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In this book, an Australian Aboriginal sign language used by Indigenous people in the North East Arnhem Land (Northern Territory) is described on the level of spatial grammar. Topics discussed range from properties of individual signs to structure of interrogative and negative sentences. The main interest is the manifestation of signing space - the...
Contexts in source publication
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... is indeed the case, that all Dhuwal dialects (Djambarrpuyŋu, Djapu, etc.) are associated with the Dhuwa moiety and all Dhuwala dialects (Gupapuyŋu, Gumatj, etc.) with the Yirritja moiety (see section 3.3 for the discussion of the two moieties). Morphy's line of argumentation is also confirmed by a continuous geographical space, which these dialect groups occupy in the NE Arnhem Region as shown in Figure 8. As can be seen in Figure 8, Dhuwal and Dhuwala speakers are found literally side by side, and are, therefore, rather divided into eastern and western Dhuwal/Dhuwala dialect group (Morphy, 1977, p. 51;Wilkinson, 1991, p. 13). ...
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... line of argumentation is also confirmed by a continuous geographical space, which these dialect groups occupy in the NE Arnhem Region as shown in Figure 8. As can be seen in Figure 8, Dhuwal and Dhuwala speakers are found literally side by side, and are, therefore, rather divided into eastern and western Dhuwal/Dhuwala dialect group (Morphy, 1977, p. 51;Wilkinson, 1991, p. 13). The spoken dialect used more often in the fieldwork setting of this study was Djambarrpuyŋu in all fieldwork sites. ...
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... can be seen in Figure 74, of all 787 verb tokens coded, only 49 or 6% of verbs moved and/or were oriented towards a location associated with a referent. The six verb types that were identified as directional verbs, i.e. spatially modified verbs with regard to person are: lakara 'to tell/speak/say', nhäma 'to see', märra 'to get/bring', gurrupa 'to give', bitja 'to take a picture' and rirrikthu 'to make sick/ to kill' as in Figure 80 below. ...
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... (16)- (18) the verbs are moving through space, change their orientation toward and end their movement near a location of the present referent (cf. Figure 80). An interesting observation is that the signers strongly favor straight path movement, i.e. the movement either center-out or center-in. ...
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... 'give a book' b) 'give a cup' Figure 86. ISL handling classifiers 126 The directionals may also be produced on the diagonal axis being spatially modified with respect to the goal location of the movement as shown in example (7) depicted in Figure 89. In this narrative, the signer is explaining that her husband has gone to the beach to gather some shells, and because there are too many rocks on the beach, she is not going to join him. ...
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... go-over-there 'There are too many rocks on the beach, I am not going there'. Sequence06_D_2009.mpg Figure 89. dir-go-there ...
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... SASSes are frequently used to describe the geometrical properties of objects. Hence, a SASS presented in Figure 98b might denote various objects, such as a house, a shop or any other building depending on linguistic context. A SASS in Figure 98a may specify any long vertical object, such as a tree, for example. ...
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... a SASS presented in Figure 98b might denote various objects, such as a house, a shop or any other building depending on linguistic context. A SASS in Figure 98a may specify any long vertical object, such as a tree, for example. b) sass diagonal a) sass long-vertical Figure 98. ...
Citations
... It is well-known that sign languages display striking similarities in the realm of morphology (Aronoff et al. 2005b;Meir 2012). Still, even when it comes to simultaneous morphological processes, we do find some variation: a certain morphological process may simply not be attested in a given sign language or be very infrequent, or it is attested but applies in a different way or to a different class of signs; see, for instance, Zeshan (2003) and Nyst (2007) for classifiers in Indopakistani Sign Language and Adamorobe Sign Language (Ghana), and Padden et al. (2010) and Bauer (2014) for spatial agreement in Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (Israel) and Yolngu Sign Language (Australia). As already briefly alluded to in Section 2.2, such cross-linguistic variation is also attested in the domain of pluralization (see also Pfau & Steinbach 2006). ...
In both signed and spoken languages, reduplication is a common process in the formation of morphologically complex structures, expressing, e.g., plurality and certain aspectual meanings. A framework in which spoken language reduplication has been formalized frequently is Optimality Theory (OT). While an important attribute of OT-constraints is their universality, to date, the question to what extent such constraints are modality-independent, and thus work for sign language reduplication as well, remains largely unanswered. In the present study, we offer the first OT-formalization of plural reduplication in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). The NGT-data reveal that this language features different plural allomorphs, the choice of which depends on phonological properties of the base noun. However, we also identify variation, e.g., all noun types allow for zero marking.In our formalization, we aim to introduce constraints that are maximally modality-independent, using constraint types that have previously been proposed for spoken language reduplication. Our formalization is the first to take into account base-reduplicant faithfulness for a sign language, and also the first to account for variation in sign language data by employing stochastic OT, whereby some noise is added to the ranking value of each constraint at evaluation time. Evaluating the modality-(in)dependence of our proposed account suggests that the types of constraints we employ as well as the evaluation in the spirit of stochastic OT are not specific to a modality, while the featural implementation is inevitably modality-dependent.
... Aboriginal sign language of Australia (Bauer 2014). Also, I am aware of a recent study on San Juan Quiahije Chatino Sign Language, a rural sign language from Mexico (Mesh & Hou 2018). ...
Nesta entrevista para o número especial da RevIncluso, Roland Pfau expõe suas reflexões sobre marcadores não manuais em língua de sinais presentes em sua aplicação em tecnologia, situando-a nas comunidades surdas e nos contextos acadêmico, linguístico e analítico. Considerando os estudos sobre os traços de negação, o estudioso destaca diferenças na ênfase dada ao conceito na língua de sinais da Holanda e outras que estudou. Segundo Pfau, a relação entre a língua de sinais e corpora linguísticos fortalece a análise das relações entre contextos não manuais e gramaticais, diálogo e ações, estruturas linguísticas e evolução cultural. Para o autor, devemos considerar a dialética das representações e dos grupos de interações de pesquisa como forma de construir um mundo de relações onde nos encontramos, rompendo assim com a ideia de que os itens de um determinado estudo de línguas de sinais atuam sobre o mundo como algo único ou que age de acordo com imperativos sociais e culturais sem possibilidade de transformação de outros estudos em outra língua de sinais.
... To overcome this issue, we use the normalization technique, where all such body proportions, distance from the camera, positional properties, motion transfer overheads, and orientation are precluded. Inspired by SL linguistics [69] regarding the use of signing space with body landmarks, we use a 3D space in the signing space in front of the signer and their immediate surroundings. We take the area slightly above the signer's waist, reaching slightly above the signer's head, covering the two loosely bent elbows with projected body landmarks to identify the sign. ...
Word-level sign language recognition (WSLR) is the backbone for continuous sign language recognition (CSLR) that infers glosses from sign videos. Finding the relevant gloss from the sign sequence and detecting explicit boundaries of the glosses from sign videos is a persistent challenge. In this paper, we propose a systematic approach for gloss prediction in WLSR using the Sign2Pose Gloss prediction transformer model. The primary goal of this work is to enhance WLSR’s gloss prediction accuracy with reduced time and computational overhead. The proposed approach uses hand-crafted features rather than automated feature extraction, which is computationally expensive and less accurate. A modified key frame extraction technique is proposed that uses histogram difference and Euclidean distance metrics to select and drop redundant frames. To enhance the model’s generalization ability, pose vector augmentation using perspective transformation along with joint angle rotation is performed. Further, for normalization, we employed YOLOv3 (You Only Look Once) to detect the signing space and track the hand gestures of the signers in the frames. The proposed model experiments on WLASL datasets achieved the top 1% recognition accuracy of 80.9% in WLASL100 and 64.21% in WLASL300. The performance of the proposed model surpasses state-of-the-art approaches. The integration of key frame extraction, augmentation, and pose estimation improved the performance of the proposed gloss prediction model by increasing the model’s precision in locating minor variations in their body posture. We observed that introducing YOLOv3 improved gloss prediction accuracy and helped prevent model overfitting. Overall, the proposed model showed 17% improved performance in the WLASL 100 dataset.
... There are noted commonalities about directional pointing across different spoken and signed language groups, including the oft-cited iconic relation between gesture elevation and distance in prototypical 'absolute' languages (e.g. Bauer, 2014;de Vos, 2012;Kendon, 1988;Le Guen, 2011;Levinson, 2003;Wilkins, 2003). In contrast, there are noted differences in pointing styles across various cultures and language groups such as the range of manual and non-manual articulators deployed and the types of handshapes used to indicate locations and directions (Enfield et al., 2007;Kendon, 2004, pp. ...
It has been suggested that the gestural accuracy used by speakers of Australian Aboriginal languages like Guugu Yimidhirr and Arrernte to indicate directions and represent topographic features is a consequence of absolute frame of reference being dominant in these languages; and that the lackadaisical points produced by North American English speakers is an outcome of relative frame being dominant in English. We test this claim by comparing locational pointing in contexts of place reference in conversations conducted in two Australian Aboriginal languages, Murrinhpatha and Gija, and in Australian English spoken by non-Aboriginal residents of a small town in north Western Australia. Pointing behaviour is remarkably similar across the three groups and all participants display a capacity to point accurately regardless of linguistic frame of reference options. We suggest that these speakers’ intimate knowledge of the surrounding countryside better explains their capacity to accurately point to distant locations.
... He later remarked that it would be "hard to believe" that alternate sign had no influence on the signing practices of deaf community members (Kendon, 2015, p. 12). Others report that traditional sign languages are used by Indigenous deaf, at least in communities in north-east Arnhem Land where Yolŋu Sign Language (YSL) is found Bauer, 2014;James et al., 2020;. This provides a social context where a sign language that is 'alternate' for some may become the main means of communication and hence 'primary' for others (Adone & Maypilama, 2014, pp. ...
In the Gurindji community of Kalkaringi in Northern Australia the shared practices of everyday communication employed by both hearing and deaf members of the community include conventionalized manual actions from the lexicon of Indigenous sign as well as some recent visual practices derived from contact with both written English and with Auslan. We consider some dimensions of these multimodal practices, including kinship signs and signs for time-reference, and discuss several notable features in these domains. The first is gender-motivated use of the left and right sides of the body in several kinship signs. The second is the use of celestial anchoring in some signs for time. The use of spatially accurate pointing also contributes to the indexical richness of these communicative practices, as do some introduced semiotic resources, such as air-writing, and Auslan fingerspelling. As the first description of Gurindji sign, we establish a basis for further understandings of how tradition and innovation are incorporated into these shared practices.
... On the other end of the spectrum, later generations of signers and older sign languages, such as ASL or Auslan, for instance, make use of all three verb types. However, de Beuzeville et al. (2009) remind us that the use of double agreement verbs, although available, remains quite rare in everyday use (around 20% of all verb occurrences; see also Bauer (2014) for similar findings in Yolngu sign language in Australia). ...
... For the unrotated perspective, one explanation is that the signer reads the same spatial arrangement but based on a geocentric frame of reference, meaning that the movement is not taken as being to the "right to the person in the stimulus" but, say, "north of the person" or "towards the door (in the real world)". Although it might be highly counterintuitive for speakers of languages that heavily rely on egocentric FoRs (such as English or Spanish), this is actually the most common way to use space in locating objects in space in rural and non-Western communities around the world (de Vos 2012;Bauer 2014;Levinson 2003). Schegloff (1984) notes that sometimes, in daily conversation, U.S. English speakers from the West Coast point to places in the real world but indicate these entities in a somewhat random manner, since the orientation of their pointing does not correspond to the actual location of the places they are mentioning. ...
... If English speakers from urban settings are able to point randomly to real places in the world without consequences, this is not the case in other cultures. Among speakers of Yucatec Maya (but also in many other settings, see Bauer (2014) de Vos (2012 or Haviland (1993), inter alia), one is entitled to point towards real entities and places in retaining their actual orientation (Le Guen 2011a). Doing otherwise is considered lying, hence, the significance of the "condition of truth". ...
In many sign languages, space is used to express grammatical features. However, verb agreement in space is noticeably slow to appear in emerging sign languages. Many reasons have been proposed to explain this delay or even absence: the reduced size of the community, the recent creation of the sign language and the lack of exposure to a fully formed language. To examine the way space is used to express agreement in Yucatec Maya Sign Language (YMSL), a new signed language from the peninsula of Yucatán (Mexico), a task was conducted using video stimuli created to elicit ditransitive constructions showing transfer events, such as events of giving or taking. Results show that agreement is present early in YMSL, even from the first generation of deaf signers. While many signers used single agreement constructions, the second generation of deaf children systematically employed double agreement constructions, placing them on the high end of the evolutionary path proposed for verb agreement in sign languages. I argue that cultural habits of the surrounding community, namely the preference for a geocentric frame of reference among Yucatec Maya speakers, is what facilitates the early emergence of the use of space to express agreement in YMSL.
... We also discuss language contact across modalities, elaborating on contact between sign and speech and sign and other modes. The overview of these topics is provided with reference to our own previous and ongoing work on Irish, South African, and Russian Sign Languages, as well as Indigenous alternate sign languages in Australia (such as Yolngu Sign Language, used in the Northern Territory), and visual hunting signals and gestures among several hunter-gatherer groups in Botswana (Ts'ixa and ||Ani-Khwe) (see also Bauer 2014, Mohr 2012, Green et al. 2018, Mohr, Fehn, and De Voogt 2019, Jorgensen, Green, and Bauer 2021. A map providing an overview of the different locations where our data is taken from is provided in Figure 7.1. ...
... The classification presented here is non-exhaustive. We leave out such communication systems as International Sign, homesign or tactile sign languages and refer the reader to Pfau (2012) and Bauer (2014) for a detailed discussion of sign language types, sign language typology and manual communication systems in general. ...
... The use of elaborate sign languages by Indigenous Australians may also have other communicative reasons. Bauer (2014) shows that Yolngu signing is used in the communities of North East Arnhem Land, although there are no extensive speech taboos, in which spoken language is banned for extended periods of mourning such as those found in Central Australia. The alternate sign language is used by Yolngu when giving directions, for communication between interlocutors who are visible to each other yet out of earshot, in contexts of certain types of gender-restricted ceremonies, while hunting, and for communication with deaf and hard-of-hearing persons (Bauer 2014). ...
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110726626-007/html
... In particular, it seems to confirm that the specific status and use of the signing space (whether extended or restricted; whether absolute or abstract), does not determine its availability for its use as locations in agreement and classifier constructions. The Crucially, what we see is that InuitSL has agreement (directional Vs) with both absolute and abstract use of signing space) and YolnguSL has agreement (directional Vs) with only absolute use (De Vos and Pfau 2015, citing Schuit 2013and Bauer 2014. LSOR thus patterns with these VSLs. ...
In this preliminary analysis, we describe the use of the signing space in morphosyntactic processes in Orocovis Sign Language (LSOR), a Village Sign Language shared as the medium of communication between Deaf and hearing members of a rural community in Puerto Rico. It has been passed on from generation to generation, and exhibits an extended and absolute use of the signing space, and grammatical features like agreement, aspectual marking, and classifiers. These preliminary results contribute to shape the
emerging typological complexity in the area of Village Sign Languages.
... As noticed by Bauer (2014), classifiers in sign languages have similar semantic characteristics than those recorded for spoken languages: ...
... . Another fallow period of about a decade followed, but in 1996 Dany Adone, a linguist from Cologne, initiated studies of Yolngu sign language, resulting in several publications(Adone and Maypilama 2014;Bauer 2014;Cooke and Adone 1996;Maypilama and Adone 2012). Meanwhile, in central Australia, there are new studies of sign language among Arandic speakers(Green 2014(Green , 2019Green and Wilkins 2014, 2015).Green et al. (2018) describe Arandic kin signs and compares them with kin signs from Arnhem Land, Cape York and the Western Desert. ...
