Korean Sign Research Articles

Signs of the Time: Selected Papers from TISLR 2004 (review)

Reviewed by: Signs of the Time: Selected Papers from TISLR 2004 Petra Eccarius (bio) Signs of the Time: Selected Papers from TISLR 2004, ed. Josep Quer (Seedorf, Germany: Signum, 2008, 404 pp., paperback with CD Rom, EUR 54.00, ISBN 978-3-936675-22-1) Signs of the Time represents a select number of the eighty-five papers and posters presented at the eighth conference of Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR 8), which was held at the University of Barcelona, Spain, in the fall of 2004. Like the conference itself, the book offers a broad sampling of the state of sign language linguistics at that time by dealing with a wide variety of topics and languages. To that end, it includes seventeen chapters (grouped into six main themes) and covers research on at least sixteen different sign languages from around the world. Here I summarize these seventeen chapters (organized by theme) and provide my overall impressions of the book. Phonetics and Phonology The book begins with three chapters that address various aspects of phonetics and phonology. In the first chapter, Mauk, Lindblom, and Meier discuss an experimental study of “undershoot” (the failure to reach a phonetic target) in American Sign Language (ASL) locations as a consequence of various signing speeds and phonetic contexts. Not only do they show that phonetic rate effects are similar in both spoken and signed modalities (despite differences in articulators), but their results also suggest that all phonemic locations are not created equally [End Page 275] with regard to phonetic coarticulation effects (specifically, undershoot), which is similar to what happens across different consonants in spoken languages. Finally, they demonstrate that similar methodologies can be used to study these types of effects in both modalities. In the second chapter, Rozelle presents a comparison of the phonological parameters of handshape and location based on the dictionaries of four unrelated sign languages (ASL, Korean Sign Language [KSL], New Zealand Sign Language [NZSL], and Finnish Sign Language [SVK]). To do this, she uses quantitative methodology, specifically, a combination of statistics and information theory. Her analysis not only shows some potentially universal dependencies between the parameters but also suggests that many of the supposed universals (e.g., the limitation of handshape markedness to locations at the face and neck vs. those on the torso; cf. Battison 1978) are actually language specific and/or typological. She also alludes to other possible dependency relations that could be tested using similar methodology. In the final chapter of this section, Tyrone and Woll offer a case study of a native signer of British Sign Language (BSL) with early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Comparisons with previous literature examined a wide variety of complicating factors (e.g., speech vs. sign, ASL vs. BSL, between stages of the disease/age, medication status, and whether the subject was a native language user). Their results support earlier findings that the primary effect of Parkinson’s on the production of signs is articulatory laxing. In addition, as a contribution to future work, they emphasize the need to consider and/or control for as many factors as possible before making generalizations about the effects of Parkinson’s (or other such diseases). Intonation The next two chapters address the interaction between intonation and grammar. First, Dachikovsky compares the forms of neutral and counterfactual conditionals in Israeli Sign Language (ISL). In this work, she argues for an intonational/pragmatic analysis of the specific nonmanuals that mark these conditionals (e.g., brow raise and eye squint) rather than an exclusively syntactic interpretation. She focuses instead on the general pragmatic functions of these nonmanuals throughout the language. [End Page 276] Next, using Wilbur’s (1994, 2002) analysis of blinks as linguistic markers of intonational/syntactic boundaries as a starting point, Sze analyzes data from Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) to see whether the same patterns hold true. She finds that Wilbur’s classifications are not adequate to explain all of the blinks found in the HKSL data and proposes a modification of that classification to account for the blinks in her data. She also takes a closer look at the methodological questions involved in the study of blinks (the phases of a blink and...

Characteristics of Verb Types and Number Expressions in Korean Sign Language

Characteristics of Verb Types and Number Expressions in Korean Sign Language

Comparative Study of the Case Making Realization in Korean and Korean Sign Language (KSL)

Comparative Study of the Case Making Realization in Korean and Korean Sign Language (KSL)

Sentence Type Identification in Korean Applications to Korean-Sign Language Translation and Korean Speech Synthesis

본 논문에서는 한국어 문장 유형을 자동으로 분류하는 방법을 제안하고 한국어-수화 변환과 한국어 음성 합성 분야에서 문장 유형 정보가 자연스러운 수화 표현과 음성 표현을 생성하는데 이용되는 과정을 보인다. 한국어에서 문장 유형은 크게 평서문, 명령문, 청유문, 의문문, 감탄문의 다섯 가지로 분류되는데, 기존의 방법으로는 대화체 문장에서 동일한 문장이 여러 가지 유형으로 해석되는 중의성의 문제가 발생한다. 본 논문에서는 문장 내에서 형태소 및 구문단위의 다양한 단서들을 활용하여 이를 해결하는 방법을 제안하며, 실험 결과 본 논문에서 제시한 문장유형 분류 시스템이 만족할 만한 성능을 보이는 것을 확인하였다. 이를 이용하여 한국어-수화 변환 시스템에서 문장유형에 따라 수화의 비수지신호가 다르게 표현되는 현상을 처리하는 과정과 한국어 음성 합성 시스템에서 문장 유형에 따라 문장의 문미 억양이 변하는 현상을 처리하는 과정을 제시한다. 문장 유형 정보를 음성 합성과 수화 자동 생성에 이용하는 것은 기존에는 연구되지 않았던 방법으로, 좀 더 자연스러운 음성과 수화 표현을 생성하는데 중요한 역할을 할 것으로 기대한다.

Analysis on sign language simultaneous interpretation processes of Korean sign language interpreter at the college center for handicapped students - Focused on H college center for handicapped students -

Analysis on sign language simultaneous interpretation processes of Korean sign language interpreter at the college center for handicapped students - Focused on H college center for handicapped students -

Investigating How Polysemic Words of Korean Language are expressed in Korean Sign Language Dictionary and in the Deaf Community - Based on the Verb [BODA(SEE)] -

Investigating How Polysemic Words of Korean Language are expressed in Korean Sign Language Dictionary and in the Deaf Community - Based on the Verb [BODA(SEE)] -

한국 수화언어의 특징과 수화 성경 번역의 실제

1. 들어가는 말<BR>2. 한국 농인 교회의 현실과 수화 성경<BR>3. 수화의 정의<BR>4. 언어학적 측면에서의 수화의 가치<BR>5. 수화의 대조언어학적 통문화성 특징<BR>6. 한국 수화언어의 특징<BR>7. 한국 수화와 한글대응식 수화의 성경 번역의 실제<BR>8. 한국수화 성경 번역에서 비수지신호의 중요성<BR>9. 나가는 말<BR>〈참고문헌〉(References)<BR>〈Abstract〉<BR

Analyzing the Linguistic Common Characteristics of Korean and American Sign Language - Based on the Lord's Prayer -

Analyzing the Linguistic Common Characteristics of Korean and American Sign Language - Based on the Lord's Prayer -

자연언어 문장의 자동 변환을 위한 수화 표현의 언어학적 특성 분석

The linguistic characteristics of a sign language provide an important clue for an automatic construction of its expression from a given natural language sentence. For such characterization, we focus on the identification of elided constituents, the mapping of property-changing information into spatio-temporal dimension, and the need for rearranging the order of component information for enhanced quality of delivery. We use our characterization to implement a system that converts sentences in Korean into corresponding expressions in the Korean Sign Language. (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)

A dynamic gesture recognition system for the Korean sign language (KSL)

The sign language is a method of communication for the deaf-mute. Articulated gestures and postures of hands and fingers are commonly used for the sign language. This paper presents a system which recognizes the Korean sign language (KSL) and translates into a normal Korean text. A pair of data-gloves are used as the sensing device for detecting motions of hands and fingers. For efficient recognition of gestures and postures, a technique of efficient classification of motions is proposed and a fuzzy min-max neural network is adopted for on-line pattern recognition.