Sign Language Representation: new approaches to the study of face-to-face and written Italian Sign Language (LIS)

The issue of the representation of signed languages is a capital one since it does not only regard possible means of registration and storage of sign language data and their retrieval, but it also focuses the attention on how different representational systems give the researcher the possibility to investigate diverse aspects of sign language2 forms and their relation to contextual meaning, and to enquire on different questions such as the definition of the unit of analysis and segmentation issues, the internal variation and the flexibility of the sign system and the identification of relevant features in sign language discourse.