The Coming of Age of Sign Language and Gesture Studies
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Technical Report, Vol
CRL Technical Report, Vol. 19 No. 1, March 2007 CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN LANGUAGE March 2007 Vol. 19, No. 1 CRL Technical Reports, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093-0526 Tel: (858) 534-2536 • E-mail: [email protected] • WWW: http://crl.ucsd.edu/newsletter/current/TechReports/articles.html TECHNICAL REPORT Arab Sign Languages: A Lexical Comparison Kinda Al-Fityani Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego EDITOR’S NOTE The CRL Technical Report replaces the feature article previously published with every issue of the CRL Newsletter. The Newsletter is now limited to announcements and news concerning the CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN LANGUAGE. CRL is a research center at the University of California, San Diego that unites the efforts of fields such as Cognitive Science, Linguistics, Psychology, Computer Science, Sociology, and Philosophy, all who share an interest in language. The Newsletter can be found at http://crl.ucsd.edu/newsletter/current/TechReports/articles.html. The Technical Reports are also produced and published by CRL and feature papers related to language and cognition (distributed via the World Wide Web). We welcome response from friends and colleagues at UCSD as well as other institutions. Please visit our web site at http://crl.ucsd.edu. SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION If you know of others who would be interested in receiving the Newsletter and the Technical Reports, you may add them to our email subscription list by sending an email to [email protected] with the line "subscribe newsletter <email-address>" in the body of the message (e.g., subscribe newsletter [email protected]). -
Sign Language Typology Series
SIGN LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY SERIES The Sign Language Typology Series is dedicated to the comparative study of sign languages around the world. Individual or collective works that systematically explore typological variation across sign languages are the focus of this series, with particular emphasis on undocumented, underdescribed and endangered sign languages. The scope of the series primarily includes cross-linguistic studies of grammatical domains across a larger or smaller sample of sign languages, but also encompasses the study of individual sign languages from a typological perspective and comparison between signed and spoken languages in terms of language modality, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to sign language typology. Interrogative and Negative Constructions in Sign Languages Edited by Ulrike Zeshan Sign Language Typology Series No. 1 / Interrogative and negative constructions in sign languages / Ulrike Zeshan (ed.) / Nijmegen: Ishara Press 2006. ISBN-10: 90-8656-001-6 ISBN-13: 978-90-8656-001-1 © Ishara Press Stichting DEF Wundtlaan 1 6525XD Nijmegen The Netherlands Fax: +31-24-3521213 email: [email protected] http://ishara.def-intl.org Cover design: Sibaji Panda Printed in the Netherlands First published 2006 Catalogue copy of this book available at Depot van Nederlandse Publicaties, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag (www.kb.nl/depot) To the deaf pioneers in developing countries who have inspired all my work Contents Preface........................................................................................................10 -
Read-My-Lips: a Multimedia Project for the Hearing
JOAQUIN VILA and KATHLEEN M. AHLERS READ-MY -LIPS: A MULTIMEDIA PROJECT FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED Read-My-Lips is an interactive multimedia system designed to help instructors teach language and communication skills to the hearing-impaired. The system comprises three multimedia instructional modules. (1) Babel is an expert system that translates text to speech in any language that uses the Roman alphabet. This module depicts the process of speech by displaying a front view and a profIle cross view of a human face in synchronization with the output sounds of a speech synthesizer. (2) Read & See consists of a series of stories and games that are displayed with text and full video motion. Selected vocabulary within the story is signed and spoken using digitized video sequences. (3) Fingerspelling allows the student to request any word or number to be "fingerspelled." INTRODUCTION The computer has become a popular instructional tool available from the Alexander Graham Bell Association used in school programs for the hearing-impaired. l Many for the Deaf, use drill and practice methods for the computer programs are geared exclusively to the presen speech-reading of everyday utterances. tation and practice of academic content.2 Yet several As technology has improved, interactive video has software packages for the hearing-impaired focus on been used in designing speech-reading programs. A sys specific speech, speech-reading, and/or auditory skills. tem titled DAVID6 (dynamic audio video interactive de Hearing-impaired students have great difficulty master vice) was created in 1978. It requires students to view ing these skills because of their degree of hearing loss. -
Sign Language Endangerment and Linguistic Diversity Ben Braithwaite
RESEARCH REPORT Sign language endangerment and linguistic diversity Ben Braithwaite University of the West Indies at St. Augustine It has become increasingly clear that current threats to global linguistic diversity are not re - stricted to the loss of spoken languages. Signed languages are vulnerable to familiar patterns of language shift and the global spread of a few influential languages. But the ecologies of signed languages are also affected by genetics, social attitudes toward deafness, educational and public health policies, and a widespread modality chauvinism that views spoken languages as inherently superior or more desirable. This research report reviews what is known about sign language vi - tality and endangerment globally, and considers the responses from communities, governments, and linguists. It is striking how little attention has been paid to sign language vitality, endangerment, and re - vitalization, even as research on signed languages has occupied an increasingly prominent posi - tion in linguistic theory. It is time for linguists from a broader range of backgrounds to consider the causes, consequences, and appropriate responses to current threats to sign language diversity. In doing so, we must articulate more clearly the value of this diversity to the field of linguistics and the responsibilities the field has toward preserving it.* Keywords : language endangerment, language vitality, language documentation, signed languages 1. Introduction. Concerns about sign language endangerment are not new. Almost immediately after the invention of film, the US National Association of the Deaf began producing films to capture American Sign Language (ASL), motivated by a fear within the deaf community that their language was endangered (Schuchman 2004). -
Anastasia Bauer the Use of Signing Space in a Shared Signing Language of Australia Sign Language Typology 5
Anastasia Bauer The Use of Signing Space in a Shared Signing Language of Australia Sign Language Typology 5 Editors Marie Coppola Onno Crasborn Ulrike Zeshan Editorial board Sam Lutalo-Kiingi Irit Meir Ronice Müller de Quadros Roland Pfau Adam Schembri Gladys Tang Erin Wilkinson Jun Hui Yang De Gruyter Mouton · Ishara Press The Use of Signing Space in a Shared Sign Language of Australia by Anastasia Bauer De Gruyter Mouton · Ishara Press ISBN 978-1-61451-733-7 e-ISBN 978-1-61451-547-0 ISSN 2192-5186 e-ISSN 2192-5194 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. ” 2014 Walter de Gruyter, Inc., Boston/Berlin and Ishara Press, Lancaster, United Kingdom Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck Țȍ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Acknowledgements This book is the revised and edited version of my doctoral dissertation that I defended at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Cologne, Germany in January 2013. It is the result of many experiences I have encoun- tered from dozens of remarkable individuals who I wish to acknowledge. First of all, this study would have been simply impossible without its partici- pants. The data that form the basis of this book I owe entirely to my Yolngu family who taught me with patience and care about this wonderful Yolngu language. -
The 5 Parameters of ASL Before You Begin Sign Language Partner Activities, You Need to Learn the 5 Parameters of ASL
The 5 Parameters of ASL Before you begin Sign Language Partner activities, you need to learn the 5 Parameters of ASL. You will use these parameters to describe new vocabulary words you will learn with your partner while completing Language Partner activities. Read and learn about the 5 Parameters below. DEFINITION In American Sign Language (ASL), we use the 5 Parameters of ASL to describe how a sign behaves within the signer’s space. The parameters are handshape, palm orientation, movement, location, and expression/non-manual signals. All five parameters must be performed correctly to sign the word accurately. Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkGrIiAoNE for a signed definition of the 5 Parameters of ASL. Don’t forget to turn the captions on if you are a beginning ASL student. Note: The signer’s space spans the width of your elbows when your hands are on your hips to the length four inches above your head to four inches below your belly button. Imagine a rectangle drawn around the top half of your body. TYPES OF HANDSHAPES Handshapes consist of the manual alphabet and other variations of handshapes. Refer to the picture below. TYPES OF ORIENTATIONS Orientation refers to which direction your palm is facing for a particular sign. The different directions are listed below. 1. Palm facing out 2. Palm facing in 3. Palm is horizontal 4. Palm faces left/right 5. Palm toward palm 6. Palm up/down TYPES OF MOVEMENT A sign can display different kinds of movement that are named below. 1. In a circle 2. -
Poor Print Quality
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 476 841 FL 027 697 AUTHOR Kontra, Miklos TITLE British Aid for Hungarian Deaf Education from a Linguistic Human Rights Point of View. PUB DATE 2001-00-00 NOTE 9p.; An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Biennial Conference of the Hungarian Society for the Study of English (4th, Budapest, Hungary, January 28-30, 1999). Some parts contain light or broken text. PUB TYPE Journal Articles (080) Reports Descriptive (141) JOURNAL CIT Hungarian Journal of Applied Linguistics; vl n2 p63-68 2001 EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Deafness; Educational Discrimination; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; *Oral Communication Method; *Sign Language; Speech Communication; Teaching Methods IDENTIFIERS *Hungary; United Kingdom ABSTRACT This paper discusses the issue of oral versus sign language in educating people who are deaf, focusing on Hungary, which currently emphasizes oralism and discourages the use of Hungarian Sign Language. Teachers of people who are hearing impaired are trained to use the acoustic channel and view signing as an obstacle to the integration of deaf people into mainstream Hungarian society. A recent news report describes how the British. Council is giving children's books to a Hungarian college for teachers of handicapped students, because the college believes in encouraging hearing impaired students' speaking skills through picture books rather than allowing then to use sign language. One Hungarian researcher writes that the use of Hungarian Sign Language hinders the efficiency of teaching students who are hard of hearing, because they often prefer it to spoken Hungarian. This paper suggests that the research obscures the difference between medically deaf children, who will never learn to hear, and hearing impaired children, who may learn to hear and speak to some extent. -
Assessing the Bimodal Bilingual Language Skills of Young Deaf Children
ANZCED/APCD Conference CHRISTCHURCH, NZ 7-10 July 2016 Assessing the bimodal bilingual language skills of young deaf children Elizabeth Levesque PhD What we’ll talk about today Bilingual First Language Acquisition Bimodal bilingualism Bimodal bilingual assessment Measuring parental input Assessment tools Bilingual First Language Acquisition Bilingual literature generally refers to children’s acquisition of two languages as simultaneous or sequential bilingualism (McLaughlin, 1978) Simultaneous: occurring when a child is exposed to both languages within the first three years of life (not be confused with simultaneous communication: speaking and signing at the same time) Sequential: occurs when the second language is acquired after the child’s first three years of life Routes to bilingualism for young children One parent-one language Mixed language use by each person One language used at home, the other at school Designated times, e.g. signing at bath and bed time Language mixing, blending (Lanza, 1992; Vihman & McLaughlin, 1982) Bimodal bilingualism Refers to the use of two language modalities: Vocal: speech Visual-gestural: sign, gesture, non-manual features (Emmorey, Borinstein, & Thompson, 2005) Equal proficiency in both languages across a range of contexts is uncommon Balanced bilingualism: attainment of reasonable competence in both languages to support effective communication with a range of interlocutors (Genesee & Nicoladis, 2006; Grosjean, 2008; Hakuta, 1990) Dispelling the myths….. Infants’ first signs are acquired earlier than first words No significant difference in the emergence of first signs and words - developmental milestones are met within similar timeframes (Johnston & Schembri, 2007) Slight sign language advantage at the one-word stage, perhaps due to features being more visible and contrastive than speech (Meier & Newport,1990) Another myth…. -
What Sign Language Creation Teaches Us About Language Diane Brentari1∗ and Marie Coppola2,3
Focus Article What sign language creation teaches us about language Diane Brentari1∗ and Marie Coppola2,3 How do languages emerge? What are the necessary ingredients and circumstances that permit new languages to form? Various researchers within the disciplines of primatology, anthropology, psychology, and linguistics have offered different answers to this question depending on their perspective. Language acquisition, language evolution, primate communication, and the study of spoken varieties of pidgin and creoles address these issues, but in this article we describe a relatively new and important area that contributes to our understanding of language creation and emergence. Three types of communication systems that use the hands and body to communicate will be the focus of this article: gesture, homesign systems, and sign languages. The focus of this article is to explain why mapping the path from gesture to homesign to sign language has become an important research topic for understanding language emergence, not only for the field of sign languages, but also for language in general. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. How to cite this article: WIREs Cogn Sci 2012. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1212 INTRODUCTION linguistic community, a language model, and a 21st century mind/brain that well-equip the child for this esearchers in a variety of disciplines offer task. When the very first languages were created different, mostly partial, answers to the question, R the social and physiological conditions were very ‘What are the stages of language creation?’ Language different. Spoken language pidgin varieties can also creation can refer to any number of phylogenic and shed some light on the question of language creation. -
The Transition from Fingerspelling to English Print: Facilitating English Decoding
The Transition From Fingerspelling to English Print: Facilitating English Decoding Tamara S. Haptonstall-Nykaza Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind Brenda Schick University of Colorado, Boulder Fingerspelling is an integral part of American Sign Lan- orthography available in most written systems. Re- guage (ASL) and it is also an important aspect of becoming search on hearing children’s development of reading bilingual in English and ASL. Even though fingerspelling is has found strong connections between children’s pho- based on English orthography, the development of finger- spelling does not parallel the development of reading in nological systems and awareness of phonological reg- hearing children. Research reveals that deaf children may ularities and their ability to read (see Snow, Burns, & initially treat fingerspelled words as lexical items rather than Griffin, 1998). Typically, reading is viewed, in large a series of letters that represent English orthography and part, as reflecting English skills, and deaf children’s only later begin to learn to link handshapes to English gra- longstanding difficulties with learning to read are con- phemes. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a training method that uses fingerspelling and phonological sidered to be a problem with English (King & Quigley, patterns that resemble those found in lexicalized finger- 1985; Paul, 1998). More recently, researchers have be- spelling to teach deaf students unknown English vocabulary gun to investigate how American Sign Language, or would increase their ability to learn the fingerspelled and ASL, can support and facilitate reading in English (see orthographic version of a word. There were 21 deaf students (aged 4–14 years) who participated. -
Chimpanzees Use of Sign Language
Chimpanzees’ Use of Sign Language* ROGER S. FOUTS & DEBORAH H. FOUTS Washoe was cross-fostered by humans.1 She was raised as if she were a deaf human child and so acquired the signs of American Sign Language. Her surrogate human family had been the only people she had really known. She had met other humans who occasionally visited and often seen unfamiliar people over the garden fence or going by in cars on the busy residential street that ran next to her home. She never had a pet but she had seen dogs at a distance and did not appear to like them. While on car journeys she would hang out of the window and bang on the car door if she saw one. Dogs were obviously not part of 'our group'; they were different and therefore not to be trusted. Cats fared no better. The occasional cat that might dare to use her back garden as a shortcut was summarily chased out. Bugs were not favourites either. They were to be avoided or, if that was impossible, quickly flicked away. Washoe had accepted the notion of human superiority very readily - almost too readily. Being superior has a very heady quality about it. When Washoe was five she left most of her human companions behind and moved to a primate institute in Oklahoma. The facility housed about twenty-five chimpanzees, and this was where Washoe was to meet her first chimpanzee: imagine never meeting a member of your own species until you were five. After a plane flight Washoe arrived in a sedated state at her new home. -
Hand-To-Hand Combat, Or Mouth-To-Mouth Resuscitation?
BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2003) 26, 199–260 Printed in the United States of America From mouth to hand: Gesture, speech, and the evolution of right-handedness Michael C. Corballis Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. [email protected] Abstract: The strong predominance of right-handedness appears to be a uniquely human characteristic, whereas the left-cerebral dom- inance for vocalization occurs in many species, including frogs, birds, and mammals. Right-handedness may have arisen because of an association between manual gestures and vocalization in the evolution of language. I argue that language evolved from manual gestures, gradually incorporating vocal elements. The transition may be traced through changes in the function of Broca’s area. Its homologue in monkeys has nothing to do with vocal control, but contains the so-called “mirror neurons,” the code for both the production of manual reaching movements and the perception of the same movements performed by others. This system is bilateral in monkeys, but pre- dominantly left-hemispheric in humans, and in humans is involved with vocalization as well as manual actions. There is evidence that Broca’s area is enlarged on the left side in Homo habilis, suggesting that a link between gesture and vocalization may go back at least two million years, although other evidence suggests that speech may not have become fully autonomous until Homo sapiens appeared some 170,000 years ago, or perhaps even later. The removal of manual gesture as a necessary component of language may explain the rapid advance of technology, allowing late migrations of Homo sapiens from Africa to replace all other hominids in other parts of the world, including the Neanderthals in Europe and Homo erectus in Asia.