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Abstract The matter of raising and educating deaf children has been caught up in percepts of development that are persistently inaccurate and at odds with scientific research. These percepts have negatively impacted the health and quality of life of deaf children and deaf people in general. The all too prevalent advice is to raise the child strictly orally and wait to see what happens. Only when the child is seriously behind is a completely accessible language – a sign language – introduced, and that is far too late for protecting cognitive health. The medical profession, along with others, needs to offer parents better advice and better supports so that neither the children nor their parents wait and watch as the oral-only method fails. All must take responsible action to assure an approach that succeeds.

The field of linguistics concerns itself with understanding the human capacity for language. Compositionality is a key notion in this research tradition. Compositionality refers to the notion that the meaning of a complex linguistic unit is a function of the meanings of its constituent parts. However, the question as to whether compositionality is a defining feature of human language is a matter of debate: usage-based and constructionist approaches emphasize the pervasive role of idiomaticity in language, and argue that strict compositionality is the exception rather than the rule. We review the major discussion points on compositionality from a usage-based point of view, taking both spoken and signed languages into account. In addition, we discuss theories that aim at accounting for the emergence of compositional language through processes of cultural transmission as well as the debate of whether animal communication systems exhibit compositionality. We argue for a view that emphasizes the analyzability of complex linguistic units, providing a template for accounting for the multimodal nature of human language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Íkala: Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura is the property of Universidad de Antioquia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Diachronica is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study investigates factors influencing lexical access in language production across modalities (signed and oral). Data from deaf and hearing signers were reanalyzed (Baus and Costa, 2015, On the temporal dynamics of sign production: An ERP study in Catalan Sign Language (LSC). Brain Research, 1609(1), 40-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2015.03.013; Gimeno-Martínez and Baus, 2022, Iconicity in sign language production: Task matters. Neuropsychologia, 167, 108166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108166) testing the influence of psycholinguistic variables and ERP mean amplitudes on signing and naming latencies. Deaf signers' signing latencies were influenced by sign iconicity in the picture signing task, and by spoken psycholinguistic variables in the word-to-sign translation task. Additionally, ERP amplitudes before response influenced signing but not translation latencies. Hearing signers' latencies, both signing and naming, were influenced by sign iconicity and word frequency, with early ERP amplitudes predicting only naming latencies. These findings highlight general and modality-specific determinants of lexical access in language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Torso articulation in sign languages is mentioned variably in the linguistic analysis of sign languages but is often ignored. The prevailing idea seems to be that detailed study of movement of the parts of the torso will yield little insight into linguistic matters – so mentions can be general and brief. The result is that torso articulations are an unmined area – perhaps one that holds treasures, particularly regarding the appreciation of creative sign language. We draw together the findings of other research regarding torso articulation, then give an inventory of possible torso articulations, exemplified with signs from dozens of the world's named sign languages, and a brief overview of how annotation systems have approached torso movement in signs. We end with suggestions for how the study of torso articulation can open new avenues of sign language research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports data from a research study and workshop about reclaiming Indigenous sign languages and cultures, and strengthening services for Indigenous deaf children and their families and communities. The purpose of this workshop was for presenters to share their lived experiences and knowledge as deaf and hearing Elders, parents, and youth, including what resources were and were not available to them. Findings revealed themes including the importance of support for accessibility and inclusion from First Nations political and community leadership; the importance of supporting children's intersectional identities; the need for greater resources for First Nations communities to access services and supports for deaf children; and youth experiences of learning about deaf culture and sign language, and attending deaf schools These findings also suggested innovative models for including deaf children and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional language (L2/Ln) research largely focuses on learners whose first languages are spoken and who are learning additional spoken languages. In the past few decades, sign languages have become increasingly popular for hearing students in schools. These students must not only learn the vocabulary and grammar of sign languages but also manage a different modality (that is, the channels of production and reception of language) than their first language. This raises questions about the role of both language and modality in the L2/Ln learning of sign languages for non‐signers. In other cases, deaf and hearing signers of a sign language learn a different sign language, raising questions about L2/Ln learning in the signed modality. This Special Issue consists of empirical contributions and a conceptual review article that examine how language and modality shape the learning of sign languages as additional languages. Theoretical issues concerning learning a sign language as another language are discussed. A one‐page Accessible Summary in English and a Video Summary in American Sign Language of this article in non‐technical language are freely available in the Supporting Information online and at https://oasis‐database.org [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines whether the authors of the very first Polish Sign Language dictionary, Słownik mimiczny dla głuchoniemych i osób z nimi styczność mających 'A gestural dictionary for deaf and dumb and persons who have contact with them', published in 1879, may have been influenced by any of the spoken Polish monolingual dictionaries available at that time. As there is no historical documentation about the circumstances in which Słownik mimiczny was compiled, the inquiry necessarily relies exclusively on internal evidence: comparison of headword spelling, alphabetical ordering, direction of cross-references and the content of sample entries. The results indicate that such influence, if any, was only minor, and that the lexicographic strategies applied in Słownik mimiczny most likely resulted from the authors' knowledge of Polish Sign Language and teaching practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some people in society have impaired cognitive senses like speech and hearing where they cannot behave like normal people. It is quite a complex task for abnormal people to understand as well as recognize the gestures of normal people. This initiates to delve into the study of review of Sign Language Recognition (SLR), in specific to, machine learning techniques. In this work, a review of machine learning techniques based on SLR were portrayed. Several studies related to ML papers have been collected and discussed with their merits and demerits. Thus, the observation dictates that recognition of hand gesture is still a challenging task. There are two sorts of gesture recognition, namely, static and dynamic gesture recognition. Static gesture recognition is developed from the dynamic gesture recognition. Almost, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Hidden Markov Models (HMM) and Histogram analysis were used as recognition classifiers for sign language. Dynamic gesture recognition process operates on tracking the centroid of hand gesture. It changes the visual information in time basis. Henceforth, study on dynamic gesture recognition needs to be more focused using Machine learning techniques. Comparative analysis is done in perspectives of significance of segmentation models, feature extraction and vision-based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on language in mathematics education is largely dominated by a 'normalcy' of spoken languages. This modal hegemony does not only affect a whole group of learners in failing to provide access that is epistemologically equitable—those using sign language as their preferred mode for mathematical discourse—it also obscures our view on the roles language can play in mathematical thinking and learning. As a field, we can only win from seeking to understand Deaf learners of mathematics beyond a disability, as learners of mathematics with a specific linguistic background that influences mathematical thinking and learning in peculiar ways. In this contribution, I suggest a shift in mindset towards a more inclusive view on language in mathematics education research and practice. I propose basic principles to inform a perspective for reconsidering the role of language in mathematics thinking and learning, inspired by work of philosopher Francois Jullien. This perspective counters a perspective that merely integrates sign language into existing research and instead searches for dialogue between linguistic modalities in learning mathematics, looking beyond language as spoken or written. This approach will be illustrated by the case of the modal affordance of iconicity foregrounded in signed mathematical discourse, its role in Deaf students' mathematics thinking and learning, and how this can inform existing research and practice dealing with language in mathematics education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 10 things you should know about sign languages are the following: (1) Sign languages have phonology and poetry. (2) Sign languages vary in their linguistic structure and family history but share some typological features due to their shared biology (manual production). (3) Although there are many similarities between perceiving and producing speech and sign, the biology of language can impact aspects of processing. (4) Iconicity is pervasive in sign language lexicons and can play a role in language acquisition and processing. (5) Deaf and hard-of-hearing children are at risk for language deprivation. (6) Signers gesture when signing. (7) Sign language experience enhances some visual-spatial skills. (8) The same left-hemisphere brain regions support both spoken and sign languages, but some neural regions are specific to sign language. (9) Bimodal bilinguals can code-blend, rather code-switch, which alters the nature of language control. (10) The emergence of new sign languages reveals patterns of language creation and evolution. These discoveries reveal how language modality does and does not affect language structure, acquisition, processing, use, and representation in the brain. Sign languages provide unique insights into human language that cannot be obtained by studying spoken languages alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible strain sensors with high sensitivity and high mechanical robustness are highly desirable for their accurate and long‐term reliable service in wearable human‐machine interfaces. However, the current application of flexible strain sensors has to face a trade‐off between high sensitivity and high mechanical robustness. The most representative examples are micro/nano crack‐based sensors and serpentine meander‐based sensors. The former one typically shows high sensitivity but limited robustness, while the latter is on the contrary. Herein, ultra‐robust and sensitive flexible strain sensors are developed by crack‐like pathway customization and ingenious modulation of low/high‐resistance regions on a serpentine meander structure. The sensors show high cyclic stability (10 000 cycles), strong tolerance to harsh environments, high gauge factor (>1000) comparable with that of the crack‐based sensor, and fast response time (<58 ms). Finally, the sensors are integrated into a wearable sign language translation system, which is wireless, low‐cost, and lightweight. Recognition rates of over 98% are demonstrated for the translation of 21 sign languages with the assistance of machine learning. This system facilitates achieving barrier‐free communication between signers and nonsigners and offers broad application prospects in gesture interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) is a communication impairment that affects millions of people worldwide, hindering communication through the vocal cavity and requiring the use of sign language. This communication gap often leads to limited access to education and job opportunities. While artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technologies have been investigated to address this issue, there has been no study focusing on the intelligent and automatic translation of American sign gestures to text in low-resource languages (LRL) specifically in Nigeria. To address this gap, we propose a novel end-to-end framework for translating American Sign Language (ASL) to LRLs such as Hausa, Ibo, and Yoruba in Nigeria. Our framework employs a Transformer-based model for ASL-to-Text generation and a translation model known as no language left behind for translating the generated text from English to LRL. We evaluated the performance of the ASL-to-Text model using BLEU scores, which resulted in BLEU-1, BLEU-2, BLEU-3, and BLEU-4 scores of 18.55, 8.99, 4.99, and 2.96, respectively. Qualitative analysis of the framework shows that the participants were able to comprehend the translated text and were also satisfied with both the ASL-to-Text and Text-to-LRL models. Our proposed framework demonstrates the potential for AI-driven technologies to foster inclusivity in sociocultural interactions and education, especially for people with DHH in low-resource settings.

The purpose of the present paper is to reconstruct De Mauro’s interest in sign languages by emphasizing how the perspective on language he offered is fundamental in describing sign languages, but also to recall his civic commitment. From the very beginning of the research in Italian Sign language (LIS) De Mauro supported early investigations and fought for a recognition of LIS and its acceptance on par with other languages. His direct and indirect influence both in the description of this language and in the affairs of the Italian deaf community appears evident even if still little known and recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psychological Science is the property of Psychological Science Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues that “YOU” and “I” (“I” and “THOU”) are fundamental elements of human thought, present as distinct words (or signs) in all human languages. I first developed this thesis in my 1976 article “In defense of YOU and ME” (and before that, introduced it in my 1972 book Semantic Primitives; cf. also my 2021 article “‘Semantic Primitives’, fifty years later”). Since then, it has been confirmed by wide-ranging cross-linguistic investigations conducted in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework. But neither the truth of this thesis nor its importance have become widely recognised in linguistics or anthropology. Influential scholars in both these fields continue to undermine the notion of the fundamental unity of humankind and to put total emphasis, instead, on the diversity of languages and cultures. As cross-linguistic investigations of the last fifty years show, however, despite the phenomenal diversity of human languages a shared “alphabet of human thoughts” was not just a figment of Leibniz’s imagination but a fitting metaphor for something real and immeasurably important. As the present article aims to show, “YOU” and “I” (“I” and “THOU”) are two twin cornerstones of this reality. To quote the entry on “Psychic unity of humankind” in the Encyclopedia of Anthropology, “Ineluctably, the idea [of a deep psychological unity of humankind] has ethical significance. For attempting to inform humans about what they are and what they have in common is not a neutral act” (Prono 2006). As the present article seeks to demonstrate (and as Martin Buber compellingly affirmed a century ago), “I” and “THOU” are an ineluctable part of who we are: how we think, how we speak and how we relate to others.

The efforts to understand the relationship of the meaning of a lexical piece to the object to which it refers, the relationship between the lexical pieces and the concepts, and the understanding of the meanings shared between two speakers who use the same lexical pieces have all constituted major problems for the semantic memory models. According to contemporary literature, perceptual-motor, linguistic, and social information have different weights in the formation of concepts, whether concrete or abstract, stored in the aforementioned memory. Regardless of the models developed so far, it is interesting to note that semantic knowledge is represented by various ways of relating the concepts and the types of relationships between them. In this context, studies in sign languages and comparative studies between spoken and sign languages are scarce. Thus, little is known about the effect of linguistic modality on the semantic networks. After all, the theory on semantic networks and norms for the production of features has been grounded on theories of language and its processing adjusted to spoken languages. As the incorporation of the sign language and the Deaf population has shown in other psycholinguistic and linguistic topics, the importance of including these languages and populations, and comparatives with spoken languages, might increase the explanatory power of the theory to account for the universal and contextual aspects of language and its processing. In this effort, there is a latent risk: the linguistic modality can be only a vehicle for more well-known or studied cross-modal variables (e. g., age of acquisition, functional distribution of language, size of the available lexicon, etc.). If it is considered that languages are not stored together, but similar processes can occur in them, it is essential to find out what may be a singular feature of each modality (spoken versus sign) that might ground differentiated processes. Considering the high iconicity of the sign languages and the possibility of a high concreteness of the lexical pieces in the sign language as distinctive features --not collapsible into well-known variables such as the aforementioned--, this article suggests a careful approach to avoid the aforementioned risk in the study of the effects of the linguistic modality (sign versus oral) in the organization of semantic memory. Since perceptual-motor and social information are the main sources of iconicity, a balanced instrument is necessary in the evocation of perceptual-motor, social, and linguistic information. Repeated free word association tasks seem like an appropriate paradigm for a suggested approach. The reasons for this are that, by not censoring the types of response, then free association tasks allow capturing all kinds of concepts (concrete or abstract), all kinds of semantic relationships/organization (paradigmatic versus thematic) and all kinds of processes (comparison versus interaction). This type of task therefore makes it possible to collect meanings related to linguistic information and non-linguistic experience because affective and experiential information is accessible by doing the task in different repetitions. The approach and the tool are exemplified by an ongoing comparative study between Deaf signing and hearing populations. The partial findings of this study also serve to focus on the expected effects of the difference in iconicity and the level of concreteness/abstractness of the lexical pieces of each linguistic modality; namely, the differences between an abstract and a concrete conceptualization of the conceptual domains. Taxonomic and introspective labels might appear as indicative of paradigmatic relationships, of a taxonomic organization, and of underlying comparison processes. On the other hand, the situational and entity labels, indicative of syntagmatic relationships, of a thematic organization and of underlying interaction processes, might suggest a predominantly concrete organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To highlight the World Federation of the Deaf's (WFD) development of inclusive education policies for deaf learners as part of the community of people with communication disability. These policies were developed alongside and included baseline data collection regarding deaf education in Nepal. The commentary will report on sustainable partnership practices, the development of governmental accountability measurements, and data gathered during fieldwork in Nepal to provide evidence regarding deaf people's access to inclusive and equitable quality education in sign language. The recommendations from this project focus on enhanced access, policy, and training to ensure a free education in sign language for all deaf learners and their families in low-income countries using Nepal as a model. Existing bilingual settings in sign languages should be considered as part of a national inclusive education system, and this is in keeping with the views of deaf organisations in Nepal. Free education in sign language for all deaf learners and their families is an integral and wholly attainable part of inclusive education systems. This commentary focuses on good health and well-being (SDG 3), quality education (SDG 4), peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16) and partnerships for the goals (SDG 17). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review study aims to: (1) provide an overview of developmentt of the educational research about the periodic table in sign languagues as a teaching resourse in Didactics of Experimental Sciences; and (2) establish, in the case specific of the Spanish Sign Language (LSE), the number of chemical elements that have a Sign collected in the lexicographical materials of this Language. After a systematized methology, 13 publications and 14 lexicographical materials were analyzed. The results point that none of the 149 cataloged sign languages, nor the International Sign System, offering a full traslation of periodic table and chemical elements Signs not found in LSE dictionaries and LSE glossaries. Therefore, the quality of the teaching-learning process of the periodic table to deaf students is a concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text presents the result of an investigation carried in Guarani and Kaiowá communities, which aimed to survey and analyze the discourses that circulate among indigenous school education professionals about the differences of deaf students. The theoretical-methodological foundation approached the post-critical theory assumptions. Survey participants listed the barriers students face in accessing schools and accessing local and universal knowledge, including the languages used in their community. It presents arguments about the expansion of investigations and the use of emerging sign languages in those contexts may contribute to more adequate plurilingual teaching practices for indigenous deaf students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La population sourde représente environ 8 % de la population au Canada. Considérées socialement comme des personnes handicapées, les personnes sourdes forment une minorité culturelle et linguistique – qui connaît un taux de participation sociale moindre. Si les perspectives prédominantes considèrent la surdité comme un manque et une incapacité, plusieurs personnes s’identifiant comme Sourdes sont fières de leur appartenance à une ou plusieurs communautés et cultures sourdes, et de signer une ou plusieurs langues des signes. Dans le cadre de la recherche On vous fait signe! Citoyenneté culturelle des personnes sourdes et pratiques d’accessibilité culturelle, l’équipe de la Chaire de recherche du Canada sur la citoyenneté culturelle des personnes sourdes et les pratiques d’équité culturelle a mené, en 2021, 21 entrevues vidéo avec des artistes sourd·e·s et des travailleur·euse·s culturel·le·s sourd·e·s et entendant·e·s ayant développé des pratiques exemplaires en matière d’accessibilité culturelle. Ces entrevues permettent de coconstruire une définition de la citoyenneté culturelle des personnes sourdes, d’en documenter les principaux enjeux, et de comprendre comment les relations de pouvoir traversent les lieux de la culture. Les résultats de la recherche suggèrent que les perspectives sourdes sur la citoyenneté culturelle diffèrent de la revue de la littérature sur le concept. Ces entrevues ont été enregistrées afin de diffuser des extraits de ces riches réflexions, sous la forme de courtes capsules vidéo thématiques. Cette approche se fonde sur l’importance de l’agentivité médiatique et du développement de modes de production des connaissances par et pour les personnes sourdes. Ainsi, en fin d’article, nous situons la vidéo comme meilleure forme d’écriture des langues des signes, et comme technique propice au développement des savoirs signés, au témoignage et à la sensibilisation.

Invisible on the bodies, blindness and muteness are not imperceptible in the cultures of the past. Indeed, medieval societies have left many material traces of these conditions, if one seeks to make them visible at all. Archaeological, material and visual traces show numerous blind and mute people represented according to very specific codes, on different supports. The study of the appearance of blindness and muteness, whether congenital or acquired during life, gives us a great deal of information about the image that medieval society had of the blind people and mute signers and their daily lives. The trace of their presence on the building, in particular, testifies to the implementation of adequate support for them, and informs us about their integration within their social environment.

The history of deaf education and sign language are very intertwined. It seems that this last one would not exist without the first. In discussions about educational philosophies, the deaf and their language become completely invisible. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to highlight reflections and studies on sign languages, and not just on the history of deaf education. For this, the literature review provides an overview of the sign language history based on primary and secondary sources, allowing to recompose important facts, such as the linguistic considerations of deaf researchers. In addition, it expands the ideas about the origin of the signed languages.

В статье рассматривается вопрос официального признания жестовых языков, анализируются стратегии языкового планирования, приводятся данные о статусе жестовых языков в разных странах мира. Кроме того, дифференцируются декларативное признание и действенные стратегии государственной поддержки жестовых языков. Освещается проблема восприятия жестового языка и сообщества глухих в контексте реализуемой государственной политики. Языковая политика в отношении жестовых языков связана с проблемой языкового планирования. Придание языку официального статуса не является гарантией качественных изменений сложившейся ситуации. Дискуссионным остается вопрос регулирования и нормирования, пути решения варьируются в зависимости от ряда факторов, обусловленных языковым, культурным, социальным и экономическим контекстами.

The task of transitioning from one interlocutor to another in conversation - taking turns - is a complex social process, but typically transpires rapidly and without incident in conversations between adults. Cross-linguistic similarities in turn timing and turn structure have led researchers to suggest that it is a core antecedent to human language and a primary driver of an innate "interaction engine." This review focuses on studies that have tested the extent of turn timing and turn structure patterns in two areas: across language modalities and in early language development. Taken together, these two lines of research offer predictions about the development of turn-taking for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) acquiring sign languages. We introduce considerations unique to signed language development - namely the heterogenous ecologies in which signed language acquisition occurs, suggesting that more work is needed to account for the diverse circumstances of language acquisition for DHH children. We discuss differences between early sign language acquisition at home compared to later sign language acquisition at school in classroom settings, particularly in countries with national sign languages. We also compare acquisition in these settings to communities without a national sign language where DHH children acquire local sign languages. In particular, we encourage more documentation of naturalistic conversations between DHH children who sign and their caregivers, teachers, and peers. Further, we suggest that future studies should consider: visual/manual cues to turn-taking and whether they are the same or different for child or adult learners; the protracted time-course of turntaking development in childhood, in spite of the presence of turn-taking abilities early in development; and the unique demands of language development in multi-party conversations that happen in settings like classrooms for older children versus language development at home in dyadic interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Language, Interaction & Acquisition / Langage, Interaction et Acquisition is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Muiraquitã: Revista de Letras e Humanidades is the property of Muiraquita and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Modality is one of the most fascinating and complex areas of language studies. This paper illustrates the types of modal constructions in Georgian Sign language (GESL), including negative forms. GESL shows modality semantics with a combination of manual and facial signs. Modals in GESL can occur in the pre-verbal, clause-final, or clause-initial positions, as in many other sign languages (SLs). GESL modal constructions show the specific tense-related negation strategy. Modal constructions in this language often use combinations of modal signs with an equal value.

The task of transitioning from one interlocutor to another in conversation – taking turns – is a complex social process, but typically transpires rapidly and without incident in conversations between adults. Cross-linguistic similarities in turn timing and turn structure have led researchers to suggest that it is a core antecedent to human language and a primary driver of an innate “interaction engine.” This review focuses on studies that have tested the extent of turn timing and turn structure patterns in two areas: across language modalities and in early language development. Taken together, these two lines of research offer predictions about the development of turn-taking for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) acquiring sign languages. We introduce considerations unique to signed language development – namely the heterogenous ecologies in which signed language acquisition occurs, suggesting that more work is needed to account for the diverse circumstances of language acquisition for DHH children. We discuss differences between early sign language acquisition at home compared to later sign language acquisition at school in classroom settings, particularly in countries with national sign languages. We also compare acquisition in these settings to communities without a national sign language where DHH children acquire local sign languages. In particular, we encourage more documentation of naturalistic conversations between DHH children who sign and their caregivers, teachers, and peers. Further, we suggest that future studies should consider: visual/manual cues to turn-taking and whether they are the same or different for child or adult learners; the protracted time-course of turn-taking development in childhood, in spite of the presence of turn-taking abilities early in development; and the unique demands of language development in multi-party conversations that happen in settings like classrooms for older children versus language development at home in dyadic interactions.

A key challenge when learning language in naturalistic circumstances is to extract linguistic information from a continuous stream of speech. This study investigates the predictors of such implicit learning among adults exposed to a new language in a new modality (a sign language). Sign-naïve participants (N = 93; British English speakers) were shown a 4-min weather forecast in Swedish Sign Language. Subsequently, we tested their ability to recognise 22 target sign forms that had been viewed in the forecast, amongst 44 distractor signs that had not been viewed. The target items differed in their occurrence frequency in the forecast and in their degree of iconicity. The results revealed that both frequency and iconicity facilitated recognition of target signs cumulatively. The adult mechanism for language learning thus operates similarly on sign and spoken languages as regards frequency, but also exploits modality-salient properties, for example iconicity for sign languages. Individual differences in cognitive skills and language learning background did not predict recognition. The properties of the input thus influenced adults' language learning abilities at first exposure more than individual differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Traitement Automatique des Langues is the property of Association pour le Traitement Automatique des Langues (ATALA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Linguistic analysis is improved when it includes language beyond the spoken modality. This paper uses sign language data to explore and advance cross-linguistic typologies of reflexives , constructions expressing that co-arguments of a predicate are also co-referent. In doing so, we also demonstrate that the lexical item KENDİ in Turkish Sign Language (henceforth , TİD) can function as a traditional reflexive, in addition to its previously documented emphatic functions. We further show that KENDİ is a DP-type reflexive, which helps to explain the emphatic usages of KENDİ that have been the focus of previous research. We end by outlining a plan for future research that can further probe and unify the superficially distinct functions of KENDİ and the typology of anaphoricity across modalities. Data for the present research comes from recently conducted fieldwork interviews with two signers of the İstanbul dialect of TİD, both of whom have been exposed to TİD since birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonmanual articulations in sign languages range from being semantically impoverished to semantically rich, and from being independent of manual articulations to coordinated with them. But, while this range has been well noted, certain nonmanuals remain understudied. Of particular interest to us are nonmanual articulations coordinated with manual articulations, which, when considered in conjunction with those manual articulations, are semantically rich. In which ways can such different articulators coordinate and what is the linguistic effect or purpose of such coordination? Of the nonmanual articulators, the mouth is articulatorily the most versatile. We therefore examined mouth articulations in a single narrative told in the sign languages of America, Brazil, and Germany. We observed optional articulations of the corners of the lips that align with manual articulations spatially and temporally in classifier constructions. The lips, thus, enhance the message by giving redundant information, which should be particularly useful in narratives for children. Examination of a single children's narrative told in these same three sign languages plus six other sign languages yielded examples of one type of these optional alignment articulations, confirming our expectations. Our findings are coherent with linguistic findings regarding phonological enhancement and overspecification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who is a native signer? Since around 95% of deaf infants are born into a hearing family, deaf signers are exposed to a sign language at various moments of their life, and not only from birth. Moreover, the linguistic input they are exposed to is not always a fully fledged natural sign language. In this situation, is the notion of native signer as someone exposed to language from birth of any use? We review the results of the first large-scale cross-linguistic investigation on the effects of age of exposure to sign language. This research involved about 45 Deaf adult signers in each of three sign languages (Catalan Sign Language, French Sign Language, and Italian Sign Language). Across the three languages, participants were divided into three groups – those exposed from birth, those between 1 and 5 years of age, and those exposed between 6 and 15 years of age – and received a battery of tests designed for each language targeting various aspects of morphosyntactic competence. In particular, the tests focused on both those morphosyntactic phenomena that are known from the spoken language literature to be good detectors of language impairment or delay (i.e., wh- interrogatives and relative clauses) and on morphosyntactic phenomena that are sign language specific (i.e., role shift and directional verbs). The results showed a clear effect of being native, with significant differences across languages and tests between signers exposed to sign language from birth and those exposed in the 1st years of life. This confirms the life-long importance of language exposure from birth and the reliability of the notion of " nativeness ", at least for syntax. On the other hand, while in most domains the differences observed between populations might be differences in performance, for some specific constructions, signers belonging to the three groups may have different grammars. This latter finding challenges the generalized use of native signers' grammar as the baseline for language description and language assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of the use of constructed action (CA) in the stories and conversations of adult Finnish Sign Language (FinSL) signers of different ages. CA is defined here as a type of depiction in which a signer enacts the actions, feelings, thoughts and utterances of discourse referents with different parts of their body. Most studies on CA in sign languages have been done on the basis of signed storytelling, and little is known about how the use of CA varies in different discourse types. The use of CA has also been noted to vary between individual signers, but we do not yet know much about the socio-individual phenomena that may be linked to this variation. In the present study, we investigate whether the use of CA is different in the stories and the conversations of adult FinSL signers, and whether younger (18–39) and older (50–79) adult signers use CA differently in stories and conversations. The study is based on the manual annotation of video data recorded for the Corpus of Finnish Sign Language (Corpus FinSL) and the analysis includes frequency descriptions and statistical analysis. The data show that there is a statistically significant difference in the use of CA in stories and conversations, and that in storytelling, older adults use significantly more CA than younger adults. This difference between the two age groups is particularly evident in the overt uses of CA. The work presented here points toward the need for more investigation of CA in non-narrative discourse contexts and in the language use of signers of different ages. • Signers of Finnish Sign Language use significantly more constructed action in storytelling than in conversations. • The most frequent type of constructed action in both discourse contexts is overt constructed action. • When a signer uses constructed action in a conversation, the chance of its being non-overt is greater than it is in stories. • Older adults use significantly more constructed action than younger adults in storytelling, but not in conversations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]