Impacts of language perception and attitudes in Foreign Accent Syndrome.

Sociolinguistic factors such as status and prestige can significantly impact the persistence of an accent in a patient with Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS). FAS is a rare acquired syndrome that affects a speaker's accent typically caused by a stroke or trauma. In this presented FAS case study, we explore two distinct perspectives on a shift from a Sicilian to a North-East variety of Italian accent, caused by an accident trauma. Data have been collected with an ethnographic approach to explore the patient's narrative towards his 'foreign accent'. Firstly, the study analyzes the perception of native listeners through a speech sample perception test of different varieties of Italian. The listeners' responses revealed a diversified classification of the accent, highlighting the listener's crucial role in assigning the status of 'foreignness' to a particular variety. Additionally, an analysis with Praat software showed that the FAS speaker used a variety with some Sicilian and North-East traits. Secondly, the study investigated the patient's perception of their new accent through an ethnographic approach and participant observer technique. The results revealed a typology of FAS speakers that correlated with sociolinguistic factors not previously identified by research. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the complex interplay between sociolinguistic factors and FAS, demonstrating the importance of exploring FAS under various perspectives of research.

On the Embodiment of Negation in Italian Sign Language: An Approach Based on Multiple Representation Theories.

Negation can be considered a shared social action that develops since early infancy with very basic acts of refusals or rejection. Inspired by an approach to the embodiment of concepts known as Multiple Representation Theories (MRT, henceforth), the present paper explores negation as an embodied action that relies on both sensorimotor and linguistic/social information. Despite the different variants, MRT accounts share the basic ideas that both linguistic/social and sensorimotor information concur to the processes of concepts formation and representation and that the balance between these components depends on the kind of concept, the context, or the performed task. In the present research we will apply the MRT framework for exploring negation in Italian sign language (LIS). The nature of negation in LIS has been explored in continuity with the co-speech gesture where negative elements are encoded through differentiated prosodic and gestural strategies across languages. Data have been collected in naturalistic settings that may allow a much wider understanding of negation both in speech and in spoken language with a semi-structured interview. Five LIS participants with age range 30-80 were recruited and interviewed with the aim of understanding the continuity between gesture and sign in negation. Results highlight that negation utterances mirror the functions of rejection, non-existence and denial that have been described in language acquisition both in deaf and hearing children. These different steps of acquisition of negation show a different balance between sensorimotor, linguistic and social information in the construction of negative meaning that the MRT is able to enlighten.

The Italian Deaf Community at the Time of Coronavirus.

The present paper will explore the impacts of the recent pandemic crisis on the Italian Deaf community, as a linguistic minority. Recent research has shown that minorities are suffering much more the effects of the pandemia because their lack of access to services and in a much wider perspective, to education and welfare. We will show that, during the COVID crisis, despite lockdown measures, various actions at the formal political level (from the Italian Deaf Association) and at the informal level (from the members of the community) promoted sign language and the Deaf community within the hearing majority. In particular, we will analyse how social networks were exploited at the grassroot level in order to promote social cohesion and share information about the coronavirus emergency and how the Deaf community shaped the interpreting services on the public media. The role of social networks, however, has gone far beyond the emergency as it has allowed deaf people to create a new virtual space where it was possible to discuss the appropriateness of various linguistic choices related to the COVID lexicon and to argue about the various interpreting services. Furthermore, in such emergency, the interpreting services were shaped following the needs expressed by the Deaf community with the results of an increased visibility of Italian sign language (LIS) and empowerment of the community. Materials spontaneously produced by members of the Deaf Italian community (conferences, debates, fairy tales, and entertainment games) were selected, as well as materials produced by LIS interpreters committed to guaranteeing access to information. By highlighting the strategies that a minority group put in place to deal with the COVID-19 emergency, we can better understand the peculiarities of that community, creating a bridge between worlds that often travel in parallel for respecting the peculiarities of each other (deaf and hearing communities).