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Assessing lexicalism through bimodal eyes

Abstract

The relation holding between words and syntax is at the core of a lively debate. Two competing proposals have been advanced: the lexicalist view, claiming that the lexicon and the syntax are distinct modules of the grammar, and what we shall refer to as the constructionist view typically represented by models like Distributed Morphology, advocating for the redundancy of a notion such as the lexicon and arguing for no divide between syntax and word formation. By facing the debate from the privileged point of view of the mixed production of bimodal bilinguals (Italian – Italian Sign Language), namely users of a sign and a vocal language simultaneously produced, we discuss the interaction of the two grammars at play with respect to their word order, morphology and phonology and draw some consequences relevant to the debate.

Keywords

lexicalism, distributed morphology, bimodal bilingualism, code mixing, code ­blending, Italian Sign Language (LIS), word order

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Branchini, C. & Donati, C., (2016) “Assessing lexicalism through bimodal eyes”, Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 1(1): 48. doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.29

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Authors

Chiara Branchini (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia)
Caterina Donati (Université Paris Diderot)

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

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