ITALIAN SIGN LANGUAGE 3

Aim of the course is the development of an advanced metalinguistic knowledge of Italian Sign Language focusing on its syntax in a comparative perspective with Italian, spoken and sign languages. The course further aims at developing an advanced grammatical competence in Italian Sign Language.

Detailed objectives
1. Knowledge and understanding
The student knows the functional equivalent of the syntactic structures in the domain of main and subordinate clauses in Italian Sign Language in a cross-linguistic perspective with spoken and sign languages. The student knows the basic terminology of the syntax of Italian Sign Language. The student knows the syntactic phenomena of sociolinguistic variation in Italian Sign Language.
The student knows the advanced grammar of Italian Sign Language. The student knows and understands the different linguistic registers.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding
The student is able to correctly use the terminology regarding the syntactic domain of Italian Sign Language.
The student recognizes and is able to describe the advanced syntactic constructions of Italian Sign Language.
The student is able to autonomously provide concrete examples of advanced syntactic constructions.
The student understands and produces advanced communicative interactions on main and subordinate sentences.

3. Making judgements
The student is able to detect similarities and differences between syntactic structures in Italian Sign Languages in other sign languages. The student is able to propose hypotheses on the linguistic features of syntactic constructions displayed by Italian Sign Language on the basis of the features displayed by spoken languages in the same syntactic domain. The student is able to find the bibliographical references the teacher indicates. The student is able to express grammatical judgements on advanced grammatical structures of Italian Sign Language.

4. Communication
The student is able to describe the grammatical features of the syntactic structures displayed by Italian Sign Language by using the specific terminology and by providing concrete examples.
The student shows to be able to interact with the peers, the professor and the tutor in a critical and respectful way. The student is able to interact in Italian Sign Language in advanced communicative situations.

5. Learning skills
The student is able to take notes and to apply the method of critical thinking and cross-linguistic comparison to future linguistic studies.
The student is able to consult the literature present in the texts and articles indicated by the professor as well as to find new literature.

The student is required to have passed the course of Italian Sign Language 1, to have attended the course of Sign Language 2 and possibly to have passed the course of Italian Sign Language 2.

The course of Italian Sign Language 3 is divided into the theoretical module (Prof. Chiara Branchini in one semester) and the yearly linguistic practice (Dott. Gabriele Caia).

Theoretical module:
1. The equivalent of intonation in sign languages. Phonological, morphological and syntactic non-manual components
2. Linear order in Italian Sign Language
3. The declarative clause
4. The hierarchy of distribution of the noun modifiers
5. The negative clause
6. The interrogative clause: polar and wh- questions
7. A sociolinguistic analysis of interrogative clauses in Italian Sign Language
8. The information structure
9. Complement clauses
10. Relative clauses
11. Cleft clauses


Linguistic practice:
1. Advanced grammatical competences in the use of main clauses (declarative, interrogative and negative clause) and dependent clauses (conditional clauses, relative clauses, cleft clauses, complement clauses)
2. Advanced competences in the use of nominal and predicative classifiers
3. Advanced competence in the use of phonological, morphological and syntactic non-manual components
4. Competences in the use of role shift

Theoretical module:
- Bertone C., Cardinaletti A. (a cura di) 2009. Alcuni capitoli della grammatica della LIS. Atti dell'incontro di studio 'La grammatica della Lingua dei Segni Italiana'. Venezia, Cafoscarina. Student will study only the article by Chiara Branchini ‘Relative libere e interrogative wh- in LIS.’
- Cardinaletti A., Cecchetto C., Donati C. (a cura di) 2011. Grammatica, lessico e dimensioni di variazione nella LIS, Franco Angeli.
-Pfau R., Steinbach, M., Woll B. (ed) 2012. Sign Languages, Mouton De Gruyter. Students will study only articles 12, 14, 15.
- Other articles will be available online.
- Notes of the lectures will be made available online for only one week from the day of the corresponding lecture.


Linguistic practice:

- Readings may be suggested by the teacher during classes.
- Dizionario bilingue elementare della lingua italiana dei segni. 1992. Elena Radutzky. Edizioni Kappa.

written and oral

Students will be evaluated through three different stages: (i) a written examination consisting in 6 open questions aiming at verifying the ability to apply and connect the knowledge acquired during the theoretical module as well as the student’s competence and use of the specific terminology adopted during the theoretical module. (ii) a written examination aiming at verifying the linguistic comprehension of LIS, and (iii) an oral examination aiming at verifying the advanced communicative competence developed during the linguistic practice in LIS.
In order to be able to take the oral production examination in LIS, the student will have to pass the written examination verifying the comprehension ability in LIS. To pass the course, the student must pass all three stages of the final examination. The final score is the mean of the three scores obtained during the three partial examinations described above.

Lectures and linguistic practices directed to individuals and groups. An extensive range of video recorded linguistic material will be used. Students will use the software GoReact (https://goreact.wistia.com/medias/htlspjqzsh ) specifically developed for the correction of linguistic practice in sign language. Students will receive feedback to their linguistic exercise through the software GoReact from the teacher carrying out linguist practice in Italian Sign Language.

Italian

Attendance is warmly recommended.
Students not attending the course will have to contact the teacher to plan an alternative program.

• Lecture notes, material for reference or for self-assessment available online or as e-book