Search results for "Sign language"

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…

Electrophysiological correlates of cross-linguistic semantic integration in hearing signers : N400 and LPC

2014

We explored semantic integration mechanisms in native and non-native hearing users of sign language and non-signing controls. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a semantic decision task for priming lexeme pairs. Pairs were presented either within speech or across speech and sign language. Target-related ERP responses were subjected to principal component analyses (PCA), and neurocognitive basis of semantic integration processes were assessed by analyzing the N400 and the late positive complex (LPC) components in response to spoken (auditory) and signed (visual) antonymic and unrelated targets. Semantically-related effects triggered across modali…

Examining the contribution of motor movement and language dominance to increased left lateralization during sign generation in native signers

2016

Highlights • We tested hemispheric lateralization for language in deaf native signers. • Signers were more strongly left lateralized for overt than covert sign generation. • We found stronger left lateralization for BSL than for English production. • Stronger left lateralization for BSL is not driven by motoric activity alone. • Stronger left lateralization is not driven by language dominance.

Does Implementation Follow Design? A Case Study of a Workplace Health Promotion Program Using the 4-S Program Design and the PIPE Impact Metric Evalu…

2017

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the content of a multiyear market-based workplace health promotion (WHP) program and to evaluate design and implementation processes in a real-world setting. Methods: Data was collected from the databases of the employer and the service provider. It was classified using the 4-S (Size, Scope, Scalability, and Sustainability) and PIPE Impact Metric (Penetration, Implementation) models. Data analysis utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods. Results: Program design covered well the evidence-informed best practices except for clear path toward sustainability, cooperation with occupational health care, and support from middle-management …

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.

Detecting Hand-Head Occlusions in Sign Language Video

2013

A large body of current linguistic research on sign language is based on analyzing large corpora of video recordings. This requires either manual or automatic annotation of the videos. In this paper we introduce methods for automatically detecting and classifying hand-head occlusions in sign language videos. Linguistically, hand-head occlusions are an important and interesting subject of study as the head is a structural place of articulation in many signs. Our method combines easily calculable local video properties with more global hand tracking. The experiments carried out with videos of the Suvi on-line dictionary of Finnish Sign Language show that the sensitivity of the proposed local …

Lyrics against images: music and audio description

2012

Music has been an integral part of films from as far back as the silent movie era, where a piano accompaniment was used to build the narrative and an orchestra was used to drown out the sound of the projector. Music in films can encompass a wide array of elements, from a song to a whistle, and can play many roles, as has been commented upon by many researchers. Due to the relevance of music in film narrative, it is an element which merits attention when it comes to making a film accessible, be it through Audio description, Audio subtitling, Sign Language or Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing. This article focuses on Audio description (AD) and how music is handled in audio described…

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…

From Erasure to Recognition (and Back Again?)

2015

What Can Linguistics Do to Technology Design?

2021

Intelligent technologies have already revolutionized the economy, and they will continue to do so via autonomous, AI-based systems and artefacts. Artefacts can handle much more intellectually complicated tasks than was possible before. However, the technological transformation will set new demands for technology design and designers. Designing electromechanical technologies has been based on natural science, but intelligent technologies will extensively use knowledge of human research and information processing to create new artefacts. Intelligent information processing has so far been possible only for biological systems and especially for human minds. Therefore, their functions and behavi…