The LIS Corpus Project: a discussion of sociolinguistic variation in the Lexicon
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Following a well-established tradition going back to the 1980s (cf. Volterra 1987/2004), we use the name Lingua dei Segni Italiana (Italian Sign Language [LIS]) for the language used by Italian deaf people (and by Swiss deaf people living in the Ticino canton). In addition, LIS is becoming more and more visible, and its status as a minority language in the general Italian community is growing stronger due to various reasons. On the one hand, the research has shown that LIS, as other sign languages, exhibits all of the fundamental linguistic properties of natural languages: It can convey the same range of meanings and has a natural history, as spoken languages do. In particular, its phonology, morphology, and syntax are as complex as those of spoken languages like Italian. These facts about LIS are becoming established outside the community of sign language users partly due to the fact that a LIS program is offered by one university (Ca' Foscari Venice), and courses in LIS are now taught in various universities around the country. Another fact that is strengthening the status of LIS is that national television channels are now required to broadcast some news programs with LIS interpreting, making LIS visible to the larger population.