The norm development in Italian Sign Language (LIS)
An analysisfrom an ethnographic study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4454/wqs99m81Keywords:
Norm, Italian Sign Language, Social Representations, Deaf People, Social MediaAbstract
This article will explore the process of coding a grammar through the development of metalinguistic awareness in the Italian deaf community. Based on ethnographic and usage-based perspectives (Hymes, 1974; Bybee, 2006; Hopper, 1987), and on studies on linguistic attitudes (McKenzie, 2010; Dragojevic et al., 2021), we will see how language change can be the result of a transformation of attitudes towards the language itself which leads to the selection of some characteristics and the censorship of others. From this perspective, norms can be considered real cultural tools that are legitimized by the community (Slobin, 2013) and linguistic change is the result of the interaction of a new linguistic awareness that determines attitudes of purism and identity defense, within the limits of action determined by the power relations between majorities and minorities.
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