Linguistic of Italian sign language I

Academic Year 2023/2024 - Teacher: SABINA FONTANA

Expected Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:

The course aims to provide the ability to understand the functioning of language and in particular, of signed languages, by drawing on the linguistic knowledge of one's native language in order to learn to analyze it according to its levels of analysis.

Applying knowledge and understanding:

The course aims to promote the ability to apply knowledge and understanding of the main concepts of linguistics and of sign linguistics in such a way that one can argue one's own positions on theoretical problems and solve problems related to this field of research.

Making judgement:

Awareness of the levels of analysis of language and its functioning together with the socio-historical variables that act on language, will enable the development of autonomous judgement also in relation to the various language models that have been developed in the 20th century.

Communication skills:

Reflection on the functioning of language requires the development of a specialised vocabulary that will enable a more technical description of the object of study.

Learning skills

The acquisition of learning skills will enable the student to undertake research and study activities with a high degree of autonomy.

Course Structure

36 hours will be devoted to frontal lessons and to group works. Students should pass one test: on on phonetics and phonology of Italian. Should teaching be carried out in mixed mode or remotely, it may be necessary to introduce changes with respect to previous statements, in line with the programme planned and outlined in the syllabus.

Required Prerequisites

metalinguistic awareness and grammatical analysis skills are required

Attendance of Lessons

Attendance, is not compulsory. However, constant attendance of the course is strongly recommended, given the specific nature of the discipline and the objective difficulty of preparing oneself adequately.

Detailed Course Content

The Course allows students to master the basics of the discipline, such as the nature of sounds and sound systems of spoken languages, of parameters and cheremes of sign languages. It will also focus on the nature of word and signs structures and syntactic structures, and finally on the interaction of syntax with semantics and pragmatics. Students learn to apply problem-solving skills in each of these areas. Furthermore, language in its social dimensions will be studied by analysing face-to-face interaction and multimodality in communication and by taking into consideration cultural and linguistic diversity. Language and social life and community will be focussed with the aim of attaining a good level of linguistic and sociolinguistic awareness that can be applied not only to single languages but also to translation as social process.

Textbook Information

Berruto G. Cerruti M. (2019) La linguistica. Un corso introduttivo, UTET (seconda edizione)

Volterra V., Roccaforte M., Di Renzo A., Fontana S., (2019) Descrivere la lingua dei segni italiana. Una prospettiva sociosemiotica e cognitiva. Il Mulino (primi tre capitoli)

Campisi E., (2018) Che cosa è la gestualità, Carocci

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals. Only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

Course Planning

	Subjects	Text References
1	1. Minoranze e Comunità	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana;
2	2. Storia della Comunità segnante	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana
3	3. Storia della Ricerca della LIS	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana
4	4. fonetica e fonologia	Berruto e Cerruti
5	5. Gesti e segni	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana
6	6. Gesti nell'acquisizione del linguaggio	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana
7	7. Cherema e elementi sub-lessicali	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana
8	8. Morfologia;	Berruto e Cerruti
9	9. Sintassi	Berruto e Cerruti
10	10. Morfologia e enunciato in LIS	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana
11	11. Semantica e Pragmatica	Berruto e Cerruti;
12	12. Sociolinguistica delle lingue vocali	Berruto e Cerruti
13	13. Sociolinguistica della LIS	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana
14	14. gesti co-verbali	Campisi
15	15. Teorie sul funzionamento del gesto co-verbale	Campisi
16	16. Metodi di trascrizione del gesto	Campisi
17	17. Comparazione LIS e LIngua Vocale	Volterra, Roccaforte, Di Renzo e Fontana
18	18. Caratteristiche distintive del linguaggio umano	Berruto e Cerruti; Volterra et al.

Learning Assessment

Learning Assessment Procedures

For the assessment, the capacity of analysing vocal and signed languages at the various levels of analysis, the sign language community, linguistic accuracy and lexical property, as well as the candidate's ability to discuss the main topics related to sign language structure

Should conditions require it, assessment can take place at a distance

Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises

With reference to the determinations voted unanimously in item 2 of the Departmental Council meeting of 6 May 2020, the knowledge and skills required to achieve a pass in the LIS Linguistics - LIS I examination are indicated below:

- Phonetic and phonemic transcription and the ability to recognise the difference between phonemes, phonemes, free variants and combinatorial variants

- Phoneme description at the articulatory level

- Morphology and Morphological Analysis: identification of morphemes and roots.

- Syntax and syntactic analysis; tree diagrams, verb valences.

- Difference between semantics and pragmatics

- Relations of meaning;

- Parameters and kernemes;

-body components

- sign community;

- sociolinguistics;

- co-verbal gesture.

VERSIONE IN ITALIANO

Corso di laurea in

Mediazione linguistica e interculturale