Sign Language Grammar Research Articles

SIGN LANGUAGE OF THE DEAF PEOPLE: A STUDY ON PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING

Today, when various regulatory documents support sign language research, there is a lack of both teaching materials and research on deaf sign language and public understanding. The study aims to determine the public’s proficiency or competence in the Latvian sign language. The research revealed people’s basic knowledge of Latvian sign language grammar, their ability to communicate and understand deaf people, their attitudes and opinions about the process, and the necessity of learning sign language. Information was studied in four blocks of questions: society’s attitude towards deaf sign language, society’s knowledge of deaf sign language, communication skills with a deaf person, and opinion on the development of deaf sign language and its necessity. The sample of the study is 500 respondents, who represent the opinion of the population between the ages of 16 and 60, observing the socio-demographic parameters of the target group of the study. An empirical research method was used in the study; to collect data, an electronic survey was conducted. In general, the study confirms that society shows a positive attitude towards Latvian sign language as a means of communication for deaf people. At the same time, the data reveal poor knowledge of sign language and its grammar. It was concluded that not only sociological research is needed on public perceptions of deaf sign language, but also various educational events for the rest of society should be promoted, including seminars, courses, and conferences.

Including the Sign Language Community in Language Research, Learning and Teaching: Video Reference Grammar of Slovenian Sign Language (SZJ)

Background: Deaf users of Slovenian Sign Language vary in competence between L1, delayed L1 and L2. They follow the grammatical patterns of their language but are unaware of them because the language is neither linguistically documented nor systematically used in the classroom. As a result, the available learning and teaching materials are inadequately prepared in many aspects.
 Purpose: The aim of this research was to create a reference grammar of SZJ by (i) using SZJ for metalinguistic descriptions and (ii) training Deaf signers as researchers and teachers. We observed their performance in order to answer the research question of whether it is possible to involve Deaf signers in the process of creating and disseminating a sign language reference grammar.
 Method: Training a group of deaf L1 signers to (i) start systematic research of their language within a selected formal approach, (ii) create didactic video materials for learning/teaching Slovenian Sign Language as L1 and L2, and (iii) use these materials in language courses for L1 and L2 deaf signers.
 Results: Eleven deaf L1 signers were trained as researchers in a 40-hour course. Five deaf and two hearing L1 signers were trained as language teachers in another 40-hour course and then presented the core concepts of Slovenian Sign Language grammar to 302 members of 12 local Slovenian deaf clubs in 24 editions of a 40-hour language course. For the presentations, they used didactic video materials (duration 5:46 hours). These materials were produced by the five L1 signers and later uploaded to two freely accessible online video platforms.
 Conclusion: The approach proved fruitful: signers were actively involved in the creation and dissemination of the first Slovenian Sign Language reference grammar. The available analytics show that the materials are continuously viewed by both deaf and hearing users.

'Can You See What I Say?' Beyond Words

Empathic relational communication is a key competency in spiritual care for establishing a trusting pastoral relationship. Ministry with d/Deaf persons requires a deeper level of relational skill, where attentiveness to sign language, non-manual features, visual cues and facial grammar are important for meaningful pastoral relatedness. It is widely recognized that d/Deaf persons experience higher than average healthcare access barriers and associated psychological impacts, and therefore spiritual need. In addition, d/Deaf persons develop a non-auditory approach to emotional expression and communication. The competencies of clinical pastoral education (CPE) provide a natural context to further develop the necessary deeper relational skills for healthcare ministry. This article draws on the lived experiences of a chaplain for the d/Deaf engaged in CPE and a CPE educator, in order to highlight current deficiencies in pastoral care for d/Deaf persons, and to explore and illustrate how relational empathy and spiritual connection can be deepened among d/Deaf persons in healthcare by developing the competencies of CPE.Supplementary resource: video format in American, British and Irish sign languagesView ASL Keith Nolan videoView BSL Ayesha Gavin videoView ISL John Patrick Doherty video

Selected topics in Slovenian Sign Language linguistics

Minority languages are often given less importance than national languages, especially when the languages differ in their modalities. In addition, the hearing majority often do not recognise sign languages, leading to prejudice and discrimination against them. Apart from the theoretical relevance of the study of sign languages for linguistic research, linguistic studies have proved crucial in reducing the social and cultural isolation of Deaf communities. At the same time, the specific sociolinguistics of sign languages must be considered when conducting such linguistic research. This paper presents relevant background information that needs to be considered when conducting research on the grammar of Slovenian Sign Language (SZJ), as well as the research topics in SZJ linguistics that have been addressed in recent decades.

Buoy as an element of grammar of Polish Sign Language: a preliminary review of corpus data

This paper is an introduction to the issue of buoys, i.e. signs normally produced with the non-dominant hand to ensure a spatial reference point for signs produced with the dominant hand. Simultaneous constructions of this type have been noticed in numerous sign languages, yet their equivalents have not been described in any detail for Polish Sign Language (PJM). The paper presents what can be said about the use of buoys in PJM on the basis of an analysis of a collection of empirical data extracted from the Corpus of Polish Sign Language (KPJM). The research confi rms that certain buoy types (fragment and depicting buoys) are frequent in PJM and can be found in recurring contexts, which speaks for considering them as a part of grammar of this language

Adaptive Language Processing Unit for Malaysian Sign Language Synthesizer

Language Processing Unit (LPU) is a system built to process text-based data to comply with the rules of sign language grammar. This system was developed as an important part of the sign language synthesizer system. Sign language (SL) uses different grammatical rules from the spoken/verbal language, which only involves the important words that Hearing/Impaired Speech people can understand. Therefore, it needs word classification by LPU to determine grammatically processed sentences for the sign language synthesizer. However, the existing language processing unit in SL synthesizers suffers time lagging and complexity problems, resulting in high processing time. The two features, i.e., the computational time and success rate, become trade-offs which means the processing time becomes longer to achieve a higher success rate. This paper proposes an adaptive Language Processing Unit (LPU) that allows processing the words from spoken words to Malaysian SL grammatical rule that results in relatively fast processing time and a good success rate. It involves n-grams, NLP, and Hidden Markov Models (HMM)/Bayesian Networks as the classifier to process the text-based input. As a result, the proposed LPU system has successfully provided an efficient (fast) processing time and a good success rate compared to LPU with other edit distances (Mahalanobis, Levensthein, and Soundex). The system has been tested on 130 text-input sentences with several words ranging from 3 to 10 words. Results showed that the proposed LPU could achieve around 1.497ms processing time with an average success rate of 84.23% for a maximum of ten-word sentences.

From gestures to grammatical non-manuals in sign language: A case study of polar questions and negation in Hong Kong Sign Language

Previous studies propose that eyebrow raise in polar questions and headshakes in negations in sign languages arose from the incorporation of hearing speakers’ gestures in similar contexts into sign language grammar via grammaticalization. This paper reviews these proposals in light of Wilcox’s theory on gesture grammaticalization. According to Wilcox, there are two routes for gestures to enter sign language grammar: Route I, via lexicalization, and Route II, via prosody/intonation. Based on Cantonese and Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) data, we argue that eyebrow raise in polar questions in HKSL evolved from a paralinguistic gestural element into a grammatical marker via a language-internal process because eyebrow raise in question contexts is universal. Negative headshakes in Cantonese, though prevalent, are not incorporated into HKSL grammar. Instead, HKSL adopts backward head movements as optional negation markers. These findings support previous claims that headshakes are culture-specific. Both eyebrow raise in polar questions and backward head movements in negations in HKSL can be subsumed under Route II in Wilcox’s theory, along a language-internal evolutionary path. For sign languages that employ headshakes as negation markers, the headshakes are likely to have been borrowed from the hearing communities. This grammaticalization path fits neither Route I nor Route II of Wilcox’s theory because cross-modal borrowing is involved without an intermediate lexical stage.

A descriptive grammar of Sign Language of the Netherlands

A descriptive grammar of Sign Language of the Netherlands

The Order of Signs: Perspectives on the Relationship between Language and Thought during the First Century of Widespread Sign Language Teaching

While current debates oppose the cochlear implant's privileging of speech acquisition to teaching sign language, nineteenth-century debates, in contrast, opposed those who saw sign language as a tool for learning to read and write, and those who saw in it an autonomous language for organizing thought itself. Should the order of gestural signs follow written syntax? Or should it have its own coherence, that is, possibly a different syntax and order of enunciation? Starting with these questions, distinct teaching legacies developed, specifying which kinds of signs to use in which context and what role signs were to fulfill. This article focuses on French deaf and hearing teachers whose positions were influential throughout Europe and the United States, moving from Abbé de l'Epée's 1784 method to Rémi Valade's 1854 publication of the first sign language grammar.

Sign2Text: Konvolüsyonel Sinir Ağları Kullanarak Türk İşaret Dili Tanıma

İşaret dili, işitme engellilerin kendi aralarında iletişim kurarken, el hareketlerini ve yüz mimiklerini kullanarak oluşturdukları görsel bir dildir. İşitme engelliler kendi aralarında işaret dili yardımıyla rahatlıkla iletişim kurabilmelerine rağmen hastane gibi kamu kurumlarında, hizmet almaya gidenlerin kendilerini ifade etmekte ve karşılarındakileri anlamakta büyük zorluklar çekmektedirler. İşitme engelli okuma yazma oranı düşüktür. Okuma yazması olanların ise Türk İşaret Dili dilbigisinin farklı olması ve dar kelime dağarcığından dolayı okuduklarını anlamada zorluk yaşamaktadır. Dünya sağlık örgütünün raporlarına göre 2018 yılında Avrupa’da 34 milyon işitme engelli bulunmakta, bu sayının 2050 yılına kadar 46 milyon olması beklenmektedir. Video içerisindeki hareketlerin algılanıp işaret diline çevirme işleminde. Bu çalışmada herhangi bir sensör kullanılmadan işitme engelli bireyler tarafından kamerası karşısında yapılan hareketlerin algılanıp işaret diline çevirme işleminde Konvolüsyonel Yapay Ağlar (CNN: Convolutıion Neural Network) ve Uzun Kısa Süreli Bellek (LSTM: Long Short Term Memory) derin öğrenme teknikleri kullanılmıştır. Öncelikle, kamera aracılığıyla elde edilen veri üzerinde baş bölgesinin tespiti ve eğitime uygun hale getirilmesi, ellerin tespiti ve hareketlerinin takip edilmesi ve kırpma gibi video ön işleme adımları uygulanmıştır. Hazırlanan videoların Konvolüsyonel Yapay Ağlar eğitim modeli için frameler ile eğitimi amaçlanmıştır. Veri seti videoların eğitim aşamasında kullanılması için framelere parçalanmıştır. İşaret dili hareketlerinde öncelikli olarak el ve parmak hareketlerinin tahminlemesi gerçekleştirilir. Sadece el hareketleri için eğitim modeli besleneceği için ten renginin bulunduğu kafa bölgesi tespiti çalışması gerçekleştirilmiştir. Kamera karşısında yapılan 10 rakam ve 29 harfin işaret dili hareketleri ile eğitilen CNN + LSTM modellerinde tahminlemesinde %97 başarı oranı elde edilmiştir. Bu sonuçlar, işitme engelli bireylerin kamera karşısında yaptığı hareketlerin algılanıp metne dönüştürmesinde derin öğrenme yöntemlerinin kullanılabileceğini göstermiştir.

Competences in Polish sign language and the ability to understand read text in G students / deaf students

Research to date indicates a relationship between reading skills and sign language competences in G people / deaf people. These data, however, only apply to sign languages that have undergone extensive scientific analysis (e.g. American Sign Language). Currently, there are no scientific reports in Poland regarding competences in sign language and in reading in G students / deaf students. For this reason, the present study analyses the relationship between Polish Sign Language (PSL) and understanding of the text read in written Polish. The study involved 52 G students / deaf students with prelingual hearing loss in severe or profound grades I-VI in special primary schools for deaf children and adolescents. Competences at PSL were measured using the Polish Sign Language Grammar Comprehension Test, and comprehension of the text read was tested using the Reading test by Maria Grzywak-Kaczyńska. Hierarchical analysis of multivariate regression showed that competences in PSL are a variable explaining the level of understanding of the read text (in the model the first explanatory the variable was age). Therefore, it has been demonstrated that competences in PSL are relevant to learning to read in Polish among G students / deaf students. The results obtained are important for surdopedagogical practice: they draw attention to the need to improve competences in sign language and to use sign language in the process of learning to read and develop this skill.

Grammar of Polish Sign Language as Compared to Grammar of Polish Language: Selected Themes

Grammar of Polish Sign Language as Compared to Grammar of Polish Language: Selected Themes

THE FEELING UNDERSTANDING AND VALUES OF THE DEAF CHILDREN

Deaf children have a language to communicate with each other. It is known as sign language. The sign language has grammatical, morpheme, syntactical and semantically rules. It can be helped the deaf children to understand the signs. The disability people or gift children have an equal with normal people. So, they deserve to get what they want and communicate with each other. Generally, the grammar of sign language for deaf people has used hand shape or movement even facial expression or body movement. This article has aimed to expose the ability of deaf children to understand the feelings and values of others. It refers to social and cognitive development. Deaf children have access to communicate how peoples’ interaction and explanation for behaviors to get better social dynamics as an advantage in cognitive development. The deaf children often show the behavior problem and inconsistent social and sometimes they could not understand social rules.

Sociolinguistic Typology and Sign Languages.

This paper examines the possible relationship between proposed social determinants of morphological ‘complexity’ and how this contributes to linguistic diversity, specifically via the typological nature of the sign languages of deaf communities. We sketch how the notion of morphological complexity, as defined by Trudgill (2011), applies to sign languages. Using these criteria, sign languages appear to be languages with low to moderate levels of morphological complexity. This may partly reflect the influence of key social characteristics of communities on the typological nature of languages. Although many deaf communities are relatively small and may involve dense social networks (both social characteristics that Trudgill claimed may lend themselves to morphological ‘complexification’), the picture is complicated by the highly variable nature of the sign language acquisition for most deaf people, and the ongoing contact between native signers, hearing non-native signers, and those deaf individuals who only acquire sign languages in later childhood and early adulthood. These are all factors that may work against the emergence of morphological complexification. The relationship between linguistic typology and these key social factors may lead to a better understanding of the nature of sign language grammar. This perspective stands in contrast to other work where sign languages are sometimes presented as having complex morphology despite being young languages (e.g., Aronoff et al., 2005); in some descriptions, the social determinants of morphological complexity have not received much attention, nor has the notion of complexity itself been specifically explored.

Phonological blending or code mixing? Why mouthing is not a core component of sign language grammar

The level of integration of mouthing into the sign language system was investigated using a novel experimental procedure. We constructed a word/sign matching task in which the signer has to indicate whether a LIS (Italian Sign Language) sign matches the written Italian word that follows the video presentation of the sign. In the congruent condition, the word matches the sign, while in the incongruent condition the word matches a sign which forms a minimal pair with the sign that has been presented in the video. To form minimal pairs, all four traditional formational parameters for signs plus mouthing were considered. Lip movements were present only in mouthing minimal pairs. In the incongruent condition we compared mouthing minimal pairs separately to handshape minimal pairs, location minimal pairs, movement minimal pairs, and palm orientation minimal pairs. Accuracy was markedly lower for minimal pairs distinguished by mouthing than for minimal pairs distinguished by one of the four parameters. In the congruent condition we compared mouthing minimal pairs to all the other minimal pairs, in which lips movements were absent. Reaction times were shorter in the presence of mouthing as a consequence of the strong mapping between orthography and mouthing, confirming that mouthing is highly connected to the Italian lexicon. Participants seem to consider mouthing external to the sign to be matched with the word. We propose that cases of disambiguation by mouthing should be interpreted as cases of simultaneous code mixing. Therefore, our experimental results suggest that mouthing is not a core component of sign languages.

The Phonetics of Head and Body Movement in the Realization of American Sign Language Signs

Background/Aims: Because the primary articulators for sign languages are the hands, sign phonology and phonetics have focused mainly on them and treated other articulators as passive targets. However, there is abundant research on the role of nonmanual articulators in sign language grammar and prosody. The current study examines how hand and head/body movements are coordinated to realize phonetic targets. Methods: Kinematic data were collected from 5 deaf American Sign Language (ASL) signers to allow the analysis of movements of the hands, head and body during signing. In particular, we examine how the chin, forehead and torso move during the production of ASL signs at those three phonological locations. Results: Our findings suggest that for signs with a lexical movement toward the head, the forehead and chin move to facilitate convergence with the hand. By comparison, the torso does not move to facilitate convergence with the hand for signs located at the torso. Conclusion: These results imply that the nonmanual articulators serve a phonetic as well as a grammatical or prosodic role in sign languages. Future models of sign phonetics and phonology should take into consideration the movements of the nonmanual articulators in the realization of signs.

聴覚障害と自閉症スペクトラム障害

In the present study, we review previous research on the development of theory of mind in deaf children and the acquisition of sign language by deaf children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; children with D-ASD). Development of theory of mind is closely related to social interactions based on verbal communication. Therefore, deaf children who grew up in families with normal hearing perform poorly on the false-belief task, and exhibit tendencies resembling those of children with ASD. Moreover, difficulties in joint attention and perspective-taking, which are important elements of language acquisition, limit the acquisition of sign language by children with D-ASD regardless of differences in modality. It has been reported, however, that compared to deaf children with typical development (TD), children with high-functioning D-ASD did not exhibit marked differences in the comprehension and production of facial markers indicating the grammar and expressions of sign language, such as negation and question. Similarly, no differences were observed between children with high-functioning D-ASD and deaf children with TD on the Benton Facial Recognition Test. It was thought that when exposed to sign language, children with D-ASD pay more attention to facial expressions than do children with ASD who have normal hearing, and thereby develop a greater ability to recognize facial expressions. These findings offer suggestions regarding the nature of language acquisition and its associated cognitive mechanisms.

Iconicity as structure mapping.

Linguistic and psycholinguistic evidence is presented to support the use of structure-mapping theory as a framework for understanding effects of iconicity on sign language grammar and processing. The existence of structured mappings between phonological form and semantic mental representations has been shown to explain the nature of metaphor and pronominal anaphora in sign languages. With respect to processing, it is argued that psycholinguistic effects of iconicity may only be observed when the task specifically taps into such structured mappings. In addition, language acquisition effects may only be observed when the relevant cognitive abilities are in place (e.g. the ability to make structural comparisons) and when the relevant conceptual knowledge has been acquired (i.e. information key to processing the iconic mapping). Finally, it is suggested that iconicity is better understood as a structured mapping between two mental representations than as a link between linguistic form and human experience.

Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus Information: The Challenges of Hearing-Impaired Adolescents in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Adolescents with hearing impairments have similar sexual risk exposures as their hearing counterparts, yet their sexual information needs are often ignored. This paper examines the disparities in information about the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) infection among hearing and hearing-impaired adolescents in Port Harcourt, Nigeria using a comparative cross-sectional survey design. Results showed that awareness about HIV was significantly lower among hearing-impaired adolescents. Most of them did not even know how HIV was transmitted, while many believed that HIV was transmitted through mosquito bites or by eating together or sharing utensils. Only a few understood that unprotected sex was a major risk factor for HIV transmission. Similarly, most of them did not know how HIV could be prevented. Their HIV risk perception for was equally low as only a third had ever tested for HIV compared to two-thirds of their hearing counterparts. The results of the study suggests that significant differences in HIV information and knowledge exists between hearing and hearing-impaired adolescents in Nigeria. The gap is attributed to lack of sexuality and HIV-specific education for adolescents with disabilities, thus unduly exposing them to avoidable HIV risk. It is therefore crucial for adaptation of disability friendly learning strategies that forms an integral part of the Family Life and HIV and AIDS Education curriculum. Equally important is special training for sign language teachers in order to correctly interpret HIV and AIDS information to adolescents using the sign language grammar, syntaxes and communication concepts.

Discriminant Features and Temporal Structure of Nonmanuals in American Sign Language

To fully define the grammar of American Sign Language (ASL), a linguistic model of its nonmanuals needs to be constructed. While significant progress has been made to understand the features defining ASL manuals, after years of research, much still needs to be done to uncover the discriminant nonmanual components. The major barrier to achieving this goal is the difficulty in correlating facial features and linguistic features, especially since these correlations may be temporally defined. For example, a facial feature (e.g., head moves down) occurring at the end of the movement of another facial feature (e.g., brows moves up), may specify a Hypothetical conditional, but only if this time relationship is maintained. In other instances, the single occurrence of a movement (e.g., brows move up) can be indicative of the same grammatical construction. In the present paper, we introduce a linguistic–computational approach to efficiently carry out this analysis. First, a linguistic model of the face is used to manually annotate a very large set of 2,347 videos of ASL nonmanuals (including tens of thousands of frames). Second, a computational approach is used to determine which features of the linguistic model are more informative of the grammatical rules under study. We used the proposed approach to study five types of sentences – Hypothetical conditionals, Yes/no questions, Wh-questions, Wh-questions postposed, and Assertions – plus their polarities – positive and negative. Our results verify several components of the standard model of ASL nonmanuals and, most importantly, identify several previously unreported features and their temporal relationship. Notably, our results uncovered a complex interaction between head position and mouth shape. These findings define some temporal structures of ASL nonmanuals not previously detected by other approaches.