmetry and sign languages: a comparison between NGT and LIS. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam PhD dissertation. Utrecht: LOT.
Cardinaletti, Anna, Carlo Cecchetto & Caterina Donati
(eds.)2011Grammatica, lessico e dimensioni di variazione nella LIS. Milano: Franco Angeli.
Cecchetto, Carlo, Carlo Geraci & Sandro Zucchi
2006Strategies of relativization in Italian Sign Language. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 24(4). 945–975.
Cecchetto, Carlo, Carlo Geraci & Sandro Zucchi
2009Another way to mark syntactic dependencies: The case for right-peripheral specifiers in sign languages. Language 85(2). 278–320.
Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen & Rint Sybesma
1999Bare and not-so-bare nouns and the structure of NP. Linguistic Inquiry 30(4). 509–542.
Chomsky, Noam
1995The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cinque, Guglielmo
1994On the evidence for partial N-movement in the Romance DP. In Guglielmo Cinque, Jan Koster, Jean-Yves Pollock, Luigi Rizzi & Raffaella Zanuttini (eds.), Paths towards universal grammar: Studies in honor of Richard S. Kayne, 85–110. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
Cinque, Guglielmo
2003Greenberg’s Universal 20 and the Semitic DP. In Lars Olof Delsing, Cecilia Falk, Gunlög Josefsson & Halldór Á. Sigursson (eds.), Grammatik in fokus/Grammar in Focus. Festschrift for Christer Platzack 18 November 2003, vol. 21, 243–251. Lund: Wallin & Dalholm.
Cinque, Guglielmo
2005Deriving Greenberg’s Universal 20 and its exceptions. Linguistics Inquiry 361. 315–332.
Cinque, Guglielmo
2010The syntax of adjectives. A comparative study. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cinque, Guglielmo
2012A partial map of extended functional projection of the NP. Advanced Syntax, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. A.Y. 2011/2012 Class lecture.
Conte, Genny, Mirko Santoro, Carlo Geraci & Anna Cardinaletti
2010Why are you raising your eyebrows?Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), conference proceedings, 53–56.
Crasborn, Onno & Han Sloetjes
2008Enhanced ELAN functionality for sign language corpora. Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), conference proceedings, 39–43.
Cysouw, Michael
2010Dealing with diversity: Towards an explanation of NP-internal word order frequencies. Linguistic Typology 14(2–3). 253–286.
Dixon, Robert M. W. & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
(eds.)2004Adjectives: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dryer, Matthew S.
2007Word order. In Shopen Timothy (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description, vol. 11, 61–131. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dryer, Matthew S.
2011On the order of demonstrative, numeral, adjective, and noun: an alternative to Cinque. Handout of a paper presented at the University of Pavia in June. [URL] Acc. on 2014/12/12.
Fukui, Naoki
1993Parameters and optionality. Linguistic Inquiry 24(3). 399–420.
Geraci, Carlo, Katia Battaglia, Anna Cardinaletti, Carlo Cecchetto, Caterina Donati, Serena Giudice & Emiliano Mereghetti
2011The LIS corpus project. A discussion of sociolinguistic variation in the lexicon. Sign Language Studies 11(4). 528–574.
Geraci, Carlo, Robert Bayley, Chiara Branchini, Anna Cardinaletti, Carlo Cecchetto, Caterina Donati, Serena Giudice, Emiliano Mereghetti, Fabio Poletti, Mirko Santoro & Sandro Zucchi
2010Building a corpus for Italian Sign Language: Methodological issues and some preliminary results. Proceedings of Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), 98–101.
Geraci, Carlo, Robert Bayley, Anna Cardinaletti, Carlo Cecchetto & Caterina Donati
2015Variation in Italian Sign Language (LIS): The case of Wh-signs. Linguistics 53(1). 125–151.
Geraci, Carlo, Carlo Cecchetto & Sandro Zucchi
2008Sentential complementation in Italian Sign Language. In Michael Grosvald & Dionne Soares (eds.), Western Conference On Linguistics (WECOL), conference proceedings, 46–58.
Geraci, Carlo, Marta Gozzi, Costanza Papagno & Carlo Cecchetto
2008How grammar can cope with limited short-term memory: Simultaneity and seriality in sign languages. Cognition 1061. 780–804.
Givon, Thomas
2001Syntax: an introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Greenberg, Joseph H.
1963Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of human language, 73–113. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Guy, Gregory R.
1988Advanced Varbrul analysis. In Kathleen Ferrara, Becky Brown, Keith Walters & John Baugh (eds.), Linguistic change and contact, 124–136. Austin, TX: Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin.
Haddican, Bill
2002Aspects of DP word order across creoles. Paper presented at the
CUNY/SUNY/NYU, Linguistics Mini-Conference
, April 20.
Hawkins, John A.
1983Word order universals. New York: Academic Press.
Hawkins, John A.
2004Efficiency and complexity in grammars. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kayne, Richard
1994The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kegl, Judy
2008The case of Signed Languages in the context of pidgin and creole studies. In Silvia Kouwenberg & John Victor Singler (eds.), The handbook of pidgin and creoles studies, 491–511. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kegl, Judy, Ann Senghas & Marie Coppola
1999Creation through contact: Sign language emergence and sign language change in Nicaragua. In Michael DeGraff, (ed.), Language creation and language change: creolization, diachrony, and development, 179–237. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Labov, William
2001Principles of linguistic change (social factors). Oxford: Blackwell.
Laka, Itziar
1990Negation in syntax: On the nature of functional categories and projections. Cambridge, MA: MIT PhD dissertation.
Laudanna, Alessandro & Virginia Volterra
1991Order of words, signs and gestures: A first comparison. Applied Psycholinguistics 121. 135–150.
Littlewood, William
1984Foreign and second language learning: language acquisition research and its implications for the classroom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Longobardi, Giuseppe
2000The structure of DPs: Principles, parameters and problems. In Mark Baltin & Chris Collins (eds.), The handbook of syntactic theory, 562–603. Oxford: Blackwell.
MacLaughlin, Dawn
1997The structure of Determiner Phrases: Evidence from American Sign Language. Boston, MA: Boston University, doctoral dissertation.
Martin, Randi & Cristina Romani
1994Verbal working memory and sentence comprehension: A multiple-components view. Neuropsychology 81. 506–523.
Nardozzi, Giangiacomo
2003The Italian “Economic Miracle”. Rivista di Storia Economica 19(2). 139–180.
Neidle, Carol, Judy Kegl, Dawn MacLaughlin, Benjamin Bahan & Robert G. Lee
2000The syntax of American Sign Language: Functional categories and hierarchical structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Neidle, Carol & Joan Nash
2012The noun phrase. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach & Bencie Woll (eds.), Sign language: An international handbook, 265–292. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Newport, Elissa L.
1999Reduced input in the acquisition of signed languages: contributions to the study of creolization. In Michel DeGraff (ed.), Language creation and language change: creolization, diachrony, and development, 162–178. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Piantadosi, Steven T. & Edward Gibson
2013Quantitative standards for absolute linguistic universals. Cognitive Science 38(4). 736–756.
Rutkowski, Paweł, Małgorzata Czajkowska-Kisil, Joanna Łacheta & Anna Kuder
2014The syntax of adjectival modification in Polish Sign Language (PJM). Presentation at
Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium (OLINCO). Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Olomouc. June 5.
Tagliamonte, Sali A.
2006Analysing sociolinguistic variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tang, Gladys & Felix Sze
2002Nominal expressions in Hong Kong Sign Language: Does modality make a difference? In Richard P. Meier, Kearsy A. Cormier & David G. Quinto-Pozos (eds.), Modality and structure in signed and spoken languages, 296–321. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tily, Harry J. & T. Florian Jaeger
2011Complementing quantitative typology with behavioral approaches: Evidence for typological universals. Linguistic Typology 15(2). 497–508.
Wilson, Margaret & Karen Emmorey
2006Comparing sign language and speech reveals a universal limit on short-term memory capacity. Psychological Science 17(8). 682–683.
(ed.)2006Interrogative and negative constructions in sign languages. Nijmegen: Ishara Press.
Zeshan, Ulrike
2013Sign languages. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. [URL]; accessed on 2016/11/16.
Zeshan, Ulrike & Pamela Perniss
(eds.)2008Possessive and existential constructions in sign languages. Nijmegen: Ishara Press.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.