Two agreement markers in Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS)

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Krebs ◽  
Ronnie B. Wilbur ◽  
Dietmar Roehm
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Syntactic Position ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Native Signers

Abstract For many of the sign languages studied to date, different types of agreement markers have been described which express agreement in transitive constructions involving non-inflecting (plain) verbs and sometimes even inflected agreement verbs. Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) belongs to the group of sign languages employing two different agreement markers (agrm-bc/agrm-mf), which will be described in this paper. In an online questionnaire, we focused on two questions: (i) whether both forms of agreement markers are rated as equally acceptable by Deaf ÖGS-signers and hearing native signers, and (ii) whether there is a preferred syntactic position (pre- vs. postverbal) for these markers. Data analysis confirmed that both agreement markers are accepted by ÖGS-signers and that both agreement markers are slightly preferred in preverbal position. Further, possible origins of both agreement markers are discussed.

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.

Frequency distribution and spreading behavior of different types of mouth actions in three sign languages

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onno A. Crasborn ◽  
Els van der Kooij ◽  
Dafydd Waters ◽  
Bencie Woll ◽  
Johanna Mesch
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Spreading Behavior ◽  
British Sign Language ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
British Sign

In this paper, we present a comparative study of mouth actions in three European sign languages: British Sign Language (BSL), Nederlandse Gebarentaal (Sign Language of the Netherlands, NGT), and Swedish Sign Language (SSL). We propose a typology for, and report the frequency distribution of, the different types of mouth actions observed. In accordance with previous studies, we find the three languages remarkably similar — both in the types of mouth actions they use, and in how these mouth actions are distributed. We then describe how mouth actions can extend over more than one manual sign. This spreading of mouth actions is the primary focus of this paper. Based on an analysis of comparable narrative material in the three languages, we demonstrate that the direction as well as the source and goal of spreading may be language-specific.

What is the chin doing?: An analysis of interrogatives in Austrian sign language

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 133-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Schalber
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Syntactic Position ◽  
Common Foundation ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Manual Signs ◽  
Chin Down

The aim of this paper is to investigate the structure of polar (yes/no questions) and content questions (wh-questions) in Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS), analyzing the different nonmanual signals, the occurrence of question signs and their syntactic position. As I will show, the marking strategies used in ÖGS are no exception to the crosslinguistic observations that interrogative constructions in sign languages employ a variety of nonmanual signals and manual signs (Zeshan 2004). In ÖGS polar questions are marked with ‘chin down’, whereas content questions are indicated with ‘chin up’ or ‘head forward’ and content question signs. These same nonmanual markers are reported for Croatian sign language, indicating common foundation due to historical relations and intense language contact.

scholarly journals Vision-based Pakistani Sign Language Recognition Using Bag-of-Words and Support Vector Machines

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Shaheer Mirza ◽  
Sheikh Muhammad Munaf ◽  
Shahid Ali ◽  
Fahad Azim ◽  
Saad Jawaid Khan
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Bag Of Words ◽  
Language Recognition ◽  
Sign Language Recognition ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Vector Machines ◽  
Rgb Images ◽  
Native Signers

Abstract In order to perform their daily activities, a person is required to communicating with others. This can be a major obstacle for the deaf population of the world, who communicate using sign languages (SL). Pakistani Sign Language (PSL) is used by more than 250,000 deaf Pakistanis. Developing a SL recognition system would greatly facilitate these people. This study aimed to collect data of static and dynamic PSL alphabets and to develop a vision-based system for their recognition using Bag-of-Words (BoW) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) techniques. A total of 5,120 images for 36 static PSL alphabet signs and 353 videos with 45,224 frames for 3 dynamic PSL alphabet signs were collected from 10 native signers of PSL. The developed system used the collected data as input, resized the data to various scales and converted the RGB images into grayscale. The resized grayscale images were segmented using Thresholding technique and features were extracted using Speeded Up Robust Feature (SURF). The obtained SURF descriptors were clustered using K-means clustering. A BoW was obtained by computing the Euclidean distance between the SURF descriptors and the clustered data. The codebooks were divided into training and testing using 5-fold cross validation. The highest overall classification accuracy for static PSL signs was 97.80% at 750×750 image dimensions and 500 Bags. For dynamic PSL signs a 96.53% accuracy was obtained at 480×270 video resolution and 200 Bags.

Seeing sentence boundaries

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Fenlon ◽  
Tanya Denmark ◽  
Ruth Campbell ◽  
Bencie Woll
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Prosodic Structure ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
British Sign Language ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Native Signers ◽  
Syntactic Boundaries ◽  
British Sign

Linguists have suggested that non-manual and manual markers are used in sign languages to indicate prosodic and syntactic boundaries. However, little is known about how native signers interpret non-manual and manual cues with respect to sentence boundaries. Six native signers of British Sign Language (BSL) were asked to mark sentence boundaries in two narratives: one presented in BSL and one in Swedish Sign Language (SSL). For comparative analysis, non-signers undertook the same tasks. Results indicated that both native signers and non-signers were able to use visual cues effectively in segmentation and that their decisions were not dependent on knowledge of the signed language. Signed narratives contain visible cues to their prosodic structure which are available to signers and non-signers alike.

scholarly journals Comprehension of verb directionality in LIS and LSF

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Aristodemo ◽  
Beatrice Giustolisi ◽  
Carlo Cecchetto ◽  
Caterina Donati
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Comprehension Task ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Native Signers

The present work reports the results of a comprehension task on verb directionality in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and French Sign Language (LSF) considering native and non-native signers. Our goals were to study age of first language exposure effects on the comprehension of verb agreement in LIS and LSF, to verify whether a significant difference between forward and backward directionality was found, and see if our results may provide insight about the nature (gestural vs. linguistic) of verb directionality in sign languages. In both languages we found that the ability to comprehend verb agreement is affected in non-native signers. This indicates that delayed first language exposure has long lasting effects in adulthood. We argue that our results support analyses of verb agreement as a fully grammatical phenomenon.

De Nederlandse Gebarentaal En Taalonderwijs

1991 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 75-82
Author(s):  
Beppie van den Bogaerde
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Teaching Materials ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Native Signers

Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) is considered to be the native language of many prelingually deaf people in the Netherlands. Although research has provided evidence that sign languages are fully fletched natural languages, many misconceptions still abound about sign languages and deaf people. The low status of sign languages all over the world and the attitude of hearing people towards deaf people and their languages, and the resulting attitude of the deaf towards their own languages, restricted the development of these languages until recently. Due to the poor results of deaf education and the dissatisfaction amongst educators of the deaf, parents of deaf children and deaf people themselves, a change of attitude towards the function of sign language in the interaction with deaf people can be observed; many hearing people dealing with deaf people one way or the other wish to learn the sign language of the deaf community of their country. Many hearing parents of deaf children, teachers of the deaf, student-interpreters and linguists are interested in sign language and want to follow a course to improve their signing ability. In order to develop sign language courses, sign language teachers and teaching materials are needed. And precisely these are missing. This is caused by several factors. First, deaf people in general do not receive the same education as hearing people, due to their inability to learn the spoken language of their environment to such an extent, that they have access to the full eduational program. This prohibits them a.o. to become teachers in elementary and secondary schools, or to become sign language teachers. Althought they are fluent "signers", they lack the competence in the spoken language of their country to obtain a teacher's degree in their sign language. A second problem is caused by the fact, that sign languages are visual languages: no adequate system has yet been found to write down a sign language. So until now hardly any teaching materials were available. Sign language courses should be developed with the help of native signers who should be educated to become language-teachers; with their help and with the help of video-material and computer-software, it will be possible in future to teach sign languages as any other language. But in order to reach this goal, it is imperative that deaf children get a better education so that they can contribute to the emancipation of their language.

scholarly journals The representation of action in Italian Sign Language (LIS)

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Elena Tomasuolo ◽  
Chiara Bonsignori ◽  
Pasquale Rinaldi ◽  
Virginia Volterra
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Complexity ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Linguistic Meaning ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThe present study investigates the types of verb and symbolic representational strategies used by 10 deaf signing adults and 13 deaf signing children who described in Italian Sign Language 45 video clips representing nine action types generally communicated by five general verbs in spoken Italian. General verbs, in which the same sign was produced to refer to several different physical action types, were rarely used by either group of participants. Both signing children and adults usually produced specific depicting predicates by incorporating, through a representational strategy, the object and/or the modality of the action into the sign. As for the different types of representational strategies, the adults used the hand-as-object strategy more frequently than the children, who, in turn, preferred to use the hand-as-hand strategy, suggesting that different degrees of cognitive complexity are involved in these two symbolic strategies. Addressing the symbolic iconic strategies underlying sign formation could provide new insight into the perceptual and cognitive processes of linguistic meaning construction. The findings reported here support two main assumptions of cognitive linguistics applied to sign languages: there is a strong continuity between gestures and language; lexical units and depicting constructions derive from the same iconic core mechanism of sign creation.

scholarly journals Sentential negation in South African Sign Language: A case study

Literator ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney De Barros ◽  
Ian Siebörger
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
South African ◽  
Binding Theory ◽  
Negative Particle ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Secondary Role ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Government And Binding Theory ◽  
Native Signers

As with other sign languages, South African Sign Language (SASL) expresses negation using both manual and non-manual features. In this case study, naturalistic data provided by two native signers of SASL are analysed to show the syntactic relationship between these two sets of features. Using a Principles and Parameters approach and Government and Binding Theory, we investigate the syntactic scope of negation in our SASL data. We observe that side-to-side headshake, as a non-manual feature, appears to be the chief clausal negator in SASL, with a clause-final manual negative particle, NOT, playing a secondary role. We describe the negative headshake as a featural affix which is base-generated in the head of NegP and triggers V-to-Neg raising. The negative particle NOT appears to be base-generated in the Specifier of NegP. Suggestions for further syntactic research on SASL are provided.

scholarly journals The noun-verb distinction in Catalan Sign Language

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-43
Author(s):  
Eulàlia Ribera-Llonc ◽  
M. Teresa Espinal ◽  
Josep Quer
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Experimental Work ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Apparent Movement ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Movement Component ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Syntactic Approach

Abstract This paper investigates the morpho-phonological differences between the members of related noun-verb pairs in Catalan Sign Language. Like parallel investigations in other sign languages, our experimental work provides evidence that the major differentiating factors between related nouns and verbs materialize in the movement component of signs and non-manual markers, thus providing empirical support to the hypothesis that most noun-verb pairs have different morpho-phonological properties. We distinguish different types of movements, which we categorize into four regular morphological subgroups. We also take into account a fifth group that shows no apparent movement distinction. Concerning non-manual markers, we provide empirical evidence that nouns are mostly produced simultaneously with mouthing, in contrast to verbs, which in a smaller proportion are produced mainly with mouth gestures. Crucially, the fifth group presents the largest ratio of mouthing for nouns and even for verbs. We address these findings within an exo-skeletal theoretical syntactic approach (Borer 2005a,b, 2013, 2014).

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