Showing papers on "Sign (semiotics) published in 2017"

Beyond languages, beyond modalities: transforming the study of semiotic repertoires

Abstract: This paper presents a critical examination of key concepts in the study of (signed and spoken) language and multimodality. It shows how shifts in conceptual understandings of language use, moving from bilingualism to multilingualism and (trans)languaging, have resulted in the revitalisation of the concept of language repertoires. We discuss key assumptions and analytical developments that have shaped the sociolinguistic study of signed and spoken language multilingualism as separate from different strands of multimodality studies. In most multimodality studies, researchers focus on participants using one named spoken language within broader embodied human action. Thus while attending to multimodal communication, they do not attend to multilingual communication. In translanguaging studies the opposite has happened: scholars have attended to multilingual communication without really paying attention to multimodality and simultaneity, and hierarchies within the simultaneous combination of resources. The (socio)linguistics of sign language has paid attention to multimodality but only very recently have started to focus on multilingual contexts where multiple sign and/or multiple spoken languages are used. There is currently little transaction between these areas of research. We argue that the lens of semiotic repertoires enables synergies to be identified and provides a holistic focus on action that is both multilingual and multimodal.

The phonology of sign languages

Abstract: Compared to spoken language phonology, the field of sign language phonology is a young one, having begun in the 1960s together with research into sign languages generally. Before this point, linguists often dismissed the academic study of sign languages as manual representations of spoken languages (e.g., Bloomfield, 1933) or as iconic wholes lacking any internal structure. However, since Stokoe’s (1960) seminal work, sign language linguists have demonstrated that, as with spoken languages, sign languages have sub-lexical structure that is systematically organised and constrained. In addition though, sign languages also stand in stark contrast to spoken languages because they are produced in the visual-gestural modality and therefore the articulators involved in phonological organisation are extremely different. Within this chapter, we provide an introduction to the field of sign language phonology and a selective overview of contributions to date. We also highlight key areas that have attracted much debate amongst sign language linguists such as the development of phonological models, the effect of modality on phonology, and the relationship between sign language and gesture. Towards the end of our chapter, we describe new contributions to the field which have the potential to further illuminate our understanding of sign language phonology in the future. Our description will be centred around two unrelated sign languages: American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL), though many of the patterns here have been described for other sign languages as well. This chapter’s concluding note emphasises that in order to understand phonology, one must consider sign languages.

Iconicity and Sign Lexical Acquisition: A Review.

Abstract: The study of iconicity, defined as the direct relationship between a linguistic form and its referent, has gained momentum in recent years across a wide range of disciplines. In the spoken modality, there is abundant evidence showing that iconicity is a key factor that facilitates language acquisition. However, when we look at sign languages, which excel in the prevalence of iconic structures, there is a more mixed picture, with some studies showing a positive effect and others showing a null or negative effect. In an attempt to reconcile the existing evidence the present review presents a critical overview of the literature on the acquisition of a sign language as first (L1) and second (L2) language and points at some factor that may be the source of disagreement. Regarding sign L1 acquisition, the contradicting findings may relate to iconicity being defined in a very broad sense when a more fine-grained operationalisation might reveal an effect in sign learning. Regarding sign L2 acquisition, evidence shows that there is a clear dissociation in the effect of iconicity in that it facilitates conceptual-semantic aspects of sign learning but hinders the acquisition of the exact phonological form of signs. It will be argued that when we consider the gradient nature of iconicity and that signs consist of a phonological form attached to a meaning we can discern how iconicity impacts sign learning in positive and negative ways.

What everybody knows: embodied information in serious leisure

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the role of the body in information in serious leisure by reviewing existing work in information behaviour that theorises the role of the body, and by drawing selectively on literature from beyond information studies to extend our understanding,After finding a lack of attention to the body in most influential works on information behaviour, the paper identifies a number of important authors who do offer theorisations It then explores what can be learnt by examining studies of embodied information in the hobbies of running, music and the liberal arts, published outside the discipline,Auto-ethnographic studies influenced by phenomenology show that embodied information is central to the hobby of running, both through the diverse sensory information the runner uses and through the dissemination of information by the body as a sign Studies of music drawing on the theory of embodied cognition, similarly suggest that it is a key part of amateur music information behaviour Even when considering the liberal arts hobby, the core activity, reading, has been shown to be in significant ways embodied The examples reveal how it is not only in more obviously embodied leisure activities such as sports, in which the body must be considered,Embodied information refers to how the authors receive information from the senses and the way the body is a sign that can be read by others To fully understand this, more empirical and theoretical work is needed to reconcile insights from practice theory, phenomenology, embodied cognition and sensory studies,The paper demonstrates how and why the body has been neglected in information behaviour research, reviews current work and identifies perspectives from other disciplines that can begin to fill the gap

Sound symbolism: the role of word sound in meaning.

Abstract: The question whether there is a natural connection between sound and meaning or if they are related only by convention has been debated since antiquity. In linguistics, it is usually taken for granted that ‘the linguistic sign is arbitrary,’ and exceptions like onomatopoeia have been regarded as marginal phenomena. However, it is becoming more and more clear that motivated relations between sound and meaning are more common and important than has been thought. There is now a large and rapidly growing literature on subjects as ideophones (or expressives), words that describe how a speaker perceives a situation with the senses, and phonaesthemes, units like English gl-, which occur in many words that share a meaning component (in this case ‘light’: gleam, glitter, etc.). Furthermore, psychological experiments have shown that sound symbolism in one language can be understood by speakers of other languages, suggesting that some kinds of sound symbolism are universal. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1441. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1441 This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Linguistics > Linguistic Theory

Automatic recognition of the American sign language fingerspelling alphabet to assist people living with speech or hearing impairments

Abstract: Sign languages are natural languages used mostly by deaf and hard of hearing people. Different development opportunities for people with these disabilities are limited because of communication problems. The advances in technology to recognize signs and gestures will make computer supported interpretation of sign languages possible. There are more than 137 different sign languages around the world; therefore, a system that interprets them could be beneficial to all, especially to the Deaf Community. This paper presents a system based on hand tracking devices (Leap Motion and Intel RealSense), used for signs recognition. The system uses a Support Vector Machine for sign classification. Different evaluations of the system were performed with over 50 individuals; and remarkable recognition accuracy was achieved with selected signs (100% accuracy was achieved recognizing some signs). Furthermore, an exploration on the Leap Motion and the Intel RealSense potential as a hand tracking devices for sign language recognition using the American Sign Language fingerspelling alphabet was performed.

Of the body and the hands: patterned iconicity for semantic categories*

Abstract: This paper examines how gesturers and signers use their bodies to express concepts such as instrumentality and humanness. Comparing across eight sign languages (American, Japanese, German, Israeli, and Kenyan Sign Languages, Ha Noi Sign Language of Vietnam, Central Taurus Sign Language of Turkey, and Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language of Israel) and the gestures of American non-signers, we find recurring patterns for naming entities in three semantic categories (tools, animals, and fruits & vegetables). These recurring patterns are captured in a classification system that identifies iconic strategies based on how the body is used together with the hands. Across all groups, tools are named with manipulation forms, where the head and torso represent those of a human agent. Animals tend to be identified with personification forms, where the body serves as a map for a comparable non-human body. Fruits & vegetables tend to be identified with object forms, where the hands act independently from the rest of the body to represent static features of the referent. We argue that these iconic patterns are rooted in using the body for communication, and provide a basis for understanding how meaningful communication emerges quickly in gesture and persists in emergent and established sign languages.

Discourses of prejudice in the professions: the case of sign languages.

Abstract: There is no evidence that learning a natural human language is cognitively harmful to children. To the contrary, multilingualism has been argued to be beneficial to all. Nevertheless, many professionals advise the parents of deaf children that their children should not learn a sign language during their early years, despite strong evidence across many research disciplines that sign languages are natural human languages. Their recommendations are based on a combination of misperceptions about (1) the difficulty of learning a sign language, (2) the effects of bilingualism, and particularly bimodalism, (3) the bona fide status of languages that lack a written form, (4) the effects of a sign language on acquiring literacy, (5) the ability of technologies to address the needs of deaf children and (6) the effects that use of a sign language will have on family cohesion. We expose these misperceptions as based in prejudice and urge institutions involved in educating professionals concerned with the healthcare, raising and educating of deaf children to include appropriate information about first language acquisition and the importance of a sign language for deaf children. We further urge such professionals to advise the parents of deaf children properly, which means to strongly advise the introduction of a sign language as soon as hearing loss is detected.

Sign of the times: Workplace mindfulness as an empty signifier

Abstract: The rapid emergence of mindfulness programs within organizational settings reflects an amalgam of humanistic, spiritual, and managerial perspectives. While impact studies have focused on effects of...

The Architecture of City Identities: A Multimodal Study of Barcelona and Boston

Abstract: City identity is a distinct form of collective identity based on the perceived uniqueness and meanings of place, rather than group category and membership. A city’s identity is constructed over time through architecture, which involves three sign systems – material, visual, and rhetorical – and multiple institutional actors to communicate the city’s distinctiveness and identity. We compare Barcelona and Boston to examine the identity and meaning created and communicated by different groups of professionals, such as architects, city planners, international guide book writers, and local cultural critics, who perform the semiotic work of ­constructing city identity.

Signage as a tool for behavioral change: Direct and indirect routes to understanding the meaning of a sign

Abstract: Signs, prompts, and symbols are a common means to change behavior in our society. Understanding the psychological mechanisms by which signage influences behavior is a critical first step to achieve the desired outcome. In the current research, we propose a theoretical model of sign-to-behavior process. The model suggests that when one encounters a sign, it is encoded to construct an action representation (comprehension process), which is then acted on unless its enactment is inhibited (decision process). We test the implications of the model in two studies. In support of our hypothesis, for unfamiliar signs, clarity of purpose predicts perceived effectiveness of a sign; however, for familiar signs, clarity of purpose does not matter. Insights gained from the studies will help to design effective signs. Practical implications of the model are discussed, and future research directions are outlined.

A semiotic theory of institutionalization

Abstract: In management theory scholars emphasize that what actors do is often not what they say, but they tend to assume that what actors do is what they mean or that what they mean is what they say. These assumptions are problematic when studying the institutionalization process, where doing, saying, and meaning move from the micro level to the macro level. I argue that the three are distinct correlates of social reality corresponding to the semiotic triangle composed of referent, signifier, and signified, which is key to understanding institutionalization. I combine the semiotic triangle and the chain of signification to conceptualize the process of institutionalization as the coevolution of the three correlates of the sign. Specifically, I identify two kinds of institutionalization: denotational and connotational. Whereas denotational institutionalization entails the coupling of the referent, signifier, and signified, connotational institutionalization involves decoupling among the three. Furthermore, decouplin...

SignGram Blueprint. A Guide to Sign Language Grammar Writing

Abstract: Current grammatical knowledge about particular sign languages is fragmentary and of varying reliability, and it appears scattered in scientific publications where the description is often intertwined with the analysis. In general, comprehensive grammars are a rarity. The SignGram Blueprint is an innovative tool for the grammar writer: a full-fledged guide to describing all components of the grammars of sign languages in a thorough and systematic way, and with the highest scientific standards. The work builds on the existing knowledge in Descriptive Linguistics, but also on the insights from Theoretical Linguistics. It consists of two main parts running in parallel: the Checklist with all the grammatical features and phenomena the grammar writer can address, and the accompanying Manual with the relevant background information (definitions, methodological caveats, representative examples, tests, pointers to elicitation materials and bibliographical references). The areas covered are Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Syntax and Meaning. The Manual is endowed with hyperlinks that connect information across the work and with a pop-up glossary. The SignGram Blueprint will be a landmark for the description of sign language grammars in terms of quality and quantity.

An Introduction to Embodied Cognitive Phonology: Claw-5 Hand-shape Distribution in ASL and Libras

Abstract: While the arbitrariness of the sign has occupied a central space in linguistic theory for a century, counter-evidence to this basic tenet has been mounting. Recent findings from cross-linguistic studies on spoken languages have suggested that, contrary to purely arbitrary distributions of phonological content, languages often exhibit systematic and regular phonological and sub-phonological patterns of form-meaning mappings. To date, studies of distributional tendencies of this kind have not been conducted for signed languages. In an investigation of phoneme distribution in American Sign Language (ASL) and Lingua Brasileira de Sinais (Libras), tokens of the claw-5 handshape were extracted and analyzed for whether the handshape contributed to the overall meaning of the sign. The data suggests that distribution of the claw-5 handshape is not randomly distributed across the lexicon, but clusters around six form-meaning patterns: convex-concave, Unitary-elements, non-compact matter, hand-as-hand, touch, and interlocking. Interestingly, feature-level motivations were uncovered as the source of the mappings These findings are considered within a new cognitive framework to better understand how and why sub-morphemic units develop and maintain motivated form-meaning mappings. The model proposed here, Embodied Cognitive Phonology, builds on cognitive and usage-based approaches but incorporates theories of embodiment to address the source of the claw-5 mappings. Embodied Cognitive Phonology provides a unifying framework for understanding the perceived differences in phonological patterning and organization across the modalities. Both language-internal and language-external sources of motivation contribute to the emergence of form-meaning mappings. Arbitrariness is argued to be but one possible outcome from the process of emergence and schematization of phonological content, and exists alongside motivation as a legitimate state of linguistic units of all sizes of complexity. Importantly, because language is dynamic, these states are not fixed, but are in continuous flux, as language users reinvent and reinterpret form and meaning over time.

Buttering their Bread on Both Sides? The Recognition of Sign Languages and the Aspirations of Deaf Communities

Abstract: In the past two decades, a wave of campaigns to recognise sign languages have taken place in numerous countries. These campaigns sought official recognition of national sign languages, with the aim of enhancing signers’ social mobility and protecting the vitality of sign languages. These activities differ from a long history of sign language planning from a ‘language as a problem’ approach largely used by educators and policymakers to date. However, the instrumental rights and social mobility obtained as a result have thus far been limited with educational linguistic and language acquisition rights especially lacking. This article identifies two reasons for this situation. First, a view of Sign Language Peoples (SLPs) from a medical perspective has led to confusion about the meaning of linguistic rights for them and led governments to treat sign language planning differently than that for spoken languages. Furthermore, SLPs political participation is hindered by recognition being offered by governments without substantial commitments to financial resources, changes in government practices or greater inclusion of sign languages in public life. One exception to this trend are sign language planning bodies, but even these face challenges in the implementation phase. Going forward, we argue that sign language recognition legislation should centre on deaf communities’ concerns regarding sign language vitality. In addition to a need to ensure acquisition for deaf signers, we contend that while the expansion of hearing (and deaf) new signers can be interpreted in terms of language endangerment it can also be seen as strengthening sign languages’ vitality.

Developmental evidence for continuity from action to gesture to sign/word

Abstract: What is linguistic communication and what is it not? Even if we often convey meanings through visible bodily actions, these are rarely considered part of human language. However, co-verbal gestures have compositional structure and semantic significance, while highly iconic structures are essential in sign languages. This paper offers a review of major studies conducted in our lab on the continuity from actions to gestures to words/signs in development. After a brief introduction, we show how gestures may bridge the gap between actions and words and how this interrelationship extends beyond early childhood and across cultures. We stress the role of sign language and multimodal communication in the study of language as a form of action and present recent research on motoric aspects of human communication. Studying the visible actions of speakers and signers leads to a revision of the traditional dichotomy between linguistic and enacted , and to the development of a new approach to embodied language.

A Survey on Sign Language Recognition Using Smartphones

Abstract: Deaf people around the globe use sign languages for their communication needs. Innovations of new technologies, such as smartphones, offer a host of new functionalities to their users. If such mobile devices become capable of recognizing sign languages, this will open up the opportunity for offering significantly more user-friendly mobile apps to sign language users. However, in order to achieve satisfactory results, there are many challenges that must be considered and overcome, such as light conditions, background noise, processing, and energy limitations. This paper aims to cover the most recent techniques in mobile-based sign language recognition systems. We categorize existing solutions into sensors-based and vision-based, as these two categories offer distinct advantages and disadvantages. The primary focus of this literature review is on two main aspects of sign language recognition: feature detection and sign classification algorithms.

Q&A: What is human language, when did it evolve and why should we care?

Abstract: Human language is unique among all forms of animal communication. It is unlikely that any other species, including our close genetic cousins the Neanderthals, ever had language, and so-called sign ‘language’ in Great Apes is nothing like human language. Language evolution shares many features with biological evolution, and this has made it useful for tracing recent human history and for studying how culture evolves among groups of people with related languages. A case can be made that language has played a more important role in our species’ recent (circa last 200,000 years) evolution than have our genes.

Saartjie by Hendrik Hofmeyr : sign systems and context

Abstract: ................................................................................................................................................ ii OPSOMMING ............................................................................................................................................ iii LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... x LIST OF PLATES ..................................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF DVD STILLS ............................................................................................................................ xii LIST OF MUSIC EXAMPLES .............................................................................................................. xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 1.

Is Lhasa Tibetan Sign Language emerging, endangered, or both?

Abstract: This article offers the first overview of the recent emergence of Tibetan Sign Language (TibSL) in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), China. Drawing on short anthropological fieldwork, in 2007 and 2014, with people and organisations involved in the formalisation and promotion of TibSL, the author discusses her findings within the nine-fold UNESCO model for assessing linguistic vitality and endangerment. She follows the adaptation of this model to assess signed languages by the Institute of Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS) at the University of Central Lancashire. The appraisal shows that TibSL appears to be between "severely" and "definitely" endangered, adding to the extant studies on the widespread phenomenon of sign language endangerment. Possible future influences and developments regarding the vitality and use of TibSL in Central Tibet and across the Tibetan plateau are then discussed and certain additions, not considered within the existing assessment model, suggested. In concluding, the article places the situation of TibSL within the wider circumstances of minority (sign) languages in China, Chinese Sign Language (CSL), and the post-2008 movement to promote and use "pure Tibetan language".

Social Life as a Sign System

Abstract: Culture can be studied completely under a semiotic profile. Semiotics is a discipline which must be concerned with the whole of social life. As a semiotic entity the sign is ’something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity’. In this continuous movement semiosis transforms into signs everything it encounters. To communicate is to use the entire world as a semiotic apparatus. C. S. Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure were the first to foresee the existence of a new discipline, linked to linguistics only in so far as linguistics is the most developed communication science and entitled as such to furnish blueprints for any other approach. The basic assertion which links semiotics to linguistics is only this: that all sign processes can be analysed in the same sense in which linguistics can, that is as dialectic between codes and messages, langue and parole, competence and performance.

Encoding/Decoding as Translation

Abstract: This article asks what would happen if media scholars developed a theory of translation that responded to the specific concerns of their field. It responds by revisiting a foundational text—Stuart Hall’s “Encoding/Decoding”—to see what insights it provides into translation. It proposes three axioms: (1) To use a sign is to transform it; (2) to transform a sign is to translate it; and (3) communication is translation. These axioms cast translation in a new light: It is a transformative substitution, where translators are not necessarily people who seek to reexpress something in a new language, but everyone who speaks. This article concludes by identifying an ethics incipient in “Encoding/Decoding,” a politics of invention articulated against a utopian horizon, but grounded in everyday interactions.

Gesture or sign? A categorization problem.

Abstract: Goldin-Meadow & Brentari (G-M&B) rely on a formalist approach to language, leading them to seek objective criteria by which to distinguish language and gesture This results in the assumption that gradient aspects of signs are gesture Usage-based theories challenge this view, maintaining that all linguistic units exhibit gradience Instead, we propose that the distinction between language and gesture is a categorization problem

Hands Shaping Communication: From Gestures to Signs

Abstract: The focus of this contribution is on the importance of handshapes and is based on data from several studies coming from different perspectives and research traditions. First, we will analyse the emergence of handshapes in infant prehension and fine motor development. Then, we will consider how and to what extent handshapes have played a relevant role in research on gestures in children. Finally, we will describe different trends in the linguistic analyses of handshapes in child and adult uses of sign languages. Bringing these perspectives together for the first time in a single paper provides a better general understanding of the relevant role of the human hand in shaping communication.

“The Form of a City”: Pasolini and the Poetic Ecology of the Sign

Abstract: This article examines the potential contributions of Pasolinian anthropology to urban studies. Pasolinian anthropology aims to articulate a historical moment (i.e., the acceleration of the second i...

Semiotic-conceptual analysis: a proposal

Abstract: This paper provides the basic definitions of Semiotic-conceptual analysis (SCA), which is a mathematical modelling of signs as elements of a triadic relation. FCA concept lattices are constructed for each of the three sign components. It is demonstrated how core linguistic and semiotic notions (such as synonymy and icon) can be represented with SCA. While the usefulness of SCA has already been demonstrated in a number of applications and several propositions are proven in this paper, there are still many open questions as to what to do next with SCA. Therefore, this paper is meant as a proposal and encouragement for further development.

Semiotics of cultural history

Abstract: The interpretation of cultural history in the context of cultural semiotics, especially interpretation of semiotics of cultural history as a semiotics of culture, and semiotics of culture as a semiotics of cultural history, gives us, first, a deeper understanding of the analysability of cultural history and, at the same time, of the importance of history and different aspects of temporality for the semiotics of culture. Second, the history of the semiotics of culture, especially the semiotics of culture of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, is an organic part of cultural history, while the self-presentation of the school via establishing explicit and implicit contacts with the heritage of Russian theory (the Formalist School, the Bakhtin circle, Vygotskij, Eisenstein etc) was already a semiotic activity and an object of the semiotics of cultural history. Third, the main research object of semiotics of culture is the hierarchy of the sign systems of culture and the existent as well as historical correlations between these sign systems. Such conceptualization of the research object of semiotics of culture turns the latter into a semiotics of cultural history. Emphasizing the semiotic aspect of cultural history can support the development of semiotics of culture in two ways. First, semiotics of culture has the potential of conducting more in-depth research of texts as mediators between the audience and the cultural tradition. Second, semiotics of culture as a semiotics of cultural history can be methodologically used for establishing a new (chronotopical) theory of culture.

The Metaphysics and Unnamability of the Dao in the Daodejing and Wittgenstein

Abstract: In this essay it is argued that the dao of the Daodejing is neither a non-being nor anything transcending all senses, but a non-empty transforming unsummed totality that defies our ability to experience it, and thus dao is unnamable descriptively. For Laozi, one can grasp metaphysical insights concerning dao via the futile attempts to "force" a sign to "name" dao . Also, Laozi's views are compared with Wittgenstein's, and it is shown that Laozi has another option of holding that any sign "forced" to "name" dao must be meaningless.

On the Diversity of Environmental Signs: a Typological Approach

Abstract: Environmental signs as physically manifested signs that we and other animals perceive and interpret in the natural environment are seldom focused on in contemporary semiotics. The aim of the present paper is to highlight the diversity of environmental signs and to propose a typology for analysing them. Combining ecosemiotics and the pragmatist semiotics of C. Peirce and C. Morris, the proposed typology draws its criteria from the properties of the object and the representamen of the sign, and of their relationships. The analysis distinguishes eight basic types of environmental signs and provides examples of these from the natural environment. The typology also integrates existing concepts of environmental affordances, ecofields, phonetic syntax, sign fields, ecological codes, meta-signs and others. In addition to basic types of environmental signs, compound environmental signs are discussed with three types of these distinguished: (1) environmental meta-signs; (2) ecological codes; and (3) environmental-cultural hybrid signs. Further study of compound environmental signs could lead to reconceptualising relations between linguistic and pre-linguistic semiosis.