Factors to Consider When Making Lexical Comparisons of Sign Languages: Notes from an Ongoing Comparison of German Sign Language and Swiss German Sign Language

Ebling, Sarah; Konrad, Reiner; Braem, Penny Boyes; Langer, Gabriele

doi:10.1353/sls.2015.0024

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The implementation of a comparison of the iconic motivation before the parametric comparison as suggested by Xu (2006) still overestimates phylogenetic relations (Su & Tai 2009). It is possible that, as suggested by Ebling et al (2015), a more fine-grained analysis of image-producing techniques and underlying motivation is needed. However, no successful method has been made available at this point.…”

Section: Cross-linguistic Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cross-linguistic similarities may be due to shared iconic motivations or historic relatedness, with iconicity providing a complicating factor in phylogenetic analyses. The few studies that take iconicity into account are limited in their capacity to scale-up and lack a numeric outcome (Xu 2006;Su & Tai 2009;Ebling et al 2015).…”

Section: Cross-linguistic Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Formal variation in the Kata Kolok lexicon

Lutzenberger¹,

Vos

Crasborn³

et al. 2021

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

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Sign language lexicons incorporate phonological specifications. Evidence from emerging sign languages suggests that phonological structure emerges gradually in a new language. In this study, we investigate variation in the form of signs across 20 deaf adult signers of Kata Kolok, a sign language that emerged spontaneously in a Balinese village community. Combining methods previously used for sign comparisons, we introduce a new numeric measure of variation. Our nuanced yet comprehensive approach to form variation integrates three levels (iconic motivation, surface realisation, feature differences) and allows for refinement through weighting the variation score by token and signer frequency. We demonstrate that variation in the form of signs appears in different degrees at different levels. Token frequency in a given dataset greatly affects how much variation can surface, suggesting caution in interpreting previous findings. Different sign variants have different scopes of use among the signing population, with some more widely used than others. Both frequency weightings (token and signer) identify dominant sign variants, i.e., sign forms that are produced frequently or by many signers. We argue that variation does not equal the absence of conventionalisation. Indeed, especially in micro-community sign languages, variation may be key to understanding patterns of language emergence.

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Section: Cross-linguistic Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cross-linguistic Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formal variation in the Kata Kolok lexicon

Lutzenberger¹,

Vos

Crasborn³

et al. 2021

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(f) Tracing (3D)-The hands and movement represent shape of entity by tracing outline or surface of entity. This results in 3D shapes (Ebling et al 2015;Padden et al 2013;Kimmelman et al 2018).…”

Section: A Two-parts Sign ( Adasl) One-part (Gsl) One-part (Urban Gesturer)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(d) Measuring (Mandel 1977;Ebling et al 2015;Nyst 2016). Hand(s) indicates size or the height of entity, or the size of the object is shown by delimiting relevant part of the fi nger, hand or arm.…”

Section: A Two-parts Sign ( Adasl) One-part (Gsl) One-part (Urban Gesturer)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linguistic repertoires of refugees in Internally Displaced Peoples’ (IDP) camps in North East Nigeria

Mgbemena¹

2020

West African Languages. Linguistic Theory and Communication

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shows that negation is a complex process involving diff erent grammatical categories, such as person and number marking, as well as the syntactic organisation of the sentence. There are more irregularities and asymmetries between affi rmative and negative sentences than the presence or the absence of the negation marker. For example, completely diff erent TAM markers or copulas are used in negative and affi rmative clauses. The heterogeneity of the negative strategies and their interactions in Atlantic languages shed more light on internal clustering of the Atlantic group. Judith Mgbemena in "Linguistic Repertoires of Refugees in Internally Displaced Peoples' (IDP) Camps in North East Nigeria" shows a linguistic situation in Nigeria from the perspective of endangered languages. In reports and publications referring to the impact of terrorism and violent confl ict on national development, the language component is usually ignored. In a similar vein, humanitarian groups helping the people in need focus on social, economic, religious or medical aid, leaving the problem of language and communication aside. The paper focuses on language use spectrum in two Internally Displaced Persons' camps situated in east-north Nigeria showing how forced mobility resulting from violent attacks aff ects linguistic ecology of Nigeria. It is shown that indigenous languages are rarely used at the camps and the IDP people are exposed to other languages like Hausa and English. It poses a threat to the sustenance of the displaced languages not only locally, but also globally, as many of these languages are endangered.The forms of direct communication involving gestures are discussed in "The function of nonverbal regulators in Hausa face-to-face interaction" by Aisha Umar Adamu. She analyses the use of nonverbal signals called regulators in Hausa social interactions taking place in schools and at wedding ceremonies. The research shows that various gestures and body postures act as conversational regulators that help to keep the fl ow of the conversation. Regulators mark the beginning or the end of the conversations (e.g. turning the head aside)

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An analysis of how metalinguistic terms are realised in British sign language in the context of teaching English to deaf learners

Aldersson

2022

Deafness & Education International

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This study set out to investigate how teachers of English to deaf sign language users refer to metalanguage in the classroom, and more specifically, how these terms might be realised in British Sign Language (BSL). The study was structured in two phases. The first and longer phase of the study involved an initial round of interviews and a targeted elicitation task using a word list of 87 metalinguistic terms. How the participants expressed the terms in BSL was captured on video and analysed using ELAN, a multi-media annotation software designed for the creation of time-aligned text annotations to audio and video files. The elicited ways of expressing metalinguistic terms were subsequently re-created by two deaf presenters, unconnected to the study, for the purposes of sharing the data back to the participants to prepare for the second phase of the study that sought participants' reflections and observations. The data evidenced considerable linguistic variation and motivation in terms of how metalinguistic terms were articulated. Many variants evidenced strong visually motivated form-meaning mapping (iconicity and transparency), while some were more arbitrary in nature. Some variants demonstrated borrowing from English, through fingerspelling, loan translations and mouthing.Others provided evidence of semantic change (broadening) by using signs from other contexts, and some terms were realised using multiple signs that served as an explanation of the meaning.A considerable number of variants evidenced multiple features/motivations. The investigation was framed as practitioner research and as a collaborative enquiry. In addition to exploring the issue under investigation, the study simultaneously set out to establish a community of practice comprising of teachers of English to sign language users, willing to work together as a collaborative enquiry group to explore future research. CONTENTSLink to the video data for the thesis, recreated by the two deaf presenters: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5OGA9Nd-WXNfmVqdHFwUWVJbTJrUlYzRkd2VWtqUGt3a3I5cWd0bGxhdkk4SGpVMHVTRGc?r esourcekey=0-4VAVmSkwBDePy8djkugyLw&usp=sharing List of tablesList of figures Impact statement Personal reflective statement The D/d distinction Other writing conventions in the thesis Chapter 1: Introduction and rationale 1.1 Professional context 1.2 IFS to thesis 1.3 Metalanguage and rationale for the study 1.4 Framing the study Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Signed Languages 2.1.1 British Sign Language 2.1.2 Duality of patterning and the sub-lexical units of signs 2.1.3 Morphology and morphemes in BSL 2.1.4 Borrowing 2.1.5 Mouthing and other non-manual elements 2.1.6 Iconicity, transparency and arbitrariness 2.1.7 Semantic change, homonymy and polysemy 2.1.8 Lexical variation in sign languages 2.2 Research and Sign Language Studies 2.2.1 Collecting Data 2.2.2 Stimuli for eliciting data 2.2.3 Lexical investigations of semantic fields 2.2.4 Glossary Projects 2.3 Practitioner research and collaborative enquiry 2.3.1 Research, education and ...

show abstract

Factors to Consider When Making Lexical Comparisons of Sign Languages: Notes from an Ongoing Comparison of German Sign Language and Swiss German Sign Language

Cited by 10 publications

References 19 publications

Formal variation in the Kata Kolok lexicon

Formal variation in the Kata Kolok lexicon

Linguistic repertoires of refugees in Internally Displaced Peoples’ (IDP) camps in North East Nigeria

An analysis of how metalinguistic terms are realised in British sign language in the context of teaching English to deaf learners

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