Abstract

Sign languages are visual language and their grammatical phenomena are often represented in space. The prosodic elements in sign languages named Non-Manual Signals such as facial expressions, postures or other body movements behave as those prosodies in vocal languages. The learners of sign language in general believe that a hand-shape takes the most important role in sign language. This paper proves it is not true and that NMS is a crucial element of communication in sign language. In our experiment, a hand-shape is fixed as a fist, so called 'Doraemon hand'. It is observed that signing by a fist hand shape is still communicable, and in stead other elements are replaced or emphasized.

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