Perceiving fingerspelling via point-light displays: The stimulus and the perceiver both matter

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna C Quandt ◽  
Athena Willis ◽  
Carly Leannah
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Total N ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Real Place ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Point Light

Signed language users communicate in a wide array of sub-optimal environments, such as in dim lighting or from a distance. While fingerspelling is a common and essential part of signed languages, the perception of fingerspelling in varying visual environments is not well understood. Signed languages such as American Sign Language (ASL) rely on visuospatial information that combines hand and bodily movements, facial expressions, and fingerspelling. Linguistic information in ASL is conveyed with movement and spatial patterning, which lends itself well to using dynamic Point Light Display (PLD) stimuli to represent sign language movements. We created PLD videos of fingerspelled location names. The location names were either Real (e.g., KUWAIT) or Pseudo-names (e.g., CLARTAND), and the PLDs showed either a High or a Low number of markers. In an online study, Deaf and Hearing ASL users (total N = 283) watched 27 PLD stimulus videos that varied by Realness and Number of Markers. We calculated accuracy and confidence scores in response to each video. We predicted that when signers see ASL fingerspelled letter strings in a suboptimal visual environment, language experience in ASL will be positively correlated with accuracy and self-rated confidence scores. We also predicted that Real location names would be understood better than Pseudo names. Our findings show that participants were more accurate and confident in response to Real place names than Pseudo names and for stimuli with High rather than Low markers. We also discovered a significant interaction between Age and Realness, which shows that as people age, they can better use outside world knowledge to inform their fingerspelling success. Finally, we examined the accuracy and confidence in fingerspelling perception in sub-groups of people who had learned ASL before the age of four. Studying the relationship between language experience with PLD fingerspelling perception allows us to explore how hearing status, ASL fluency levels, and age of language acquisition affect the core abilities of understanding fingerspelling.

Gesture and language

Gesture ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherman Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Grammatical Morphemes ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Region I ◽  
Using Data

In this paper I explore the role of gesture in the development of signed languages. Using data from American Sign Language, Catalan Sign Language, French Sign Language, and Italian Sign Language, as well as historical sources describing gesture in the Mediterranean region, I demonstrate that gesture enters the linguistic system via two distinct routes. In one, gesture serves as a source of lexical and grammatical morphemes in signed languages. In the second, elements become directly incorporated into signed language morphology, bypassing the lexical stage. Finally, I propose a unifying framework for understanding the gesture-language interface in signed and spoken languages.

On The Relevance of Signed Languages to Research in Interpretation

Target ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
William P. Isham
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Visual Channel ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Research Opportunity ◽  
The Difference

Abstract Research using interpreters who work with signed languages can aid us in understanding the cognitive processes of interpretation in general. Using American Sign Language (ASL) as an example, the nature of signed languages is outlined first. Then the difference between signed languages and manual codes for spoken languages is delineated, and it is argued that these two manners of communicating through the visual channel offer a unique research opportunity. Finally, an example from recent research is used to demonstrate how comparisons between spoken-language interpreters and signed-language interpreters can be used to test hypotheses regarding interpretation.

Language Ideologies, Policies, and Attitudes toward Signed Languages

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Hill
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This chapter describes how ideologies about signed languages have come about, and what policies and attitudes have resulted. Language ideologies have governed the formal recognition of signed language at local, national, and international levels, such as that of the United Nations. The chapter discusses three major areas in the study of attitudes toward signed languages: Attitudes versus structural reality; the social factors and educational policies that have contributed to language attitudes; and the impact of language attitudes on identity and educational policy. Even in the United States, American Sign Language does not get recognition as a language in every region, and the attempt to suppress sign language is still operative. This is a worldwide issue for many countries with histories of opposition tosigned languages that parallel the history of the United States.

Differentiating the use of gaze in bilingual-bimodal language acquisition: a comparison of two sets of twins with deaf parents

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. DAYLENE RICHMOND-WELTY ◽  
PATRICIA SIPLE
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Mutual Gaze ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Deaf Parents

Signed languages make unique demands on gaze during communication. Bilingual children acquiring both a spoken and a signed language must learn to differentiate gaze use for their two languages. Gaze during utterances was examined for a set of bilingual-bimodal twins acquiring spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL) and a set of monolingual twins acquiring ASL when the twins were aged 2;0, 3;0 and 4;0. The bilingual-bimodal twins differentiated their languages by age 3;0. Like the monolingual ASL twins, the bilingual-bimodal twins established mutual gaze at the beginning of their ASL utterances and either maintained gaze to the end or alternated gaze to include a terminal look. In contrast, like children acquiring spoken English monolingually, the bilingual-bimodal twins established mutual gaze infrequently for their spoken English utterances. When they did establish mutual gaze, it occurred later in their spoken utterances and they tended to look away before the end.

Using signed language collocations to investigate acquisition: A commentary on Ambridge (2020)

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 585-591
Author(s):  
Lynn Hou ◽  
Jill P. Morford
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Test Case ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language

The visual-manual modality of sign languages renders them a unique test case for language acquisition and processing theories. In this commentary the authors describe evidence from signed languages, and ask whether it is consistent with Ambridge’s proposal. The evidence includes recent research on collocations in American Sign Language that reveal collocational frequency effects and patterns that do not constitute syntactic constituents. While these collocations appear to resist fully abstract schematization, further consideration of how speakers create exemplars and how they link exemplar clouds based on tokens and how much abstraction is involved in their creation is warranted.

Iconicity is in the eye of the beholder

Gesture ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corrine Occhino ◽  
Benjamin Anible ◽  
Erin Wilkinson ◽  
Jill P. Morford
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
The World ◽  
Native Signers ◽  
German Sign Language

Abstract A renewed interest in understanding the role of iconicity in the structure and processing of signed languages is hampered by the conflation of iconicity and transparency in the definition and operationalization of iconicity as a variable. We hypothesize that iconicity is fundamentally different than transparency since it arises from individuals’ experience with the world and their language, and is subjectively mediated by the signers’ construal of form and meaning. We test this hypothesis by asking American Sign Language (ASL) signers and German Sign Language (DGS) signers to rate iconicity of ASL and DGS signs. Native signers consistently rate signs in their own language as more iconic than foreign language signs. The results demonstrate that the perception of iconicity is intimately related to language-specific experience. Discovering the full ramifications of iconicity for the structure and processing of signed languages requires operationalizing this construct in a manner that is sensitive to language experience.

Comprehension benefits of visual-gestural iconicity and spatial referencing

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110376
Author(s):  
Emily Saunders ◽  
David Quinto-Pozos
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Spatial Referencing

Studies have shown that iconicity can provide a benefit to non-signers during the learning of single signs, but other aspects of signed messages that might also be beneficial have received less attention. In particular, do other features of signed languages help support comprehension of a message during the process of language learning? The following exploratory study investigates the comprehension of sentences in two signed and two spoken languages by non-signers and by American Sign Language (ASL) learners. The design allows for the examination of message comprehension, with a comparison of unknown spoken and signed languages. Details of the stimulus sentences are provided in order to contextualize features of the signing that might be providing benefits for comprehension. Included in this analysis are aspects of the sentences that are iconic and spatially deictic – some of which resemble common gestural forms of communication. The results indicate that iconicity and referential points in signed language likely assist with comprehension of sentences, even for non-signers and for a signed language that the ASL signers have not studied.

Assessing Vocabulary in Deaf and Hearing Children using Finnish Sign Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-158
Author(s):  
Laura Kanto ◽  
Henna Syrjälä ◽  
Wolfgang Mann
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Native Signers ◽  
Hearing Children ◽  
Assessment Format

Abstract This study investigates children’s vocabulary knowledge in Finnish Sign Language (FinSL), specifically their understanding of different form-meaning mappings by using a multilayered assessment format originally developed for British Sign Language (BSL). The web-based BSL vocabulary test by Mann (2009) was adapted for FinSL following the steps outlined by Mann, Roy and Morgan (2016) and piloted with a small group of deaf and hearing native signers (N = 24). Findings showed a hierarchy of difficulty between the tasks, which is concordant with results reported previously for BSL and American Sign Language (ASL). Additionally, the reported psychometric properties of the FinSL vocabulary test strengthen previous claims made for BSL and ASL that the underlying construct is appropriate for use with signed languages. Results also add new insights into the adaptation process of tests from one signed language to another and show this process to be a reliable and valid way to develop assessment tools in lesser-researched signed languages such as FinSL.

scholarly journals Constructed Action in American Sign Language: A Look at Second Language Learners in a Second Modality

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Kim B. Kurz ◽  
Kellie Mullaney ◽  
Corrine Occhino
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Psychological States ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Discourse Coherence ◽  
Signed Language

Constructed action is a cover term used in signed language linguistics to describe multi-functional constructions which encode perspective-taking and viewpoint. Within constructed action, viewpoint constructions serve to create discourse coherence by allowing signers to share perspectives and psychological states. Character, observer, and blended viewpoint constructions have been well documented in signed language literature in Deaf signers. However, little is known about hearing second language learners’ use of constructed action or about the acquisition and use of viewpoint constructions. We investigate the acquisition of viewpoint constructions in 11 college students acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language in a second modality (M2L2). Participants viewed video clips from the cartoon Canary Row and were asked to “retell the story as if you were telling it to a deaf friend”. We analyzed the signed narratives for time spent in character, observer, and blended viewpoints. Our results show that despite predictions of an overall increase in use of all types of viewpoint constructions, students varied in their time spent in observer and character viewpoints, while blended viewpoint was rarely observed. We frame our preliminary findings within the context of M2L2 learning, briefly discussing how gestural strategies used in multimodal speech-gesture constructions may influence learning trajectories.

scholarly journals How much can classifiers be analogous to their referents?

Gesture ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Sutton-Spence ◽  
Donna Jo Napoli
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Language Poetry ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Classifier System ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
British Sign Language ◽  
British Sign

Sign Language poetry is especially valued for its presentation of strong visual images. Here, we explore the highly visual signs that British Sign Language and American Sign Language poets create as part of the ‘classifier system’ of their languages. Signed languages, as they create visually-motivated messages, utilise categoricity (more traditionally considered ‘language’) and analogy (more traditionally considered extra-linguistic and the domain of ‘gesture’). Classifiers in sign languages arguably show both these characteristics (Oviedo, 2004). In our discussion of sign language poetry, we see that poets take elements that are widely understood to be highly visual, closely representing their referents, and make them even more highly visual — so going beyond categorisation and into new areas of analogue.

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