Search results for " sign language"
showing 10 items of 44 documents
Signs activate their written word translation in deaf adults: An ERP study on cross-modal co-activation in German Sign Language
2020
Since signs and words are perceived and produced in distinct sensory-motor systems, they do not share a phonological basis. Nevertheless, many deaf bilinguals master a spoken language with input merely based on visual cues like mouth representations of spoken words and orthographic representations of written words. Recent findings further suggest that processing of words involves cross-language cross-modal co-activation of signs in deaf and hearing bilinguals. Extending these findings in the present ERP-study, we recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG) of fifteen congenitally deaf bilinguals of German Sign Language (DGS) (native L1) and German (early L2) as they saw videos of semantically a…
Figure–Ground Spatial Relationships in Finnish Sign Language Discourse
2020
AbstractThis study is about expressing spatial relationships between Figure and Ground in Finnish Sign Language discourse and shows that the variation in this expression is primarily discourse dependent. The main findings are, first, that Ground mainly precedes Figure whether the Figure is new or a known referent within the discourse; the reverse order is possible only when the Figure is known. Second, the lexical signolla(‘have’) appears more frequently in expressing spatial relationships with a new Figure and less frequently with a known Figure but never in a construction with Figure preceding Ground; the formoli(‘had’), referring to the past, appears only in Figure preceding Ground const…
Towards understanding nonmanuality : A semiotic treatment of signers’ head movements
2019
This article discusses a certain type of nonmanual action, signers’ head movements, from a semiotic perspective. It presents a typology of head movements and their iconic, indexical and symbolic features based on Peircean and post-Peircean semiotics. The paper argues for the view that (i) indexical strategies are very prominent in head movements, (ii) iconic features are most evident in enacting, while non-enacting description is less common, (iii) symbolic types for tokens are infrequent, although some movements—such as nodding and shaking the head—may become more conventional or schematized, and (iv) different types of head movements involve different proportions of iconicity, indexicalit…
Assessing Vocabulary in Deaf and Hearing Children using Finnish Sign Language.
2020
Abstract This study investigates children’s vocabulary knowledge in Finnish Sign Language (FinSL), specifically their understanding of different form-meaning mappings by using a multilayered assessment format originally developed for British Sign Language (BSL). The web-based BSL vocabulary test by Mann (2009) was adapted for FinSL following the steps outlined by Mann, Roy and Morgan (2016) and piloted with a small group of deaf and hearing native signers (N = 24). Findings showed a hierarchy of difficulty between the tasks, which is concordant with results reported previously for BSL and American Sign Language (ASL). Additionally, the reported psychometric properties of the FinSL vocabular…
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Using Finnish Sign Language : Training Counselors in Signed ACT for the Deaf. A Pilot Study
2018
This study evaluated the implementation of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Finnish Sign Language in a rehabilitation center for deaf people. Sixteen (16) clients and nine (9) staff members participated in this pilot study. Staff members received a brief training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) including 16 h lectures, 15 h supervision, and studying material. Each staff member treated 1–2 clients during 8–10 sessions. As part of the study, several ACT metaphors and exercises were translated into Finnish Sign Language. The study indicated that counselors with limited knowledge of psychological interventions were able to deliver an ACT intervention using Finnish Sign Language a…
Constructed Action, the Clause and the Nature of Syntax in Finnish Sign Language
2017
AbstractThis paper investigates the interplay of constructed action and the clause in Finnish Sign Language (FinSL). Constructed action is a form of gestural enactment in which the signers use their hands, face and other parts of the body to represent the actions, thoughts or feelings of someone they are referring to in the discourse. With the help of frequencies calculated from corpus data, this article shows firstly that when FinSL signers are narrating a story, there are differences in how they use constructed action. Then the paper argues that there are differences also in the prototypical structure, linkage type and non-manual activity of clauses, depending on the presence or non-prese…
Lexical prediction via forward models: N400 evidence from German Sign Language
2013
Models of language processing in the human brain often emphasize the prediction of upcoming input for example in order to explain the rapidity of language understanding. However,the precise mechanisms of prediction are still poorly understood. Forward models,which draw upon the language production system to setup expectations during comprehension, provide a promising approach in this regard. Here, we present an event- related potential (ERP) study on German Sign Language (DGS) which tested the hypotheses of a forward model perspective on prediction. Sign languages involve relatively long transition phases between one sign and the next, which should be anticipated as part of a forward model-…
Relationship Between the Linguistic Environments and Early Bilingual Language Development of Hearing Children in Deaf-parented Families
2013
We explored variation in the linguistic environments of hearing children of Deaf parents and how it was associated with their early bilingual language development. For that purpose we followed up the children's productive vocabulary (measured with the MCDI; MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory) and syntactic complexity (measured with the MLU10; mean length of the 10 longest utterances the child produced during videorecorded play sessions) in both Finnish Sign Language and spoken Finnish between the ages of 12 and 30 months. Additionally, we developed new methodology for describing the linguistic environments of the children (N = 10). Large variation was uncovered in both the amount…
Sign Languages Recognition Based on Neural Network Architecture
2017
In the last years, many steps forward have been made in speech and natural languages recognition and were developed many virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Microsoft Cortana. Unfortunately, not everyone can use voice to communicate to other people and digital devices. Our system is a first step for extending the possibility of using virtual assistants to speech impaired people by providing an artificial sign languages recognition based on neural network architecture.
L'assistente alla comunicazione nella scuola è solo un mediatore linguistico? Problemi, specificità, formazione di una nuova figura professionale.
2009
In seguito all’applicazione della L.104/92 sull’integrazione dei soggetti in situazione di handicap, sono presenti nelle scuole italiane gli “assistenti alla comunicazione” per gli alunni sordi: si tratta di una nuova figura professionale che, all’interno dei servizi educativi, si propone di far da ponte tra sordi e udenti, in quanto esperto delle principali problematiche degli alunni sordi ed esperto nella LIS (Lingua dei Segni Italiana). Ma di che tipo di mediazione si tratta? Quali problemi solleva e quali riflessioni dal punto di vista pedagogico, sociale, linguistico e antropologico? Questi i principali ambiti di riflessione trattati all’interno dell’articolo, in termini problematici e…