The Relationship between Eye Gaze and Verb Agreement in American Sign Language: An Eye-tracking Study

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 571-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Thompson ◽  
Karen Emmorey ◽  
Robert Kluender
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
The Relationship

Eye gaze and verb agreement in German Sign Language

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Hosemann
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Dependency Relation ◽  
German Sign Language

Eye gaze as a nonmanual component of sign languages has not yet been investigated in much detail. The idea that eye gaze may function as an agreement marker was brought forward by Bahan (1996) and Neidle et al. (2000), who argued that eye gaze is an independent agreement marker occurring with all three verb types (plain verbs, spatial verbs, and agreeing verbs) in American Sign Language (ASL). Thompson et al. (2006) conducted an eye-tracking experiment to investigate the interdependency between eye gaze and ASL verb agreement in depth. Their results indicate that eye gaze in ASL functions as an agreement marker only when accompanying manual agreement, marking the object in agreeing verbs and the locative argument in spatial verbs. They conclude that eye gaze is part of an agreement circumfix. Subsequently, I conducted an eye-tracking experiment to investigate the correlation of eye gaze and manual agreement for verbs in German Sign Language (DGS). The results differ from Thompson et al.’s, since eye gaze with agreeing verbs in the DGS data did not occur as systematically as in ASL. Nevertheless, an analysis of verb duration and the spreading of a correlating eye gaze suggests that there is a dependency relation between eye gaze and manual agreement.

scholarly journals The unexplored role of handshape similarity in processing numbers on the hands

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-171
Author(s):  
Ilaria Berteletti ◽  
SaraBeth J. Sullivan ◽  
Lucas Lancaster
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Numerical Information ◽  
Finger Counting ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Native Signers ◽  
The Relationship

With two simple experiments we investigate the overlooked influence of handshape similarity for processing numerical information conveyed on the hands. In most finger-counting sequences there is a tight relationship between the number of fingers raised and the numerical value represented. This creates a possible confound where numbers closer to each other are also represented by handshapes that are more similar. By using the American Sign Language (ASL) number signs we are able to dissociate between the two variables orthogonally. First, we test the effect of handshape similarity in a same/different judgment task in a group of hearing non-signers and then test the interference of handshape in a number judgment task in a group of native ASL signers. Our results show an effect of handshape similarity and its interaction with numerical value even in the group of native signers for whom these handshapes are linguistic symbols and not a learning tool for acquiring numerical concepts. Because prior studies have never considered handshape similarity, these results open new directions for understanding the relationship between finger-based counting, internal hand representations and numerical proficiency.

scholarly journals The perceived mapping between form and meaning in American Sign Language depends on linguistic knowledge and task: evidence from iconicity and transparency judgments

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 208-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZED SEVCIKOVA SEHYR ◽  
KAREN EMMOREY
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
American Sign ◽  
H Index ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Iconic Signs ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Task

abstractIconicity is often defined as the resemblance between a form and a given meaning, while transparency is defined as the ability to infer a given meaning based on the form. This study examined the influence of knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL) on the perceived iconicity of signs and the relationship between iconicity, transparency (correctly guessed signs), ‘perceived transparency’ (transparency ratings of the guesses), and ‘semantic potential’ (the diversity (H index) of guesses). Experiment 1 compared iconicity ratings by deaf ASL signers and hearing non-signers for 991 signs from the ASL-LEX database. Signers and non-signers’ ratings were highly correlated; however, the groups provided different iconicity ratings for subclasses of signs: nouns vs. verbs, handling vs. entity, and one- vs. two-handed signs. In Experiment 2, non-signers guessed the meaning of 430 signs and rated them for how transparent their guessed meaning would be for others. Only 10% of guesses were correct. Iconicity ratings correlated with transparency (correct guesses), perceived transparency ratings, and semantic potential (H index). Further, some iconic signs were perceived as non-transparent and vice versa. The study demonstrates that linguistic knowledge mediates perceived iconicity distinctly from gesture and highlights critical distinctions between iconicity, transparency (perceived and objective), and semantic potential.

The relationship between spontaneous gestures of the hearing and American Sign Language

Gesture ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn McClave
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Electronic Edition ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Spontaneous Movements ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

This paper presents evidence of non-manual gestures in American Sign Language (ASL). The types of gestures identified are identical to non-manual, spontaneous gestures used by hearing non-signers which suggests that the gestures co-occurring with ASL signs are borrowings from hearing culture. A comparison of direct quotes in ASL with spontaneous movements of hearing non-signers suggests a history of borrowing and eventual grammaticization in ASL of features previously thought to be unique to signed languages. The electronic edition of this article includes audio-visial data.

scholarly journals An Exploratory Study of ASL Demonstratives

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill P. Morford ◽  
Barbara Shaffer ◽  
Naomi Shin ◽  
Paul Twitchell ◽  
Bettie T. Petersen
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Completion Task ◽  
Deaf Signers

American Sign Language (ASL) makes extensive use of pointing signs, but there has been only limited documentation of how pointing signs are used for demonstrative functions. We elicited demonstratives from four adult Deaf signers of ASL in a puzzle completion task. Our preliminary analysis of the demonstratives produced by these signers supports three important conclusions in need of further investigation. First, despite descriptions of four demonstrative signs in the literature, participants expressed demonstrative function 95% of the time through pointing signs. Second, proximal and distal demonstrative referents were not distinguished categorically on the basis of different demonstrative signs, nor on the basis of pointing handshape or trajectory. Third, non-manual features including eye gaze and facial markers were essential to assigning meaning to demonstratives. Our results identify new avenues for investigation of demonstratives in ASL.

Acquiring plurality in directional verbs

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-73
Author(s):  
Lynn Y-S. Hou
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Number Marking ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Deaf Adults ◽  
Agreement Morphology

Little is known about when and how children acquire plurality for directional verbs in ASL and other signed languages. This paper reports on an experimental study of 11 deaf native-signing children’s acquisition of ‘plural verb agreement’ or plural forms of directional verbs in American Sign Language. Eleven native-signing deaf adults were also tested. An elicitation task explored how children (aged 3;4 to 5;11) and adults marked directional verbs for plurality. The children also participated in an imitation task. Adults marked directional verbs for plurality significantly more often than children. However, adults also omitted plurality from directional verbs, utilizing alternative strategies to mark plural referents significantly more often than did children. Children across all ages omitted plurality, suggesting that the omission is attributable to both the conceptual complexity of plural markers and the optionality of number-marking. Directionality may not be best analyzed as a morphosyntactic phenomenon analogous to verb agreement morphology in spoken languages.

Young Children's Acquisition of the Movement Aspect in American Sign Language

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 588-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Bonvillian ◽  
Theodore Siedlecki
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Home Visits ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Downward Movement ◽  
Motor Behaviors ◽  
Deaf Parents ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Production Accuracy

The acquisition of the movement aspect of American Sign Language signs was examined longitudinally in 9 young children of deaf parents. During monthly home visits, the parents demonstrated on videotape how their children formed the different signs in their lexicons. The parents also demonstrated how they formed or modeled these same signs. Overall, the children correctly produced 61.4% of the movements that were present in the adult sign models. Although the production accuracy of the movement aspect of signs did not improve over the course of the study, the number and complexity of movements produced by the children did increase as they got older and their vocabularies grew in size. Of the different sign movements, contacting action was by far the most frequently produced. The children were also relatively successful in their production of closing action and downward movement. The order of acquisition for the remaining ASL movements, however, was quite variable, with the exception that bidirectional movements tended to be produced more accurately than unidirectional movements. The relationship between children's early rhythmical motor behaviors and the development of sign movements is discussed.

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