A data-driven approach to the semantics of iconicity in American Sign Language and English

abstractA growing body of research shows that both signed and spoken languages display regular patterns of iconicity in their vocabularies. We compared iconicity in the lexicons of American Sign Language (ASL) and English by combining previously collected ratings of ASL signs (Caselli, Sevcikova Sehyr, Cohen-Goldberg, & Emmorey, 2017) and English words (Winter, Perlman, Perry, & Lupyan, 2017) with the use of data-driven semantic vectors derived from English. Our analyses show that models of spoken language lexical semantics drawn from large text corpora can be useful for predicting the iconicity of signs as well as words. Compared to English, ASL has a greater number of regions of semantic space with concentrations of highly iconic vocabulary. There was an overall negative relationship between semantic density and the iconicity of both English words and ASL signs. This negative relationship disappeared for highly iconic signs, suggesting that iconic forms may be more easily discriminable in ASL than in English. Our findings contribute to an increasingly detailed picture of how iconicity is distributed across different languages.

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Using Data-Driven Approach for Modeling Timing Parameters of American Sign Language

Proceedings of the 2018 on International Conference on Multimodal Interaction - ICMI '18 ◽

10.1145/3242969.3264965 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Sedeeq Al-khazraji

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Data Driven ◽

American Sign ◽

Data Driven Approach ◽

Using Data

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

Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/langcog.2019.18 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (02) ◽

pp. 208-234 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

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.

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Cross-modal translation priming and iconicity effects in deaf signers and hearing learners of American Sign Language

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728919000889 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (5) ◽

pp. 1032-1044 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Megan Mott ◽

Katherine J. Midgley ◽

Phillip J. Holcomb ◽

Karen Emmorey

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Lexical Access ◽

Time Window ◽

American Sign ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Translation Priming ◽

Beginning Learners ◽

Iconic Signs ◽

Deaf Signers

AbstractThis study used ERPs to a) assess the neural correlates of cross-linguistic, cross-modal translation priming in hearing beginning learners of American Sign Language (ASL) and deaf highly proficient signers and b) examine whether sign iconicity modulates these priming effects. Hearing learners exhibited translation priming for ASL signs preceded by English words (greater negativity for unrelated than translation primes) later in the ERP waveform than deaf signers and exhibited earlier and greater priming for iconic than non-iconic signs. Iconicity did not modulate translation priming effects either behaviorally or in the ERPs for deaf signers (except in a 800–1000 ms time window). Because deaf signers showed early translation priming effects (beginning at 400ms-600ms), we suggest that iconicity did not facilitate lexical access, but deaf signers may have recognized sign iconicity later in processing. Overall, the results indicate that iconicity speeds lexical access for L2 sign language learners, but not for proficient signers.

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(Sub)lexical changes in iconic signs to realign with community sensibilities and experiences

Language in Society ◽

10.1017/s0047404519000745 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 283-309 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gene Mirus ◽

Jami Fisher ◽

Donna Jo Napoli

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

High Frequency ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Language Variation ◽

American Sign ◽

Phonological Form ◽

Iconic Signs

AbstractSign language lexicons include iconic items, where phonological form is somewhat representative of sense. As experiences of individuals change, the mapping from form to meaning may become inappropriate (as when technological or environmental changes occur) or may be considered incongruous with perceptions of reality (as when culture shifts). Many misalignments of form and sense are tolerated, with the result that a sign's original iconicity is lost. Other misalignments are obliterated; signers make sublexical changes or entire lexical substitutions. We call these (sub)lexical changes ‘corrections’. We argue that misalignments that are regrettable are more likely to be corrected, where regrettable misalignments are those that are not true to realities/experiences of profound importance to deaf individuals.While the focus here is on American Sign Language, corrections should be apparent in any sign language and might occur in those spoken languages with a high frequency of nonarbitrary relationships between form and sense. (Sign language, variation, taboo terms, euphemism, iconicity, identity)*

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Data-Driven Synthesis of Spatially Inflected Verbs for American Sign Language Animation

ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing ◽

10.1145/2039339.2039343 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 1-29 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Pengfei Lu ◽

Matt Huenerfauth

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Data Driven ◽

American Sign

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The ASL-LEX 2.0 Project: A Database of Lexical and Phonological Properties for 2,723 Signs in American Sign Language

The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education ◽

10.1093/deafed/enaa038 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zed Sevcikova Sehyr ◽

Naomi Caselli ◽

Ariel M Cohen-Goldberg ◽

Karen Emmorey

Keyword(s):

American Sign Language ◽

Sign Language ◽

Large Scale ◽

Interactive Visualization ◽

American Sign ◽

Lexical Database ◽

Complexity Measures ◽

Correlation Analyses ◽

Iconic Signs ◽

Deaf Signers

Abstract ASL-LEX is a publicly available, large-scale lexical database for American Sign Language (ASL). We report on the expanded database (ASL-LEX 2.0) that contains 2,723 ASL signs. For each sign, ASL-LEX now includes a more detailed phonological description, phonological density and complexity measures, frequency ratings (from deaf signers), iconicity ratings (from hearing non-signers and deaf signers), transparency (“guessability”) ratings (from non-signers), sign and videoclip durations, lexical class, and more. We document the steps used to create ASL-LEX 2.0 and describe the distributional characteristics for sign properties across the lexicon and examine the relationships among lexical and phonological properties of signs. Correlation analyses revealed that frequent signs were less iconic and phonologically simpler than infrequent signs and iconic signs tended to be phonologically simpler than less iconic signs. The complete ASL-LEX dataset and supplementary materials are available at https://osf.io/zpha4/ and an interactive visualization of the entire lexicon can be accessed on the ASL-LEX page: http://asl-lex.org/.

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