scholarly journals CORALSE: Design of a Corpus of Spanish Sign Language

10.29007/r1rt ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana-María Fernández Soneira ◽  
Inmaculada C. Báez Montero ◽  
Eva Freijeiro Ocampo
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Scientific Background ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Language Data ◽  
The Law ◽  
Language Corpus

The approval of the law for the recognition of Sign Languages and its subsequent development (together with the laws enacted by the regional governments and the work of universities and institutions such as CNLSE) has changed the landscape of the research activity carried out in the field of SL in Spain.In spite of these social advances, a corpus of Spanish Sign Language (LSE) has not yet been compiled. The average Sign Language corpus is traditionally composed of collections of annotated or tagged videos that contain written material aligned with the main Sign Language data.The compiling project presented here, CORALSE, proposes: 1) to collect a representative number of samples of language use; 2) to tag and transcribe the collected samples and build an online corpus; 3) to advance in the description of the grammar of LSE; 4) to provide the scientific background needed for the development of materials for educational purposes; and 5) to advance in the development of different types of LSE.

The FATE Landscape of Sign Language AI Datasets

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Danielle Bragg ◽  
Naomi Caselli ◽  
Julie A. Hochgesang ◽  
Matt Huenerfauth ◽  
Leah Katz-Hernandez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Individual Data ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Language Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
Language Technologies ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Access Mechanisms

Sign language datasets are essential to developing many sign language technologies. In particular, datasets are required for training artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems. Though the idea of using AI/ML for sign languages is not new, technology has now advanced to a point where developing such sign language technologies is becoming increasingly tractable. This critical juncture provides an opportunity to be thoughtful about an array of Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) considerations. Sign language datasets typically contain recordings of people signing, which is highly personal. The rights and responsibilities of the parties involved in data collection and storage are also complex and involve individual data contributors, data collectors or owners, and data users who may interact through a variety of exchange and access mechanisms. Deaf community members (and signers, more generally) are also central stakeholders in any end applications of sign language data. The centrality of sign language to deaf culture identity, coupled with a history of oppression, makes usage by technologists particularly sensitive. This piece presents many of these issues that characterize working with sign language AI datasets, based on the authors’ experiences living, working, and studying in this space.

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.

Sharing sign language data online

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onno A. Crasborn ◽  
Johanna Mesch ◽  
Dafydd Waters ◽  
Annika Nonhebel ◽  
Els van der Kooij ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Software Tools ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Language Corpus

This article describes how new technological possibilities allow sign language researchers to share and publish video data and transcriptions online. Both linguistic and technological aspects of creating and publishing a sign language corpus are discussed, and standards are proposed for both metadata and transcription categories specific to sign language data. In addition, ethical aspects of publishing video data of signers online are considered, and suggestions are offered for future corpus projects and software tools.

scholarly journals Verbos copulativos com locativos em Português Europeu e em Língua Gestual Portuguesa

2020 ◽  
pp. 242-262
Author(s):  
Celda Morgado ◽  
Ana Maria Brito
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Semantic Properties

Verbs and their syntactic and semantic properties have been studied in several languages, in different theoretical frameworks. However, as for copulative verbs, studies of Sign Languages are still scarce, mainly of Portuguese Sign Language. Therefore, in this paper, some properties of predicative phrases with adjectives, participles and locatives in European Portuguese and Portuguese Sign Language are studied, comparing them with other Oral Languages, in particular Iberian Romance languages, and also with other Sign Languages. Portuguese Sign Language data seem to indicate that the copulative verb is lexically realized when there is a locative predicate and that with a non-locative predicate a null copula occurs.

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 Indicating verbs in British Sign Language favour motivated use of space

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kearsy Cormier ◽  
Jordan Fenlon ◽  
Adam Schembri
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Use Of Space ◽  
British Sign Language ◽  
Arbitrary Space ◽  
British Sign ◽  
Language Corpus

AbstractSign languages have traditionally been described as having a distinction between (1) arbitrary (referential or syntactic) space, considered to be a purely grammatical use of space in which locations arbitrarily represent concrete or abstract subject and/or object arguments using pronouns or indicating verbs, for example, and (2) motivated (topographic or surrogate) space, involving mapping of locations of concrete referents onto the signing space via classifier constructions. Some linguists have suggested that it may be misleading to see the two uses of space as being completely distinct from one another. In this study, we use conversational data from the British Sign Language Corpus (www.bslcorpusproject.org) to look at the use of space with modified indicating verbs – specifically the directions in which these verbs are used as well as the co-occurrence of eyegaze shifts and constructed action. Our findings suggest that indicating verbs are frequently produced in conditions that use space in a motivated way and are rarely modified using arbitrary space. This contrasts with previous claims that indicating verbs in BSL prototypically use arbitrary space. We discuss the implications of this for theories about grammaticalisation and the role of gesture in sign languages and for sign language teaching.

STORYTELLING AND CONVERSATION: DISCOURSE IN DEAF COMMUNITIES.Elizabeth Winston (Ed.). Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1999. Pp. x + 240. $55.00 cloth.

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 566-567
Author(s):  
Christine Monikowski
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Discourse Patterns ◽  
Gallaudet University

In this latest volume of the Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities Series, Winston has included not only discourse analysis of American Sign Language (ASL) but also of sign languages native to Bali, Italy, and England. She offers a fascinating look at the “intricate discourse patterns that have evolved in different languages” (p. ix). Her work should be required reading for all teachers of sign language as well as teachers of interpreters. This book will also appeal to sociolinguists; language use in the community is clearly the overriding theme.

“It is natural, really deaf signing” – script development for fictional programmes involving sign languages

Multilingua ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelies Kusters ◽  
Jordan Fenlon
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Small World ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Written Word ◽  
Authentic Language ◽  
Creative Team ◽  
Language Text

Abstract Historically, fictional productions which use sign language have often begun with scripts that use the written version of a spoken language. This can be a challenge for deaf actors as they must translate the written word to a performed sign language text. Here, we explore script development in Small World, a television comedy which attempted to avoid this challenge by using improvisation to create their script. The creators framed this process as a response to what they saw as “inauthentic” sign language use on television, foregrounding the need to present “natural signing” on the screen. According to them, “natural signing” is not influenced by an English script but is varied language use that reflect a character’s background, their settings, and the characters that they interact with. We describe how this authentic language use is derived primarily from improvisation and is in competition with other demands, which are textual (e.g., the need to ensure comedic value), studio-based (e.g., operating within the practical confines of the studio), or related to audience design (e.g., the need to ensure comprehensibility). We discuss how the creative team negotiated the tension between the quest for authentic language use and characteristics of the genre, medium, and audience.

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 The challenges of viewpoint-taking when learning a sign language: Data from the ‘frog story’ in British Sign Language

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832090685
Author(s):  
Sannah Gulamani ◽  
Chloë Marshall ◽  
Gary Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Story Content ◽  
British Sign Language ◽  
Language Data ◽  
British Sign ◽  
Deaf Signers

Little is known about how hearing adults learn sign languages. Our objective in this study was to investigate how learners of British Sign Language (BSL) produce narratives, and we focused in particular on viewpoint-taking. Twenty-three intermediate-level learners of BSL and 10 deaf native/early signers produced a narrative in BSL using the wordless picture book Frog, where are you? (Mayer, 1969). We selected specific episodes from part of the book that provided rich opportunities for shifting between different characters and taking on different viewpoints. We coded for details of story content, the frequency with which different viewpoints were used and how long those viewpoints were used for, and the numbers of articulators that were used simultaneously. We found that even though learners’ and deaf signers’ narratives did not differ in overall duration, learners’ narratives had less content. Learners used character viewpoint less frequently than deaf signers. Although learners spent just as long as deaf signers in character viewpoint, they spent longer than deaf signers in observer viewpoint. Together, these findings suggest that character viewpoint was harder than observer viewpoint for learners. Furthermore, learners were less skilled than deaf signers in using multiple articulators simultaneously. We conclude that challenges for learners of sign include taking character viewpoint when narrating a story and encoding information across multiple articulators simultaneously.

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