CONSTRATIVE ITALIAN - LIS LINGUISTICS

The course shares the following objectives and expected results: the student knows and understands advanced syntactic structures of LIS both in the domain of simple and complex sentences in a contrastive perspective with Italian; the student is able to produce, understand and translate complex texts both in formal and informal situations; the student is able to gather information from adaquate sources in LIS.

Main objective of the course is to develop the ability to carry out a formal contrastive analysis of the syntax of simple and complex sentences of Italian and Italian Sign Language with the objective of translating and interpreting from one language to the other by applying the theorical knowledge gained during the courses of Italian Sign Language 1, Italian Sign Language 2, Italian Sign Language 3, Italian Sign Language linguistics as well as 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.

Detailed objectives
1. Knowledge and understanding
The student knows the properties of simple and complex sentences of Italian Sign Language and Italian at an advanced level. The student knows and understands the situations of strong structural ambiguity present in the two languages.

2. 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 and is able to solve problems of formal syntactic analysis when presented with new linguistic data.

3. Making judgements
The student is able to critically analyze new data in Italian Sign Language by providing correct translations and interpretations based on the knowledge acquired during the course.
The student is able to compare different linguistic structures when presented with linguistic data belonging to different languages.

4. Communication
The student is able to communicate the analyses on which the correct production of simple and complex constructions in Italian and Italian Sign Language is based 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.

5. 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.

Morpho-syntactic differences between Italian and LIS
Word order
Null subject and object
Copular clauses
Determinative and indeterminative articles
Negation
Linguistic variation
Ambiguity
The use of classifiers
Spatial and non-manual agreement
The imperative modality
Marked word order: topic, focus and cleft constructions
Active and passive constructions
Interrogative wh clauses with one and two wh-phrases
Coordination and subordination
False friends in syntax: relative constructions and complement clauses, free relatives and wh interrogative clauses
Direct and indirect discouse
Motion predicates: telicity and atelicity

Branchini, C., Mantovan, L. (ed) 2020. A grammar of Italian Sign Language. SIGN-HUB Sign Language Grammars [SHSLG]. Students will study the sections of the grammar concerning the arguments discussed during the course.
Articles in electronic format will be made available during the course.

Students will be evaluated through an oral discussion aiming at verifying the applied knowledge and understanding of the topics presented during the course, the student’s ability to make judgements, to apply the acquired knowledge as well as his/her critical thinking.

This is a blended course: lectures and linguistic practices will be held in presence for the majority of the lectures, a small amount of lectures will be held online (if not otherwise indicated due to the sanitary emergency).
Video recorded linguistic material will be used.

Italian

The course is taught in Italian.
Attendance is warmly recommended.

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