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1
Zhang, Niina Ning. "Universal 20 and Taiwan Sign Language." Sign Language and Linguistics 10, no. 1 (2007): 55–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.10.1.05zha.
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Word order flexibility in sign languages has led some scholars to conclude that sign languages do not have any hierarchical structure. This paper shows that the word order patterns within Taiwan Sign Language nominals precisely follow Greenberg’s (1963:87) Universal 20. The manifestation of the universal in this sign language indicates that like oral languages, sign languages have hierarchical structures. Moreover, this paper also discusses the relation between syntactic hierarchy and linearization from the perspective of Taiwan Sign Language. The fact that the word order possibilities stated in Universal 20 are attested in a single language challenges the very notion of language parameter.
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Kimmelman, Vadim, Vanja de Lint, Connie de Vos, et al. "Argument Structure of Classifier Predicates: Canonical and Non-canonical Mappings in Four Sign Languages." Open Linguistics 5, no. 1 (2019): 332–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/opli-2019-0018.
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AbstractWe analyze argument structure of whole-entity and handling classifier predicates in four sign languages (Russian Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands, German Sign Language, and Kata Kolok) using parallel datasets (retellings of the Canary Row cartoons). We find that all four languages display a systematic, or canonical, mapping between classifier type and argument structure, as previously established for several sign languages: whole-entity classifier predicates are mostly used intransitively, while handling classifier predicates are used transitively. However, our data sets also reveal several non-canonical mappings which we address in turn. First, it appears that whole-entity classifier predicates can be used unergatively, rather than unaccusatively, contrary to expectations. Second, our data contain some transitive uses of whole-entity classifier predicates. Finally, we find that handling classifier predicates can express various complex event structures. We discuss what these findings imply for existing theories of classifier predicates in sign languages.
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Gusakova, Violetta E., and Svetlana I. Burkova. "Antonymy in Russian sign language." Voprosy Jazykoznanija, no. 1 (August 14, 2024): 60–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.31857/0373-658x.2024.1.60-84.
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The article discusses signs-antonyms in Russian Sign Language from the point of view of how visual modality in which this language exists affects their internal structure. The article shows that the correlation between the structure and semantics of antonymous gestures in Russian Sign Language is built primarily on iconicity and the use of three-dimensional space. This reveals the uniqueness of antonymic relations in sign languages in comparison with those in spoken languages.
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Jepson, Jill. "Urban and rural sign language in India." Language in Society 20, no. 1 (1991): 37–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0047404500016067.
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ABSTRACTA comparison is presented of Indian urban and rural sign languages of the deaf. The structures of both languages are designed for efficient communication but have developed differently in response to different sociolinguistic environments. The urban form transmits information primarily by means of appeal to a shared linguistic code; the rural form mainly by appeal to communal nonlinguistic knowledge. Both languages employ effective and appropriate means given their environments. The relationship between language usage and structure is explored. (Sign language, deafness, India)
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Nuhbalaoglu, Derya. "Review of Kimmelman (2019): Information structure in sign languages: Evidence from Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of Netherlands." Special Issue in Memory of Irit Meir 23, no. 1-2 (2020): 280–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.00053.nuh.
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Newman, Aaron J., Ted Supalla, Nina Fernandez, Elissa L. Newport, and Daphne Bavelier. "Neural systems supporting linguistic structure, linguistic experience, and symbolic communication in sign language and gesture." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 37 (2015): 11684–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1510527112.
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Sign languages used by deaf communities around the world possess the same structural and organizational properties as spoken languages: In particular, they are richly expressive and also tightly grammatically constrained. They therefore offer the opportunity to investigate the extent to which the neural organization for language is modality independent, as well as to identify ways in which modality influences this organization. The fact that sign languages share the visual–manual modality with a nonlinguistic symbolic communicative system—gesture—further allows us to investigate where the boundaries lie between language and symbolic communication more generally. In the present study, we had three goals: to investigate the neural processing of linguistic structure in American Sign Language (using verbs of motion classifier constructions, which may lie at the boundary between language and gesture); to determine whether we could dissociate the brain systems involved in deriving meaning from symbolic communication (including both language and gesture) from those specifically engaged by linguistically structured content (sign language); and to assess whether sign language experience influences the neural systems used for understanding nonlinguistic gesture. The results demonstrated that even sign language constructions that appear on the surface to be similar to gesture are processed within the left-lateralized frontal-temporal network used for spoken languages—supporting claims that these constructions are linguistically structured. Moreover, although nonsigners engage regions involved in human action perception to process communicative, symbolic gestures, signers instead engage parts of the language-processing network—demonstrating an influence of experience on the perception of nonlinguistic stimuli.
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Bashlueva, Natalya. "The production of language signs and their role in improving the effectiveness of foreign language teaching." Applied psychology and pedagogy 8, no. 3 (2023): 78–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.12737/2500-0543-2023-8-3-78-91.
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The purpose of the study is to investigate the conditions and patterns that are involved in the production of new language signs in the communication process. The article discusses two main models of the production of sign-forming structures. The first model includes grammatical structures, the second we will call "semi-finished signs". The methodology of teaching a foreign language requires a clear understanding of the process of producing sign-forming structures and their interaction. Grammatical structure is the foundation of any language sign. A language sign represents words, syntagmas, sentences, or messages. Grammar is related to mathematics. Formulas in algebra are similar to grammatical structures. The sign-forming grammatical structure, like a real linguistic sign, has not only a form ("signifier"), but also a content ("signified"). The article formulates the prerequisites that actualize the question of the need for the importance of studying the conditions and patterns that affect the effectiveness of teaching a foreign language. Special attention is paid to the question of the universality of grammatical structures. Universality implies the replacement of various constituent elements in grammatical formulas. The meaning of the grammatical structure is that it has a certain range of productivity, characterized by those groups of signs (and sometimes even specific signs) that can be used in them as wildcard elements. The tasks of developing a classification of data on the grammatical structure and the advantages and disadvantages of its use are defined. The logical result of the study was the conclusion that the production of new signs in communication almost never occurs through the conscious use of grammatical means; speakers and writers usually do not realize any account of the sign-forming means that they use and in most cases do not have the slightest idea about them. It should be emphasized that there is only one mechanism and only one psychology of sign formation, common to native and foreign languages, for children and adults; only the process of mastering it can be different.
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Pirot, Khunaw Sulaiman, and Wirya Izzaddin Ali. "The Phonological Structure of American Sign Language -ASL and zmânî âmâžaî kurdî - ZAK." Journal of University of Raparin 9, no. 4 (2022): 155–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.26750/vol(9).no(4).paper8.
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This paper deals primarily with the phonological structure of American Sign Language (ASL) and zmânî âmâžaî kurdî (ZAK) -Kurdish Sign Language. It is concerned with sign language (SL) and the types of sign language. One type is primary sign languages which are used by the Deaf people. Sign language is a visual-gestural language which relies on the use of the hands, facial expressions and body movements.Generally, there are myths about SLs. People believe that SLs are universal and have no grammatical structure. However, sign languages, as spoken languages, have lexicon, phonology, morphology and syntax. As far as the phonological structure of SLs includes handshape, location, movement and orientation of the hand. Therefore, some questions have been raised focusing on ASL and ZAK phonological structure. One of the questions is that: are the parameters of the phonological structure of ASL and ZAK the same? The aim of the paper is to apply ASL phonological aspects on ZAK. In this study, a mixed method is adopted. What is related to the hypothesis is that ZAK has three phonological parameters. One of the findings is that both ASL and ZAK have the same phonological parameters. As far as recommendation is concerned, more work can be carried out on the differences between ASL and ZAK at all linguistic levels.
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Tuveri, Franco. "A Comprehensive Review of Sign Language Production." Journal of Computer-Assisted Linguistic Research 8 (November 15, 2024): 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/jclr.2024.20983.
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Sign languages are made up of phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic levels of structure that satisfy the same social, cognitive and communicative purposes as other natural languages and represent the most used form of communication between hearing and deaf people. Sign Language Production together with Sign Language Recognition constitute the two parts of this process, as Sign Language Production concerns that part of the communication process that goes from spoken language to its translation into Sign Language, while Sign Language Recognition deals with the recognition of Sign Language. In this article, we want to consider some of the most recent and important studies on Sign Language Production and discuss their limitations, advantages, and future developments.
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Williams, Joshua, and Sharlene D. Newman. "Modality-Independent Effects of Phonological Neighborhood Structure on Initial L2 Sign Language Learning." Research in Language 13, no. 2 (2015): 198–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/rela-2015-0022.
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The goal of the present study was to characterize how neighborhood structure in sign language influences lexical sign acquisition in order to extend our understanding of how the lexicon influences lexical acquisition in both sign and spoken languages. A referentmatching lexical sign learning paradigm was administered to a group of 29 hearing sign language learners in order to create a sign lexicon. The lexicon was constructed based on exposures to signs that resided in either sparse or dense handshape and location neighborhoods. The results of the current study indicated that during the creation of the lexicon signs that resided in sparse neighborhoods were learned better than signs that resided in dense neighborhoods. This pattern of results is similar to what is seen in child first language acquisition of spoken language. Therefore, despite differences in child first language and adult second language acquisition, these results contribute to a growing body of literature that implicates the phonological features that structure of the lexicon is influential in initial stages of lexical acquisition for both spoken and sign languages. This is the first study that uses an innovated lexicon-construction methodology to explore interactions between phonology and the lexicon in L2 acquisition of sign language.
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Kimmelman, Vadim. "Information Structure in Russian Sign Language and Sign Language of the Netherlands." Sign Language and Linguistics 18, no. 1 (2015): 142–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.18.1.06kim.
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Reagan, Timothy. "Language planning and language policies for sign languages: an emerging civil rights movement." Sociolinguistica 36, no. 1-2 (2022): 169–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/soci-2022-0010.
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Abstract Following the publication of William Stokoe’s Sign Language Structure in 1960, there was a proliferation of linguistic research addressing different aspects of sign languages. The emergence of this research had implications not only for linguistics as an academic discipline, but also for the deaf community itself. One area in which the study of sign languages and the growing activism of deaf communities overlapped in powerful ways was in calls for the official recognition of sign languages – that is, with respect to status planning. In addition to status planning, there have also been clear examples of corpus planning, acquisition planning, and prestige planning with respect to sign languages. Although efforts to engage in language planning for sign languages, and to develop and implement language policies for such languages, share many characteristics with language planning targeting spoken languages, in other ways they are quite distinctive. In this article, an overview of language planning and policy for sign languages is provided, followed by discussions of the linguistic human rights of sign language users and the role of language policies for sign languages in efforts to ensure civil rights for deaf individuals and communities.
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Zeshan, Ulrike, and Sibaji Panda. "Sign-speaking: The structure of simultaneous bimodal utterances." Applied Linguistics Review 9, no. 1 (2018): 1–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2016-1031.
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AbstractWe present data from a bimodal trilingual situation involving Indian Sign Language (ISL), Hindi and English. Signers are co-using these languages while in group conversations with deaf people and hearing non-signers. The data show that in this context, English is an embedded language that does not impact on the grammar of the utterances, while both ISL and Hindi structures are realised throughout. The data show mismatches between the simultaneously expressed ISL and Hindi, such that semantic content and/or syntactic structures are different in both languages, yet are produced at the same time. The data also include instances of different propositions expressed simultaneously in the two languages. This under-documented behaviour is called “sign-speaking” here, and we explore its implications for theories of multilingualism, code-switching, and bilingual language production.
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Meir, Irit, Assaf Israel, Wendy Sandler, Carol A. Padden, and Mark Aronoff. "The influence of community on language structure." Linguistic Variation 12, no. 2 (2012): 247–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lv.12.2.04mei.
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By comparing two sign languages of approximately the same age but which arose and developed under different social circumstances, we are able to identify possible relationships between social factors and language structure. We argue that two structural properties of these languages are related to the size and the heterogeneity versus homogeneity of their respective communities: use of space in grammatical structure and degree of lexical and sublexical variability. A third characteristic, the tendency toward single-argument clauses appears to be a function of a different social factor: language age. Our study supports the view that language is not just a structure in the brain, nor is it strictly the domain of the individual. It is very much a socio-cultural artifact. Keywords: community and language structure; sign languages; ISL; ABSL; variation; space; argument structure
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Corina, David, and Wendy Sandler. "On the nature of phonological structure in sign language." Phonology 10, no. 2 (1993): 165–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0952675700000038.
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The study of phonological structure and patterns across languages is seen by contemporary phonologists as a way of gaining insight into language as a cognitive system. Traditionally, phonologists have focused on spoken languages. More recently, we have observed a growing interest in the grammatical system underlying signed languages of the deaf. This development in the field of phonology provides a natural laboratory for investigating language universals. As grammatical systems, in part, reflect the modality in which they are expressed, the comparison of spoken and signed languages permits us to separate those aspects of grammar which are modality-dependent from those which are shared by all human languages. On the other hand, modality-dependent characteristics must also be accounted for by a comprehensive theory of language. Comparing languages in two modalities is therefore of theoretical importance for both reasons: establishing modality-independent linguistic universals, and accounting for modality-dependent structure and organisation.
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Dachkovsky, Svetlana, Christina Healy, and Wendy Sandler. "Visual intonation in two sign languages." Phonology 30, no. 2 (2013): 211–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0952675713000122.
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In a detailed comparison of the intonational systems of two unrelated languages, Israeli Sign Language and American Sign Language, we show certain similarities as well as differences in the distribution of several articulations of different parts of the face and motions of the head. Differences between the two languages are explained on the basis of pragmatic notions related to information structure, such as accessibility and contingency, providing novel evidence that the system is inherently intonational, and only indirectly related to syntax. The study also identifies specific ways in which the physical modality in which language is expressed influences intonational structure.
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Cardin, Velia, Eleni Orfanidou, Lena Kästner, et al. "Monitoring Different Phonological Parameters of Sign Language Engages the Same Cortical Language Network but Distinctive Perceptual Ones." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 28, no. 1 (2016): 20–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00872.
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The study of signed languages allows the dissociation of sensorimotor and cognitive neural components of the language signal. Here we investigated the neurocognitive processes underlying the monitoring of two phonological parameters of sign languages: handshape and location. Our goal was to determine if brain regions processing sensorimotor characteristics of different phonological parameters of sign languages were also involved in phonological processing, with their activity being modulated by the linguistic content of manual actions. We conducted an fMRI experiment using manual actions varying in phonological structure and semantics: (1) signs of a familiar sign language (British Sign Language), (2) signs of an unfamiliar sign language (Swedish Sign Language), and (3) invented nonsigns that violate the phonological rules of British Sign Language and Swedish Sign Language or consist of nonoccurring combinations of phonological parameters. Three groups of participants were tested: deaf native signers, deaf nonsigners, and hearing nonsigners. Results show that the linguistic processing of different phonological parameters of sign language is independent of the sensorimotor characteristics of the language signal. Handshape and location were processed by different perceptual and task-related brain networks but recruited the same language areas. The semantic content of the stimuli did not influence this process, but phonological structure did, with nonsigns being associated with longer RTs and stronger activations in an action observation network in all participants and in the supramarginal gyrus exclusively in deaf signers. These results suggest higher processing demands for stimuli that contravene the phonological rules of a signed language, independently of previous knowledge of signed languages. We suggest that the phonological characteristics of a language may arise as a consequence of more efficient neural processing for its perception and production.
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Zivkovic, Dragica, and Jasmina Jovanovic. "Comparison of morphemic word structure and a cartographic sign." Glasnik Srpskog geografskog drustva 91, no. 1 (2011): 159–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/gsgd1101159z.
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Language is a system of gestures, sounds, characters, symbols and words that are used to display concepts and communication. Map language is derived from natural language, rather than parallel to it, as its graphical equivalent. Natural and mapping language is based on a system of signs. In the natural language, the letters are the smallest units, and arranged meaningfully they constitute a sign - a word i.e. a concept. In a cartographic language one sign is one term. But common to both languages is the basis of character - morphemes and its accessories - affixes, which in the cartographic language have greater possibilities of expression.
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Schalber, Katharina. "Event visibility in Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS)." Investigating Understudied Sign Languages - Croatian SL and Austrian SL, with comparison to American SL 9, no. 1-2 (2006): 207–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.9.1.11sch.
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This paper focuses on the phonological visibility of event structure of non-classifier predicates in Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) as proposed in the Event Visibility Hypothesis (EVH) (Grose et al. 2006; Wilbur in press). The aim of this paper is to investigate the event structure of ÖGS predicate signs and to test the applicability of the EVH. The analysis provides evidence that the event structure of ÖGS predicates is also phonologically visible and that the two unrelated sign languages ASL and ÖGS use the same set of morphemes to mark telic and atelic event structures. The actual phonological realizations of these morphemes, however, are language dependent. The present paper adds to the EVH with a discussion of the observed inability of some predicates to be marked for telicity and with the analysis of mouth nonmanuals which are suggested to be sensitive to the event structure. These nonmanuals divide into two types: (1) continuous posture or P-nonmanuals, composed of a single facial posture which functions as an adverbial modifier of the event, and (2) discontinuous transition or T-nonmanuals, composed of a single abrupt change in the position of the articulator, which appear to emphasize the initial or final portion of the event structure.
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Strickland, Brent, Carlo Geraci, Emmanuel Chemla, Philippe Schlenker, Meltem Kelepir, and Roland Pfau. "Event representations constrain the structure of language: Sign language as a window into universally accessible linguistic biases." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 19 (2015): 5968–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423080112.
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According to a theoretical tradition dating back to Aristotle, verbs can be classified into two broad categories. Telic verbs (e.g., “decide,” “sell,” “die”) encode a logical endpoint, whereas atelic verbs (e.g., “think,” “negotiate,” “run”) do not, and the denoted event could therefore logically continue indefinitely. Here we show that sign languages encode telicity in a seemingly universal way and moreover that even nonsigners lacking any prior experience with sign language understand these encodings. In experiments 1–5, nonsigning English speakers accurately distinguished between telic (e.g., “decide”) and atelic (e.g., “think”) signs from (the historically unrelated) Italian Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands, and Turkish Sign Language. These results were not due to participants' inferring that the sign merely imitated the action in question. In experiment 6, we used pseudosigns to show that the presence of a salient visual boundary at the end of a gesture was sufficient to elicit telic interpretations, whereas repeated movement without salient boundaries elicited atelic interpretations. Experiments 7–10 confirmed that these visual cues were used by all of the sign languages studied here. Together, these results suggest that signers and nonsigners share universally accessible notions of telicity as well as universally accessible “mapping biases” between telicity and visual form.
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van der Hulst, Harry. "Units in the analysis of signs." Phonology 10, no. 2 (1993): 209–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s095267570000004x.
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The assumption that there is a common set of linguistic principles underlying both spoken language and sign language phonology, which forms part of the human language capacity, is shared by most phonologists working on sign language. See Sandler (1993a) for an extensive discussion of these issues. But even though this assumption is reasonable, since both spoken and signed languages are products of the same human brain and fulfil the same function, it is not clear that theories of representation which have been proposed for spoken languages can be directly applied to the structure of sign languages. Such representations have been developed on the basis of the spoken language modality only. They are often so close to the phonetics of spoken languages that we cannot rule out the possibility that non-trivial aspects of them are modality-specific. Therefore, rather than, for example, attempting to test various competing (spoken language-based) theories of syllable structure, we must first investigate the structure of sign language in its own right. This strategy need not be pushed too far, however. In developing a model of signs we can benefit from general principles which have proved successful in the study of spoken languages, especially if these principles do not seem to be directly based on ‘spoken phonetics’.
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Mineiro, Ana, Patrícia Carmo, Cristina Caroça, et al. "Emerging linguistic features of Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language." Sign Language and Linguistics 20, no. 1 (2017): 109–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.20.1.04min.
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Abstract In Sao Tome and Principe there are approximately five thousand deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Until recently, these people had no language to use among them other than basic home signs used only to communicate with their families. With this communication gap in mind, a project was set up to help them come together in a common space in order to create a dedicated environment for a common sign language to emerge. In less than two years, the first cohort began to sign and to develop a newly emerging sign language – the Sao Tome and Principe Sign Language (LGSTP). Signs were elicited by means of drawings and pictures and recorded from the beginning of the project. The emergent structures of signs in this new language were compared with those reported for other emergent sign languages such as the Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language and the Lengua de Señas de Nicaragua, and several similarities were found at the first stage. In this preliminary study on the emergence of LGSTP, it was observed that, in its first stage, signs are mostly iconic and exhibit a greater involvement of the articulators and a larger signing space when compared with subsequent stages of LGSTP emergence and with other sign languages. Although holistic signs are the prevalent structure, compounding seems to be emerging. At this stage of emergence, OSV seems to be the predominant syntactic structure of LGSTP. Yet the data suggest that new signers exhibit difficulties in syntactic constructions with two arguments.
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Mcburney, Susan Lloyd. "William Stokoe and the discipline of sign language linguistics." Historiographia Linguistica 28, no. 1-2 (2001): 143–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/hl.28.1.10mcb.
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Summary The first modern linguistic analysis of a signed language was published in 1960 – William Clarence Stokoe’s (1919–2000) Sign Language Structure. Although the initial impact of Stokoe’s monograph on linguistics and education was minimal, his work formed a solid base for what was to become a new field of research: American Sign Language (ASL) Linguistics. Together with the work of those that followed (in particular Ursula Bellugi and colleagues), Stokoe’s ground-breaking work on the structure of ASL has led to an acceptance of signed languages as autonomous linguistic systems that exhibit the complex structure characteristic of all human languages.
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V, Valarmathi, Sowmiya S, and Viswanathan M. "EquiSign Dynamic Sign Language Translator." International Journal of Engineering Research in Computer Science and Engineering 9, no. 7 (2022): 69–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.36647/ijercse/09.07.art015.
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This paper aims to address the problem of limited knowledge and outreach of the concept and structure of sign languages in order to facilitate better inclusion and integration of hearing-impaired people among their peers and general society as a whole. For the proposed system, the speech input is captured in real-time, converted into text using a machine-learning model based on natural language processing, and translate the text into the specified flavor of the sign language. The proposed system currently makes use of Python as it's core tech-stack.
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Napoli, Donna Jo, and Jeff Wu. "Morpheme structure constraints on two-handed signs in American Sign Language." Sign Language and Linguistics 6, no. 2 (2003): 123–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.6.2.03nap.
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In ASL, two-handed signs fall into three major sets. In one set the hands have different shapes and either only the dominant hand moves or the hands move as a unit. Battison’s Dominance Condition was intended to account for the fact that the non-dominant hand typically assumes an unmarked shape when it is stationary. However, we show that the non-dominant hand does this even when the hands move as a unit. In the second set the hands have the same shape and only the dominant hand moves. These signs are unrestricted for handshape. In the third set the hands have the same shape and both move. Battison’s Symmetry Condition was intended to account for restrictions on the parameters of these signs. We argue that four basic types of symmetry transformations occur, with various complications: reflection, rotation, translation, and glide reflection, all of which call for conditions specific to them, and lead to an overriding condition on movement in symmetry transformation signs. The conditions uncovered here might be morpheme structure constraints or, instead, simply follow from physiological limitations of hands in motion.
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Sandler, Wendy. "Speech and sign: the whole human language." Theoretical Linguistics 50, no. 1-2 (2024): 107–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/tl-2024-2008.
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Abstract After more than sixty years of research, it is now widely accepted that sign languages are real languages, sharing key properties with spoken languages. This means that spoken and signed languages together comprise one natural language system in some sense. But that is not the whole story. Here I probe more deeply into the two systems, and focus on the differences between them -- differences that are pervasive, systematic, and predictable. Taking the existence of two identical articulators in sign languages, the two hands, as a case in point, I show how the physical channel of transmission profoundly influences linguistic structure. Further support for the characterization of language proposed here, different systems in the same faculty, comes from the newly emerging sign language of the Al-Sayyid Bedouins. The Whole Human Language can only be fully understood by admitting and elaborating two types of language in one language faculty, and by acknowledging the fundamental role of the body in determining language form.
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Kimmelman, Vadim. "Basic argument structure in Russian Sign Language." Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3, no. 1 (2018): 116. http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.494.
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Napier, Jemina. "Training sign language interpreters in Australia." Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 51, no. 3 (2005): 207–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/babel.51.3.01nap.
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Abstract This paper describes an innovative approach to training sign language interpreters, through a program established at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. The course is innovative because sign language and spoken language interpreting students jointly study key subjects, which enables all students to gain insight into the theoretical applications and professional practices of their respective working experiences. This component is particularly innovative as sign language interpreting programs are typically provided as language specific courses with little (if any) exposure to interpreting students of other languages. This paper will provide an overview of the program for both spoken and signed language interpreters, detailing the structure, content and delivery modes, with the aim of encouraging other interpreter educators to consider combining the teaching of all language interpreters.
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Makaroğlu, Bahtiyar, İpek Pınar Bekar, and Engin Arik. "Evidence for minimal pairs in Turkish Sign Language (TİD)." Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 50, no. 3 (2014): 207–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/psicl-2014-0015.
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Abstract Recently, many studies have examined the phonological parameters in sign languages from various research perspectives, paying close attention in particular to manual parameters such as handshape, place of articulation, movement, and orientation of the hands. However, these studies have been conducted on only a few sign languages such as American and British Sign Languages, and have paid little attention to nonmanual features. In this study, we investigated yet another sign language, Turkish Sign Language (TİD), focusing on both manual and nonmanual features to examine "minimal pairs", a cornerstone concept of phonology. We applied Brentari's (2005) feature classification and Pfau and Quer's (2010) phonological (or lexical) nonmanual categorization. Our analysis showed that both phonological features and constraints on TİD sign formation have a phonological structure similar to other well-studied sign languages. The results indicate that not only are phonological features a necessary notion for the description of both manual and nonmanual parameters at the lexical level in TİD, but also that nonmanuals have to be considered an essential part of sign as a way of better understanding their phonological roles in sign language phonology.
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Padden, Carol A. "Simultaneous Interpreting across Modalities." Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting 5, no. 2 (2000): 169–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/intp.5.2.07pad.
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In this paper I examine simultaneous sign language interpreting with a focus on two dimensions: interpreting between languages of different modalities, and interpreting between two different languages. As I discuss, there is interplay between the two: At times, the task at hand is modality-driven, and at other times, structure-driven. When sign language interpreters are at work, the two dimensions come together in interesting ways, and as I will argue, offer ways to understand the task of simultaneous interpreting between spoken languages. I discuss sign language phonology and how it interacts with the constraints of simultaneous interpreting; I also discuss the possibilities of visual and spatial representation in sign languages, and how these present interesting dilemmas for interpreters working under time constraints.
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Kuhn, Ninoslava Šarac, Tamara Alibašić Ciciliani, and Ronnie B. Wilbur. "Phonological parameters in Croatian Sign Language." Investigating Understudied Sign Languages - Croatian SL and Austrian SL, with comparison to American SL 9, no. 1-2 (2006): 33–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.9.1.05kuh.
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We present an initial description of the sign parameters in Croatian Sign Language. We show that HZJ has a comparable phonological structure to other known sign languages, including basic sign parts, such as location, handshape, movement, orientation, and nonmanual characteristics. Our discussion follows the Prosodic Model (Brentari 1998), in which sign structure is separated into those characteristics which do not change during sign formation (inherent features) and those that do (prosodic features). We present the model, along with discussion of the notion of constraints on sign formation, and apply it to HZJ to the extent that we are able to do so. We identify an inventory of the relevant handshapes, orientations, locations, and movements in HZJ, and a partial inventory of nonmanuals. One interesting feature of the HZJ environment is the existence of two fingerspelling alphabets, a one-handed and a two-handed system. We also provide additional analytical steps that can be taken after the initial inventory has been constructed. Both minimal pairs and constraints on sign formation are especially useful for demonstrating the linguistic systematicity of sign languages and separating them from gesture and mime.
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Altamimi, Haya S., and Haroon N. Alsager. "Argument Structure and Word Order in Saudi Sign Language." Journal of Language Teaching and Research 14, no. 1 (2023): 203–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1401.21.
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This study focuses on the description of argument structure and word order in Saudi Sign language (SSL). The nature of the syntactic level of the grammar of SSL is clarified. Since word order is often considered the most important part of grammar, this study details the various options that are available for the major constituents (Subject, Verb, and Object) in SSL independent of any connection to spoken Arabic syntax. In SSL, like in other languages, the nature of the arguments (Subject, Object) and the kind of verb can impact the word order. To investigate word order in SSL, which is based on Chomsky’s (1995) Minimalist Program (MP), data were collected through derivation of data from narratives (semi-naturalistic-corpus) and an experiment (picture-description task). This research involved a sample of 10 deaf signing participants who are all fluent in SSL. All the participants have lived in Saudi Arabia for at least 10 years. Results indicate that the SSL is as any natural language and from the spoken language in Saudi Arabia. The most common word order in declaratives and the basic constituent order in SSL is SVO. As in virtually all sign languages, Wh-elements in SSL occur at the end of the clause. According to research on the interaction between word order and grammatical use of facial expressions and head locations (nonmanual marking), nonmanual markings have pragmatic purposes and may have syntactic functions.
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McKee, Rachel, Adam Schembri, David McKee, and Trevor Johnston. "Variable “subject” presence in Australian Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language." Language Variation and Change 23, no. 3 (2011): 375–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954394511000123.
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AbstractThis article reports the findings of parallel studies of variable subject presence in two closely related sign language varieties, Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). The studies expand upon research in American Sign Language (ASL) (Wulf, Dudis, Bayley, & Lucas, 2002) that found subject pronouns with noninflecting verbs to be more frequently unexpressed than expressed. The ASL study reported that null subject use correlates with both social and linguistic factors, the strongest of which is referential congruence with an antecedent in a preceding clause. Findings from the Auslan and NZSL studies also indicated that chains of reference play a stronger role in subject presence than either morphological factors (e.g., verb type), or social factors of age, gender, ethnicity, and language background. Overall results are consistent with the view that this feature of syntactic variation may be better accounted for in terms of information structure than sociolinguistic effects.
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Emmorey, Karen. "Iconicity as structure mapping." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 369, no. 1651 (2014): 20130301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0301.
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Linguistic and psycholinguistic evidence is presented to support the use of structure-mapping theory as a framework for understanding effects of iconicity on sign language grammar and processing. The existence of structured mappings between phonological form and semantic mental representations has been shown to explain the nature of metaphor and pronominal anaphora in sign languages. With respect to processing, it is argued that psycholinguistic effects of iconicity may only be observed when the task specifically taps into such structured mappings. In addition, language acquisition effects may only be observed when the relevant cognitive abilities are in place (e.g. the ability to make structural comparisons) and when the relevant conceptual knowledge has been acquired (i.e. information key to processing the iconic mapping). Finally, it is suggested that iconicity is better understood as a structured mapping between two mental representations than as a link between linguistic form and human experience.
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Efthimiou, Eleni, Stavroula-Evita Fotinea, and Galini Sapountzaki. "Feature-based natural language processing for GSL synthesis." Sign Language and Linguistics 10, no. 1 (2007): 3–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.10.1.03eft.
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The work reported in this study is based on research that has been carried out while developing a sign synthesis system for Greek Sign Language (GSL): theoretical linguistic analysis as well as lexicon and grammar resources derived from this analysis. We focus on the organisation of linguistic knowledge that initiates the multi-functional processing required to achieve sign generation performed by a virtual signer. In this context, structure rules and lexical coding support sign synthesis of GSL utterances, by exploitation of avatar technologies for the representation of the linguistic message. Sign generation involves two subsystems: a Greek-to-GSL conversion subsystem and a sign performance subsystem. The conversion subsystem matches input strings of written Greek-to-GSL structure patterns, exploiting Natural Language Processing (NLP) mechanisms. The sign performance subsystem uses parsed output of GSL structure patterns, enriched with sign-specific information, to activate a virtual signer for the performance of properly coded linguistic messages. Both the conversion and the synthesis procedure are based on adequately constructed electronic linguistic resources. Applicability of sign synthesis is demonstrated with the example of a Web-based prototype environment for GSL grammar teaching.
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Hass, Edward J., and Karen M. Sams. "A Method for Examining Gestural Language Structure." Perceptual and Motor Skills 64, no. 2 (1987): 391–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pms.1987.64.2.391.
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This experiment tested the hypothesis that syntactic constituents in American Sign Language (ASL) serve as perceptual units. We adapted the strategy first employed by Fodor and Bever in 1965 in a study of the psychological reality of linguistic speech segments. Four deaf subjects were shown ASL sign sequences constructed to contain a single constituent break. The dependent measure was the subjective location of a light flash occurring during the sign sequence. The prediction that the flashes would be attracted to the constituent boundary was supported for two of the subjects, while the other two showed random placement of the flash location on either side of the constituent boundary. The two subjects not performing in the predicted direction were more proficient in English (written) than the two giving the effect. It was suggested that this relatively greater proficiency may have interfered in some way with the ASL syntax to produce the results obtained.
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Uyechi, Linda, and Janine Toole. "Formal Symmetry in American Sign Language." Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 23, no. 1 (1997): 351. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v23i1.1269.
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Janzen, Terry, Barbara O’Dea, and Barbara Shaffer. "Passive Constructions in American Sign Language." Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 23, no. 1 (1997): 434. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v23i1.1280.
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Shiyan, Taras. "Culture – Sign – Meaning: on the Nature and the Structure of Culture and of Sign." Voprosy Filosofii, no. 8 (August 1, 2024): 60–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.21146/0042-8744-2024-8-60-71.
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The article examines the concept of culture as a paradigmatic structure that defines the variety of possible forms of social life, activity, and behavior in a certain community. It examines the structure and nature of the sign and its place in culture. The author sets this concept of culture and ideas about the structure of the sign, starting from some of F. Saussure’s ideas. He accepts Saussure’s distinction between language and speech within “linguistic activity”, but in the language itself he also distinguishes two areas of existence: language as a paradigmatic structure of a single subject and language as a paradigmatic system existing at the community level. As a result, the author sees not two, but three areas of manifestation in “language activity”. He identifies similar three areas in any semiotic activity and in activity in general. At the same time, in the course of generalization in the series “linguistic activity – sign activity – activity”, the social paradigmatic aspect of these activities is also generalized from language to the sign system and culture as a whole. Since language in public form, and language in individual form, and speech have the word as a basic structural unit, then we can talk about three ontological forms (modi) of the word: in public language, in individual language, in speech. The author identifies similar three ontological modi for an arbitrary sign. Taking as a basis the binary structure of an abstract sign (the plan of expression and the plan of content associated with each other) and the idea of the three ontological modi of the sign, we obtain a triangular prism as an ontological scheme of the sign, where the nodes of the prism correspond to various aspects of the sign, three vertical edges – three ontological modi of the sign, the upper face – the plan of expression (syntax), the bottom face – the plan of content (semantics). Based on the obtained ontological scheme of the sign, the author interprets the semiotic representations of some alternative research programs
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De Souza Lemos, Glauber, and Erica Dos Santos Rodrigues. "Disfluências na sinalização em Língua Brasileira de Sinais (Libras)." Letras & Letras 37, no. 2 (2021): 22–46. https://doi.org/10.14393/ll63-v37n2-2021-02.
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This article aims to analyze disfluencies produced in signing in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) during an interview involving a deaf interviewee and a hearing interviewer. The theoretical-analytical framework is aligned with psycholinguistic studies focused on characterizing disfluencies in oral language production (by identifying the structure of sequences with disfluencies, their moments of occurrence, and their functions). The aim is to evaluate the possibility of correlating types of disfluencies in oral languages with those observed in sign languages. The article reports the most recurrent types of disfluencies in sign languages in the situation under scrutiny, including pauses (filled and silent), repairs, sign repetitions, and segmentation restarts, seeking to identify their points of occurrence, functions and associated cognitive processes.
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Yu, Peilai. "Sign Language Recognition and Application Based on Graph Neural Networks: Innovative Integration in TV News Sign Language." Journal of Computer Technology and Applied Mathematics 2, no. 2 (2025): 11–15. https://doi.org/10.70393/6a6374616d.323636.
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With the rapid development of information technology, sign language recognition plays an extremely important role in the communication among people with hearing impairments. Especially in the context of television news, the real-time and accuracy of sign language translation are very important. Traditional sign language translation technology faces challenges such as low accuracy of gesture recognition and poor real-time performance, which makes it difficult to meet the translation needs of daily complex news content. This paper proposes a sign language recognition method based on graph neural network (GNN). By constructing a graph structure of gesture nodes and joint connections, GNN can capture the relationship between gestures and efficiently transfer learning information. Through comparative experiments with traditional convolutional neural networks (CNN), the advantages of GNN in sign language recognition are proved, especially in the application of news broadcasting, which significantly improves the real-time and accuracy of sign language translation. Future research will focus on optimizing the generalization ability of the model and broadening its applicability to more languages and scenarios.
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Blondel, Marion, and Christopher Miller. "Rhythmic structures in French Sign Language (LSF) nursery rhymes." Sign Language and Linguistics 3, no. 1 (2000): 59–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.3.1.04blo.
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Research over the past three decades has brought attention to various ways in which linguistic structures are exploited to build poetic form in sign languages. These include recurring patterns of phonological elements (similar to rhyme, alliteration or assonance) that play a role in the structure of verses and strophes, as well as uses of metaphor and modifications of the form of signs that contribute to an overall fluidity of movement distinct from non-poetic signed discourse. In this paper we concentrate our attention on the role of rhythmic structure and the ways in which it interacts with syntactic structure to build poetic form. Our data consist of nursery rhymes, either original LSF creations or adaptations from French nursery rhymes, which were composed by Deaf adults and children. This type of poetry, as a genre of oral literature, is essentially performance-related and is highly variable in form. Despite the difference in modality (oral vs. gestural), LSF and French nursery rhymes show similar characteristics (repetition of phonological units, non-significant gesture, similar subject matter etc.), and rhythmic structure is central to their overall structure. This paper isolates rhythmic templates in LSF nursery rhymes via the analysis of accentual prosody (speed, intensity and manner of movement) and compares the nursery rhymes with an equivalent corpus of non-poetic performances. This research is relevant to the question of the universality of infant rhythmic structure and the importance of nursery rhymes in first language acquisition.
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Mitchell, Robert W., and H. Lyn Miles. "Apes and language: Human uniqueness again?" Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18, no. 1 (1995): 200–201. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x00038103.
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AbstractWilkins & Wakefield's intriguing model of language evolution is deficient in evidence of human uniqueness in metaphorical matching, amodal representation, reference, conceptual structure, hierarchical organization, linguistic comprehension, sign use, laterality, and handedness. Primates show communicative reference, laterality, and handedness, and apes in particular show hierarchical organization, conceptual structure, cross-modal abilities, sign use, and displaced reference.
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Avinash, Rai, and Gour Kavita. "Automatic Sign Language Gesture Recognition using Prewitt & Morphological Dilation." International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) 10, no. 1 (2020): 334–39. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijeat.A1884.1010120.
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Sign languages have their own linguistic structure, grammar and characteristics, and are independent of the rules that govern spoken languages. They are visual languages that rely on hand gestures as well as on bodily and facial expressions. Sign languages in different countries are vastly different from one another, so enabling easy communication is important: not just to break the barrier between hearing and deaf individuals, but also between people who do not sign in the same language. In India, sign language plays an important role in the field of communication among dumb and deaf people. There are different signs associated for communication in every country as per their convenient gestures. Automatic sign language gesture recognition is an approach for recognizing gestures and converts it to its actual meaning and convey either through speech or text as per requirements. Here the system is based on Prewitt Edge Detection that possesses the gestures of sign language and helps to recognize and assign their meanings. The Prewitt is second order derivative that has been used in image processing and computer vision, in the form of edge detection or extraction algorithms where it creates gradient of horizontal and vertical magnitude. System also uses certain pre-processing filtration technique such as morphological dilation for better feature extraction.
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Kim, Soyoung, and Younghwan Pan. "A Structure and Framework for Sign Language Interaction." Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea 34, no. 5 (2015): 411–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.5143/jesk.2015.34.5.411.
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Pfau, Roland, and Markus Steinbach. "person climbing up a tree." Sign Language Syntax from a Formal Perspective 16, no. 2 (2013): 189–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.16.2.04pfa.
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Studies on sign language grammaticalization have demonstrated that most of the attested diachronic changes from lexical to functional elements parallel those previously described for spoken languages. To date, most of these studies are either descriptive in nature or embedded within functional-cognitive theories. In contrast, we take a generative perspective on sign language grammaticalization, adopting ideas by Roberts & Roussou (2003), who suggest that grammaticalization can be characterized as “reanalysis ‘upwards’ along the functional structure”. Following an overview of some of the attested modality-independent pathways, we zoom in on the grammaticalization of two types of agreement auxiliaries, the lexical sources of which are the verb give and the noun person. We argue that the grammaticalization of give-aux (in Greek Sign Language and Catalan Sign Language) follows directly from Roberts & Roussou’s model because a lexical verb is reanalyzed as an element which is merged in a structurally higher functional position (little v). The same is true for person, but this change has an additional modality-specific flavor. In spoken languages, agreement affixes typically enter the functional domain of V via cliticization. In contrast, in German Sign Language and Catalan Sign Language, person, after having been reanalyzed as a determiner-like element, ‘jumps’ directly from D into AgrO — most probably because it has the relevant spatial properties necessary to express agreement. Thus, grammaticalization in sign languages, while being structurally similar, allows for types of reanalysis that are not attested in spoken languages.
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Sandler, Wendy. "Vive la différence: Sign language and spoken language in language evolution." Language and Cognition 5, no. 2-3 (2013): 189–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/langcog-2013-0013.
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AbstractMichael Arbib's book proposes a scenario of language evolution that begins with pantomime, progresses to proto-sign, and then develops together with proto-speech in an “expanding spiral” to create a language-ready brain. The richness of detail in Arbib's hypothesis makes serious appraisal of each of its aspects possible. Here I describe findings about established and emerging sign languages that bear specifically upon the interaction between sign and speech proposed in the Mirror System Hypothesis. While supporting the central role that Arbib attributes to gestural/visual communication in understanding language and its evolution, I point out some kinks in the spiral that potentially disrupt its smooth expansion. One is the fact that each modality relies on an entirely different motor system. Another is the type of relation that holds between the articulators and grammatical structure, which is radically different in each system as well. A third kink disrupts the proposed continuity between holistic pantomime (gestural holophrases) and signs. Given such differences, instead of a scenario in which speech grew out of sign, it seems more likely that the two modalities complemented each other symbiotically throughout evolution as they do today. If so, then the modern ability to spontaneously create sign languages reveals the extraordinary richness and plasticity of human cognition, and not an evolutionary stepping stone to speech.
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Shovkovyi, Yevhenii, Olena Grynyova, Serhii Udovenko, and Larysa Chala. "Automatic sign language translation system using neural network technologies and 3D animation." Innovative Technologies and Scientific Solutions for Industries, no. 4(26) (December 27, 2023): 108–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.30837/itssi.2023.26.108.
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Implementation of automatic sign language translation software in the process of social inclusion of people with hearing impairment is an important task. Social inclusion for people with hearing disabilities is an acute problem that must be solved in the context of the development of IT technologies and legislative initiatives that ensure the rights of people with disabilities and their equal opportunities. This substantiates the relevance of the research of assistive technologies, in the context of software tools, such as the process of social inclusion of people with severe hearing impairment in society. The subject of research is methods of automated sign language translation using intelligent technologies. The purpose of the work is the development and research of sign language automation methods to improve the quality of life of people with hearing impairments in accordance with the "Goals of Sustainable Development of Ukraine" (in the "Reduction of Inequality" part). The main tasks of the research are the development and testing of methods of converting sign language into text, converting text into sign language, as well as automating translation from one sign language to another sign language using modern intelligent technologies. Neural network modeling and 3D animation methods were used to solve these problems. The following results were obtained in the work: the main problems and tasks of social inclusion for people with hearing impairments were identified; a comparative analysis of modern methods and software platforms of automatic sign language translation was carried out; a system combining the SL-to-Text method is proposed and investigated; the Text-to-SL method using 3D animation to generate sign language concepts; the method of generating a 3D-animated gesture from video recordings; method of implementing the Sign Language1 to Sign Language2 technology. For gesture recognition, a convolutional neural network model is used, which is trained using imported and system-generated datasets of video gestures. The trained model has a high recognition accuracy (98.52%). The creation of a 3D model for displaying the gesture on the screen and its processing took place in the Unity 3D environment. The structure of the project, executive and auxiliary files used to build 3D animation for the generation of sign language concepts includes: event handler files; display results according to which they carry information about the position of the tracked points of the body; files that store the characteristics of materials that have been added to certain body mapping points. Conclusions: the proposed methods of automated translation have practical significance, which is confirmed by the demo versions of the software applications "Sign Language to Text" and "Text to Sign Language". A promising direction for continuing research on the topic of the work is the improvement of SL1-to-SL2 methods, the creation of open datasets of video gestures, the joining of scientists and developers to fill dictionaries with concepts of various sign languages.
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Morgan, Hope E. "Argument structure and the role of the body and space in Kenyan Sign Language." Special Issue in Memory of Irit Meir 23, no. 1-2 (2020): 38–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sll.00043.mor.
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Abstract This paper investigates how systematically a young macro-community sign language, Kenyan Sign Language, uses two different means to communicate about events: (i) word order, and (ii) verb agreement using spatial co-reference. The study finds that KSL signers rely primarily on word order and using the body as a referent, rather than verb agreement, when representing transitive events. Yet, by looking separately at how KSL signers use the sub-components of verb agreement, a pattern emerges that indicates a possible path toward ‘canonical verb agreement’. These sub-components are evaluated using Meir’s stages/types of grammaticalization of verb agreement (Meir 2011, 2016), and compared with other young and emerging sign languages.
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MEIR, IRIT, CAROL A. PADDEN, MARK ARONOFF, and WENDY SANDLER. "Body as subject." Journal of Linguistics 43, no. 3 (2007): 531–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226707004768.
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The notion of subject in human language has a privileged status relative to other arguments. This special status is manifested in the behavior of subjects at the morphological, syntactic, semantic and discourse levels. Here we present evidence that subjects have a privileged status at the lexical level as well, by analyzing lexicalization patterns of verbs in three different sign languages. Our analysis shows that the sub-lexical structure of iconic signs denoting states of affairs in these languages manifests an inherent pattern of form–meaning correspondence: the signer's body consistently represents one argument of the verb, the subject. The hands, moving in relation to the body, represent all other components of the event – including all other arguments. This analysis shows that sign languages provide novel evidence in support of the centrality of the notion of subject in human language. It also solves a typological puzzle about the apparent primacy of object in sign language verb agreement, a primacy not usually found in spoken languages, in which subject agreement generally ranks higher. Our analysis suggests that the subject argument is represented by the body and is part of the lexical structure of the verb. Because it is always inherently represented in the structure of the sign, the subject is more basic than the object, and tolerates the omission of agreement morphology.