Sign (semiotics)

About: Sign (semiotics) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4080 publications have been published within this topic receiving 70333 citations. The topic is also known as: semiotic sign.

Prologomena to a general theory of iconicity : considerations on language, gesture, and pictures.

Abstract: Too often the word “iconicity” is used simply as a scientifically sounding term for similarity. In order to develop a real theory of iconicity, it is not enough, but perhaps a good start, to return to Peirce. In this paper, I use the reconstruction of the notion of iconicity inspired by my work in pictorial semiotics to throw some light on iconicity in language and in gesture. I suggest that there are several possible iconic relationships within the sign, and that these relations may involve properties, proper parts, or perspectives. In particular, I criticize the idea of iconicity being a question of degrees. The article looks at parallels between Lessing’s classic distinction between the resources of language and pictures and contemporary studies of “dual coding” in thinking. It also considers the segmentation of movement in different languages and gesture systems, in particular in relation to Satellite-framed and Verb-framed languages.

A multimedia bilingual database for the lexicon of Swiss German Sign Language

Abstract: This multimedia database project is the first large-scale collection and description of the signs of Swiss German Sign Language (Deutschschweizerische Gebardensprache, DSGS). The aim of the database is to gather linguistic information on the DSGS lexicon which can serve as a basis for future dictionaries and teaching materials, as well as function as a tool for linguistic research. For each lexical entry, there is information about all of the sign’s meanings, its morphological and syntactic characteristic, several categories of usage (geographical and generation variation, style, register) as well as example links to videotaped signed sentences. The information about each lexical item is represented in the database in several different forms: Video clips of the base form of the sign and of signed sentences in which it appears, line drawings, information checkboxes, form notation (HamNoSys and SignWriting), as well as German text.

Sound-symbolic approach to Japanese mimetic words

Abstract: Sound-symbolic words are an important aspect of the Japanese language which facilitates communication and provides speakers with rich means of expression. To non-native speakers of the language, however, these words remain one of the most difficult word layers to master. In addition to the fact that mimetic words are culturally loaded and thus have unique nature, the process of learning them is also hindered by the shortage of efficient teaching materials and linguistic research. This study examines the close relation between same strings of sounds observed in words and their semantic properties, and introduces 37 phonaesthematic patterns. Moreover, contradictory to Saussure’s traditional theory of the unmotivated nature of the linguistic sign, it argues that in some mimetic words there exists a close relation between sound and meaning.

Simultaneous Communication in the Classroom: What Do Deaf Children Learn?

Abstract: Recent researchers have investigated the nature of the simultaneous communication used by teachers of the deaf and by deaf children. One assumption behind the use of signed codes for English (i.e. Manual English) is that deaf students will recognize the signed-and-spoken communication as English and learn to speak, sign, and write English. This paper examines whether deaf students’ written English reflects their teachers’ use of English sign markers in simultaneous communication. The study required seven high school deaf students to write stories that had been presented to them in simultaneous communication. The students’ output and the teachers’ input were not identical but differed in ways consistent with principles familiar from studies of imitation in children and from semantic memory research.