ADVANCED LIS LINGUISTICS

Main objective of the course is to develop the ability to carry out an advanced formal analysis of Italian Sign Language in comparison with studies carried out on world sign languages by applying the formal tools acquired during the courses of Italian Sign Language 1, Italian Sign Language 2, Italian Sign Language 3, Italian Sign Language linguistics and General linguistics mod. 1, mod. 2. The course aims at promoting the metalinguistic awareness of Italian Sign Language in a comparative perspective with Italian and in a cross-modal perspective between spoken and sign languages.
The competences acquired during this course allow a conscious acquisition of the contents of the course of Italian Sign Language.

Detailed objectives
Knowledge and understanding
The student knows the formal syntactic representation proposed in the literature of subordinate clauses in Italian Sign Language at an advanced level in comparison with the world sign languages.
The student understands the syntactic features typical of the visuo-gestural modality responsible for the different syntactic structure in a comparative perspective with Italian and spoken languages.

Applying knowledge and understanding
The student knows how to use the linguistic terminology at all levels of the acquired knowledge.
The student knows how to use the tools of analysis of formal linguistics to describe even complex aspects of the syntax of Italian Sign Language. The student is able to detect and reflect upon the syntactic structural differences between Italian and Italian Sign Language. The student is able to recognize the syntactic features and structures of complex clauses of Italian Sign Language. The student is able to apply the acquired knowledge to new linguistic data.
The student is able to solve problems of formal syntactic analysis when presented with new linguistic data.

Making judgements
The student is able to critically analyze new data in Italian Sign Language by arguing and defending his/her hypotheses advanced on the basis of the knowledge acquired during the course.

Communication
The student is able to express his/her hypotheses and the formal analyses advanced in the literature on the syntactic representation of Italian Sign Language by employing the terminology specific to formal linguistic studies.
The student is able to interact with the peers and the professor in a critical and respectful way.

Learning skills
The student is able to develop critical thinking.
The student is able to look for and find the literature specific to the linguistic phenomena object of investigation.
The student is able to develop the acquired knowledge for future higher studies.

The student is expected to have acquired the competences required by the following courses: Italian Sign Language 1, Italian Sign Language 2, Italian Sign Language 3, General Linguistics mod. 1 and, preferably, General Linguistics mod. 2 and LIS Linguistics.

Linguistic research on sign languages: tools and strategies
The research project SIGN-HUB: available materials
Complement clauses
Adverbial temporal clauses
Adverbial locative clauses
Adverbial manner clauses
Adverbial purpose clauses
Adverbial concessive clauses
Adverbial reason clauses
Conditional clauses
Structural representation of cleft clauses
Bilingual bimodal productions

A grammar of Italian Sign Language. SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammars [SHSLG]. The professor will indicate a selection of readings.
Pfau R., Steinbach, M., Woll B. (ed) 2012. Sign Language. An international Handbook. Mouton De Gruyter. The professor will indicate a selection of readings.
Further articles and material will be uploaded online.

Due to Covid-19, students will be evaluated through an experimental research work aiming at analyzing linguistic data in LIS provided by the instructor. The experimental research work will be carried out individually and will be presented to the class at the end of the course. Besides the oral presentation, students are required to hand in a short paper on it. This examination aims at verifying the applied knowledge and understanding of the topics presented during the course, the student’s ability to make judgements, the student’s ability to communicate his/her knowledge and his/her critical thinking, as well as the appropriate use of the specialized linguistic terminology.

Lectures and linguistic practices.
Video recorded linguistic material will be used.

Italian

Attendance is warmly recommended.

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