The face never lies. A study on the production of syntactic non-manual markers of LIS in spoken Italian in bimodal bilingual individuals.

Abstract

Bimodal bilinguals are bilinguals whose languages exist in two different articulatory modalities: a sign language and a spoken language (Lillo-Martin, 2016). Even though it is particularly interesting, the research developed in this field is scarce and mainly focused on specific syntactic and lexical aspects of this linguistic phenomenon, namely the linear order, code-switching, and code-blending (cfr. Emmorey et al. 2005; Branchini, 2011; Donati & Branchini, 2012; Rinaldi et al. 2021). To the best of our knowledge, only two studies have investigated the potential influence of the suprasegmental elements that characterize sign languages over spoken language in a bimodal bilingual context. These are that of Pyers & Emmorey (2008), which focused on bimodal bilingual individuals of American Sign Languages (ASL) and English; and that of Rigo & Dal Cin (in preparation) on bimodal bilingual individuals of Italian Sign Language (LIS) and Italian. With the purpose of investigating the suprasegmental linguistic influence of LIS over spoken Italian in bimodal bilingual individuals, this thesis can be considered as the continuation of the abovementioned pilot study. The present study focuses on the analysis of the production of NMMs (Non-Manual Markers) of LIS concurrently with the vocal production of wh-questions, conditional sentences, and polar questions. In LIS, wh-questions are mainly characterized by furrowed eyebrows, squinting eyes, body lean, and head tilt, which are produced simultaneously to the whole sentence or only simultaneously with the wh-element (Cecchetto, Geraci & Zucchi, 2009). As regards to conditional sentences, they are mainly characterized by raised eyebrows and head and body movement, which occur over the whole conditional sentence or only over the if-sign. Similarly, polar questions are always mainly accompanied by raised eyebrows, eyes wide open and head and body lean (Bertone, 2011; Branchini & Mantovan, 2020). Our general research questions are whether bilingual LIS/Spoken Italian would produce more linguistic facial expressions than monolingual Italian speakers, and if so, whether these facial expressions are the result of direct crosslinguistic influence from LIS, in the form of true NMMs in Italian spoken language. Two main groups of participants were involved in this study: a group of bimodal bilingual individuals who use LIS nearly every day, which was in turn divided in two different groups (a group of CODA bimodal bilinguals - Children of Deaf Adults - and a group of bimodal bilingual individuals who were not born from deaf parents), and a group of Italian monolingual individuals who were not familiar with LIS. The three groups were videorecorded while completing six experimental tasks, three of them with audiorecorded context, which elicited wh-questions, conditional sentences, and polar questions. Additionally, wh-questions and conditional sentences were also elicited through the use of pictures created for this specific purpose, whereas polar questions were produced completing the famous Guess Who? game. The data were collected through individual Zoom videocalls and were transcribed, coded, and analyzed in ELAN. The results showed suprasegmental linguistic influence of LIS over spoken Italian in bimodal bilingual individuals in the form of more linguistic NMMs such as furrowed eyebrows during the production of wh-questions, raised eyebrows and head and body movements during the production of conditional sentences and polar questions, confirming what resulted from the previous studies. In conclusion, the results of the present study clearly revealed the presence of LIS linguistic influence over spoken Italian in bimodal bilingual individuals, opening the debate over the limits of crosslinguistic influence in bilingualism and, in particular, on the permeability of adult native languages once another language is acquired, a phenomenon broadly termed as L1 attrition (Schmid & Köpke, 2017).