On the nature of phonological structure in sign language

Phonology ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Corina ◽  
Wendy Sandler
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Language Universals ◽  
Theory Of Language ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Natural Laboratory ◽  
Gaining Insight

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.

scholarly journals Monitoring Different Phonological Parameters of Sign Language Engages the Same Cortical Language Network but Distinctive Perceptual Ones

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Velia Cardin ◽  
Eleni Orfanidou ◽  
Lena Kästner ◽  
Jerker Rönnberg ◽  
Bencie Woll ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
British Sign Language ◽  
Action Observation Network ◽  
Native Signers ◽  
British Sign ◽  
Phonological Rules

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.

scholarly journals The Spatial Pattern of Fraudulence Risk in Legal Metrology and Its Socio-Economic Drivers

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-282
Author(s):  
Rifan Ardianto ◽  
Yulianti Yulianti
Keyword(s):  
Geographically Weighted Regression ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Weighted Regression ◽  
Legal Metrology ◽  
Adverse Impacts ◽  
Business District ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Gaining Insight

This study develops a fraudulence risk in the legal metrology model, gaining insight into urban spatial characteristics as contextual variables that may cause a risk of fraud. The model uses Geographically Weighted Regression on the Metrological Consumer Index data of Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The findings indicate a wide distribution of recorded fraudulence risk in legal metrology across Bandung, with a spatially clustered pattern based on spatial and context of varying neighbourhood attributes. The results also show an increase in the fraudulence risk in legal metrology in the central business district of Bandung. Such phenomena could be attributed to the residents who trade and are involved in the measurement practice. The findings also suggested that the areas with more senior residents were more likely to have a high fraudulence risk in legal metrology. On the other hand, areas with a high proportion of poor and lesser-educated people exhibit low risk.These findings are helpful for legal metrology authorities seeking to establish appropriate strategies to mitigate adverse impacts of fraudulence risk in legal metrology practice on communities. It can also help identify high fraudulence risk in legal metrology areas to geo-target when and where to disseminate information to increase awareness of the dangers.

Variation in mouth actions with manual signs in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT)

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bank ◽  
Onno A. Crasborn ◽  
Roeland van Hout
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Natural Data ◽  
Manual Signs ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The Way

Mouthings and mouth gestures are omnipresent in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). Mouthings in NGT commonly have their origin in spoken Dutch. We conducted a corpus study to explore how frequent mouthings in fact are in NGT, whether there is variation within and between signs in mouthings, and how frequent temporal reduction occurs in mouthings. Answers to these questions can help us classify mouthings as being specified in the sign lexicon or as being instances of code-blending. We investigated a sample of 20 frequently occurring signs. We found that each sign in the sample co-occurs frequently with a mouthing, usually that of a specific Dutch lexical item. On the other hand, signs show variation in the way they co-occur with mouthings and mouth gestures. By using a relatively large amount of natural data, we succeeded in gaining more insight into the way mouth actions are utilized in sign languages.

Beyond committing and presupposing in Yurakaré conversations: Investigating the interactional functions of epistemic markers through their sequential distributions

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Gipper
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Epistemic State ◽  
Low Degree ◽  
Interactional Functions ◽  
Low Degrees ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Gaining Insight

AbstractThis paper outlines a method for studying the sequential distributions of epistemic markers with the purpose of gaining insight into their interactional functions. The method is exemplified with a case study of two epistemic markers of Yurakaré (isolate, Bolivia), =la “commitment” and =se “presupposition”. The investigation reveals that the two markers show different distributions across initial and responsive utterances. Moreover, each marker functions differently when used in initial utterances and responses. It is argued that these distributions show that the interactional functions of the two markers go beyond the marking of commitment and presupposition, and that they contrast in terms of two scales, one capturing the poles of “highly initiating” and “highly responsive”, the other concerning high vs. low degrees of “thematic agency”. While the commitment marker =la is associated with the responsivity pole and with a low degree of thematic agency, the presupposition marker =se shows a tendency toward the initiating pole and toward a high degree of thematic agency. These findings then support the view that epistemic markers are employed to co-construct epistemic perspectives in interaction rather than to make explicit some internal epistemic state held by the speaker.

A Bird in the Hand Isn’t Good for Long

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Scherbaum ◽  
Simon Frisch ◽  
Maja Dshemuchadse
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Folk Wisdom ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract. Folk wisdom tells us that additional time to make a decision helps us to refrain from the first impulse to take the bird in the hand. However, the question why the time to decide plays an important role is still unanswered. Here we distinguish two explanations, one based on a bias in value accumulation that has to be overcome with time, the other based on cognitive control processes that need time to set in. In an intertemporal decision task, we use mouse tracking to study participants’ responses to options’ values and delays which were presented sequentially. We find that the information about options’ delays does indeed lead to an immediate bias that is controlled afterwards, matching the prediction of control processes needed to counter initial impulses. Hence, by using a dynamic measure, we provide insight into the processes underlying short-term oriented choices in intertemporal decision making.

Correlational Methods for Analysis of Dance Movements

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (supplement) ◽  
pp. 283-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy R. Brick ◽  
Steven M. Boker
Keyword(s):  
Motion Capture ◽  
Mirror Symmetry ◽  
Cross Correlation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Free Form ◽  
Motion Capture Data ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Dance Movements ◽  
Time Lagged ◽  
Insight Into

Among the qualities that distinguish dance from other types of human behavior and interaction are the creation and breaking of synchrony and symmetry. The combination of symmetry and synchrony can provide complex interactions. For example, two dancers might make very different movements, slowing each time the other sped up: a mirror symmetry of velocity. Examining patterns of synchrony and symmetry can provide insight into both the artistic nature of the dance, and the nature of the perceptions and responses of the dancers. However, such complex symmetries are often difficult to quantify. This paper presents three methods – Generalized Local Linear Approximation, Time-lagged Autocorrelation, and Windowed Cross-correlation – for the exploration of symmetry and synchrony in motion-capture data as is it applied to dance and illustrate these with examples from a study of free-form dance. Combined, these techniques provide powerful tools for the examination of the structure of symmetry and synchrony in dance.

Marx, Silk Poems, and the Pretext of Qualities

2020 ◽  
Vol 151 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-126
Author(s):  
Kathryn Crim
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Working Day ◽  
The One ◽  
Insight Into

Karl Marx’s comments on silk manufacture in “The Working Day” chapter of Capital, volume 1, demonstrate how “quality”—usually associated with “use value”—has been mobilized by capital to naturalize industrialized labor. Putting his insight into conversation with a recent multimedia poetic project, Jen Bervin’s Silk Poems (2016–17), this essay examines the homology between, on the one hand, poetry’s avowed task of fitting form to content and, on the other, the ideology of labor that fits specific bodies to certain materials and tasks.

Spiritualism in Raymond Carver’s Work

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 214
Author(s):  
Viola Kita
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Good Thing ◽  
Raymond Carver ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Christian Writer ◽  
Spiritual Reading ◽  
Insight Into

Raymond Carver’s work provides the opportunity for a spiritual reading. The article that offers the greatest insight into spirituality is William Stull’s “Beyond Hopelessville: Another Side of Raymond Carver.” In it we can notice the darkness which is dominant in Carver’s early works with the optimism that is an essential part of Carver’s work “Cathedral”. A careful reading of “A Small Good Thing” and “The Bath” can give the idea that they are based on the allegory of spiritual rebirth which can be interpreted as a “symbol of Resurrection”. Despite Stull’s insisting in Carver’s stories allusions based on the Bible, it cannot be proved that the writer has made use of Christian imagery. Therefore, it can be concluded that spirituality in Carver’s work is one of the most confusing topics so far in the literary world because on one hand literary critics find a lot of biblical elements and on the other hand Carver himself refuses to be analyzed as a Christian writer.

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