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.

Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language

Abstract: In sign languages of the deaf some signs can meaningfully point toward things or can be meaningfully placed in the space ahead of the signer. This obligatory part of fluent grammatical signing has no parallel in vocally produced languages. This book focuses on American Sign Language to examine the grammatical and conceptual purposes served by these directional signs. It guides the reader through ASL grammar, the different categories of directional signs, the types of spatial representations signs are directed toward, how such spatial conceptions can be represented in mental space theory, and the conceptual purposes served by these signs. The book demonstrates a remarkable integration of grammar and gesture in the service of constructing meaning. These results also suggest that our concept of 'language' has been much too narrow and that a more comprehensive look at vocally produced languages will reveal the same integration of gestural, gradient, and symbolic elements.

Automatic Sign Language Analysis: A Survey and the Future beyond Lexical Meaning

Abstract: Research in automatic analysis of sign language has largely focused on recognizing the lexical (or citation) form of sign gestures as they appear in continuous signing, and developing algorithms that scale well to large vocabularies. However, successful recognition of lexical signs is not sufficient for a full understanding of sign language communication. Nonmanual signals and grammatical processes which result in systematic variations in sign appearance are integral aspects of this communication but have received comparatively little attention in the literature. In this survey, we examine data acquisition, feature extraction and classification methods employed for the analysis of sign language gestures. These are discussed with respect to issues such as modeling transitions between signs in continuous signing, modeling inflectional processes, signer independence, and adaptation. We further examine works that attempt to analyze nonmanual signals and discuss issues related to integrating these with (hand) sign gestures. We also discuss the overall progress toward a true test of sign recognition systems?dealing with natural signing by native signers. We suggest some future directions for this research and also point to contributions it can make to other fields of research. Web-based supplemental materials (appendicies) which contain several illustrative examples and videos of signing can be found at www.computer.org/publications/dlib.

On the essential contexts of artifacts or on the proposition that 'design is making sense (of things)'

Abstract: 1) Part of this work was supported by the The etymology of design goes back to the Latin de + signare and design firm RichardsonSmith, Worthmeans making something, distinguishing it by a sign, giving it ington, Ohio, and Ohio State University, Columbus, while on sabbatical leave in significance, designating its relation to other things, owners, 1986-87 from the University of Pennsylusers, or gods. Based on this original meaning, one could say: vania, Philadelphia. design is making sense (of things).

Sign Language Structure

Abstract: The designation "sign language" has been used for a wide variety of semi­ otic systems ranging from the expression of emotions in men and animals (24) to the transmission and reception of genuinely linguistic structures. Sign language is a misnomer, however, when such structures result from spoken language processing up to the point where gestured signs replace the vocal output. The kind of sign language research reviewed here contem­ plates human cultural systems in which not just the output signal but also the processes for forming words and sentences operate without any connec­ tion to speech or sound. Sign languages of this kind are used for interaction by members of deaf populations as spoken languages are used by those who can hear. Other sign languages may more or less completely and unambigu­ ously mediate general or special interaction (6, 7, 57, 87), but these are generally learned and used by persons already competent in some spoken language, and hence they differ from sign languages acquired as their native languages by persons who cannot hear speech and by children of deaf parents (82). Research reviewed here is primarily or entirely concerned with sign languages of deaf populations, and in what follows it is these languages that will be meant by the term "sign languages." Reasons for studying sign languages and the results of such research also show wide variety. Earliest to emerge was educational research: from 1880 when a congress of educators in Milan decided that deaf children should see and use no sign language in their educational experience, incredible as this may seem to those unacquainted with the rise of "oralism" (2, 25, 40). Recent research reveals the inevitable effect on children who cannot hear of depriving them of sign language (23); it also strongly indicates the use of bilingual strategies (16, 21). In another direction, sign language research has helped focus new consideration of the origins and evolution of language