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- Keyword
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- Sign languages (8)
- Deaf children (4)
- Ease of articulation (2)
- Ebooks (2)
- Iconicity (2)
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- Lexical frequency (2)
- Linguistic deprivation (2)
- Literacy (2)
- Phonetics (2)
- Acoustic phonetics (1)
- Agreement (1)
- Annotation (1)
- Articulation (1)
- Biomechanical effort (1)
- Brain plasticity (1)
- Brazilian Sign Language (1)
- Child neglect (1)
- Cognitive development (1)
- Collaboration (1)
- Compound (1)
- Dance (1)
- Deaf children’s rights (1)
- Deaf communities (1)
- Deaf education (1)
- Edge effects (1)
- Education policy (1)
- Emergent patterns (1)
- Endangered languages (1)
- Ethical practices (1)
- Ethics and activism in scholarship (1)
Articles 1 - 30 of 92
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Multi-Script Morphological Transducers And Transcribers For Seven Turkic Languages, Jonathan North Washington, F. Tyers, O. Kuyrukçu
Multi-Script Morphological Transducers And Transcribers For Seven Turkic Languages, Jonathan North Washington, F. Tyers, O. Kuyrukçu
Linguistics Faculty Works
This paper describes ongoing work to augment morphological transducers for seven Turkic languages with support for multiple scripts each, as well as respective IPA transcription systems. Evaluation demonstrates that our approach yields coverage equivalent to or not much lower than that of the base transducers.
Manual Movement In Sign Languages: One Hand Versus Two In Communicating Shapes, C. Ferrara, Donna Jo Napoli
Manual Movement In Sign Languages: One Hand Versus Two In Communicating Shapes, C. Ferrara, Donna Jo Napoli
Linguistics Faculty Works
In sign languages, the task of communicating a shape involves drawing in the air with one moving hand (Method One) or two (Method Two). Since the movement path is iconic, method choice might be based on the shape. In the present studies we aimed to determine whether geometric properties motivate method choice. In a study of 17 deaf signers from six countries, the strongest predictors of method choice were whether the shape has any curved edges (Method One), and whether the shape is symmetrical across the Y‐axis (Method Two), where the default was Method One. In a second study of …
Machine Translation For Crimean Tatar To Turkish, M. GöKırmak, F. M. Tyers, Jonathan North Washington
Machine Translation For Crimean Tatar To Turkish, M. GöKırmak, F. M. Tyers, Jonathan North Washington
Linguistics Faculty Works
In this paper a machine translation system for Crimean Tatar to Turkish is presented. To our knowledge this is the first Machine Translation system made available for public use for Crimean Tatar, and the first such system released as free and open source software. The system was built using Apertium, a free and open source machine translation system, and is currently unidirectional from Crimean Tatar to Turkish. We describe our translation system, evaluate it on parallel corpora and compare its performance with a Neural Machine Translation system, trained on the limited amount of corpora available.
Effort Reduction In Articulation In Sign Languages And Dance, Donna Jo Napoli, Stephanie Liapis
Effort Reduction In Articulation In Sign Languages And Dance, Donna Jo Napoli, Stephanie Liapis
Linguistics Faculty Works
Sign languages exhibit the drive for ease of articulation found in spoken languages, particularly in fast and casual conversation, where the methods that reduce effort are shown here to be limited by the need to maintain recognizability. Participatory dance, which uses the same articulators as sign languages plus additional ones, also demonstrates methods of reducing biomechanical effort, analogous to those seen in sign languages, and, again, limited by the need to maintain recognizability of the dance figures/phrases. However, when we look at performance language (here, sign poetry) and performance dance, we find a contrast: sign language poetry uses reduced and …
Support For Parents Of Deaf Children: Common Questions And Informed, Evidence-Based Answers, T. Humphries, P. Kushalnagar, G. Mathur, Donna Jo Napoli, C. Rathmann, S. Smith
Support For Parents Of Deaf Children: Common Questions And Informed, Evidence-Based Answers, T. Humphries, P. Kushalnagar, G. Mathur, Donna Jo Napoli, C. Rathmann, S. Smith
Linguistics Faculty Works
To assist medical and hearing-science professionals in supporting parents of deaf children, we have identified common questions that parents may have and provide evidence-based answers. In doing so, a compassionate and positive narrative about deafness and deaf children is offered, one that relies on recent research evidence regarding the critical nature of early exposure to a fully accessible visual language, which in the United States is American Sign Language (ASL). This evidence includes the role of sign language in language acquisition, cognitive development, and literacy. In order for parents to provide a nurturing and anxiety-free environment for early childhood development, …
Embodied Difference: Divergent Bodies In Public Discourse, Jamie A. Thomas, C. Jackson
Embodied Difference: Divergent Bodies In Public Discourse, Jamie A. Thomas, C. Jackson
Linguistics Faculty Works
Focusing on the body as a visual and discursive platform across public space, we study marginalization as a sociocultural practice and hegemonic schema. Whereas mass incarceration and law enforcement readily feature in discussions of institutionalized racism, we differently highlight understudied sites of normalization and exclusion. Our combined effort centers upon physical contexts (skeletons, pageant stages, gentrifying neighborhoods), discursive spaces (medical textbooks, legal battles, dance pedagogy, vampire narratives) and philosophical arenas (morality, genocide, physician-assisted suicide, cryonic preservation, transfeminism) to deconstruct seemingly intrinsic connections between body and behavior, Whiteness and normativity.
The Year Is 2093: Reanimation From Frankenstein To Prometheus As Sci-Fi Metaphor For (Dis)Embodied Female Futures And Colonization Of Space, Jamie A. Thomas
The Year Is 2093: Reanimation From Frankenstein To Prometheus As Sci-Fi Metaphor For (Dis)Embodied Female Futures And Colonization Of Space, Jamie A. Thomas
Linguistics Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Between Zora Neale, Hamlet, And A “Dope Black Woman”: Revisiting Language Ideology Through Alysia Harris’S Performance Poetry, Jamie A. Thomas
Between Zora Neale, Hamlet, And A “Dope Black Woman”: Revisiting Language Ideology Through Alysia Harris’S Performance Poetry, Jamie A. Thomas
Linguistics Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Morphological Theory And Sign Languages, Donna Jo Napoli
Morphological Theory And Sign Languages, Donna Jo Napoli
Linguistics Faculty Works
Sign language morphology adds new considerations to well-studied areas, including category identification, inflection vs. derivation, the notions of ideophones, subject, and root, and properties used in lexical classifications. It makes necessary the new notion of reactive effort in understanding how biomechanical factors help shape the lexicon. The prevalence of simultaneity (verticality) over linearity (horizontal temporality) shows that linguistic analysis must include the study of physical properties (visual vs. auditory) if we are to understand language typology. Phonological parameters can have meaning associated with them, either arbitrarily or because they are iconic. This allows for lexical networks that require the mechanism …
Deaf Children, Humor And Education Policy, Donna Jo Napoli, R. L. Sutton-Spence
Deaf Children, Humor And Education Policy, Donna Jo Napoli, R. L. Sutton-Spence
Linguistics Faculty Works
Deaf children need true inclusion to learn, entailing consistent, pervasive use of visual-learning techniques. This is achieved via bilingual education policies that enforce deaf children’s rights to use sign language, permitting teachers to engage in deaf pedagogy using sign language. Educational policies advocating inclusion via an interpreter in the mainstreamed classroom create the “illusion of inclusion” (Glickman 2003). We argue that, in either case, humor can aid inclusion. Understanding humor is a developmental ability, related to cognitive, social, linguistic, and metalinguistic competence. Additionally, learning how humor is understood and expressed contributes to language mastery. However, we find little discussion of …
Italian-American Literature: Respected?, Donna Jo Napoli
Italian-American Literature: Respected?, Donna Jo Napoli
Linguistics Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Sticky: Taboo Topics In Deaf Communities, J. N. Fisher, G. Mirus, Donna Jo Napoli
Sticky: Taboo Topics In Deaf Communities, J. N. Fisher, G. Mirus, Donna Jo Napoli
Linguistics Faculty Works
This chapter offers an overview of taboo topics within deaf communities to bring forward issues not obvious to those outside deaf communities. We look at taboo behaviors of hearing people as they interact with deaf communities, considering linguistic and cultural appropriation, exploitation, and hearing privilege. We also look at taboo topics regarding social hierarchies within deaf communities, those based on gender and race, as well as those based on cognitive abilities, particularly language. These topics present a nuanced and diverse representation of deaf people, which is intended to sensitize those aiming to work with deaf communities or, in fact, with …
Zapotec Language Activism And Talking Dictionaries, K. David Harrison, B. D. Lillehaugen, Jeremy Fahringer , '06, F. H. Lopez
Zapotec Language Activism And Talking Dictionaries, K. David Harrison, B. D. Lillehaugen, Jeremy Fahringer , '06, F. H. Lopez
Linguistics Faculty Works
Online dictionaries have become a key tool for some indigenous communities to promote and preserve their languages, often in collaboration with linguists. They can provide a pathway for crossing the digital divide and for establishing a first-ever presence on the internet. Many questions around digital lexicography have been explored, although primarily in relation to large and well-resourced languages. Lexical projects on small and under-resourced languages can provide an opportunity to examine these questions from a different perspective and to raise new questions (Mosel, 2011). In this paper, linguists, technical experts, and Zapotec language activists, who have worked together in Mexico …
A Phonetic Study Of Length And Duration In Kyrgyz Vowels, Nathaniel Ziv Stern , '20, Jonathan North Washington
A Phonetic Study Of Length And Duration In Kyrgyz Vowels, Nathaniel Ziv Stern , '20, Jonathan North Washington
Linguistics Faculty Works
This paper examines the phonetic correlates of the (phonological) vowel length contrast in Kyrgyz to address a range of questions about the nature of this contrast, and also explores factors that affect (phonetic) duration in short vowels. Measurement and analysis of the vowels confirms that there is indeed a significant duration distinction between the Kyrgyz vowel categories referred to as short and long vowels. Preliminary midpoint formant measurements show that there may be some accompanying spectral component to the length contrast for certain vowels, but findings are not conclusive. A comparison of F0 dynamics and spectral dynamics through long and …
Disrespected Literatures: An Overdue Initiative, Donna Jo Napoli, R. Sutton-Spence, S. Bertacco
Disrespected Literatures: An Overdue Initiative, Donna Jo Napoli, R. Sutton-Spence, S. Bertacco
Linguistics Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Apertium’S Web Toolchain For Low-Resource Language Technology, S. Cherivirala, S. Chiplunkar, Jonathan North Washington, K. B. Unhammer
Apertium’S Web Toolchain For Low-Resource Language Technology, S. Cherivirala, S. Chiplunkar, Jonathan North Washington, K. B. Unhammer
Linguistics Faculty Works
The Apertium web toolchain, consisting of a front end (Apertium HTML-Tools) and a back end (Apertium APy), is a free and open-source toolchain that supports a range of open-source technologies. The internationalised interface allows users to translate text, documents, and web pages, as well as morphologically analyse and generate text. Other features, including support for multi-step/pivot translation, dictionary-style lookup, spell-checking, and accepting user suggestions for translations, are nearing release.
Rule-Based Machine Translation From Kazakh To Turkish, S. Bayatli, S. Kurnaz, I. Salimzianov, Jonathan North Washington, F. M. Tyers
Rule-Based Machine Translation From Kazakh To Turkish, S. Bayatli, S. Kurnaz, I. Salimzianov, Jonathan North Washington, F. M. Tyers
Linguistics Faculty Works
This paper presents a shallow-transfer machine translation (MT) system for translating from Kazakh to Turkish. Background on the differences between the languages is presented, followed by how the system was designed to handle some of these differences. The system is based on the Apertium free/open-source machine translation platform. The structure of the system and how it works is described, along with an evaluation against two competing systems. Linguistic components were developed, including a Kazakh-Turkish bilingual dictionary, Constraint Grammar disambiguation rules, lexical selection rules, and structural transfer rules. With many known issues yet to be addressed, our RBMT system has reached …
Influence Of Predicate Sense On Word Order In Sign Languages: Intensional And Extensional Verbs, Donna Jo Napoli, R. Sutton Spence, R. Müller De Quadros
Influence Of Predicate Sense On Word Order In Sign Languages: Intensional And Extensional Verbs, Donna Jo Napoli, R. Sutton Spence, R. Müller De Quadros
Linguistics Faculty Works
We present evidence for the influence of semantics on the order of subject, object, and verb in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) sentences. While some have argued for a prevailing pattern of SVO in Libras, we find a strong tendency for this order in sentences that do not presuppose the existence of the verb’s object, but not in sentences that do, which instead favor SOV. These findings are coherent with those of a recent study on gesture. We argue that the variable influence of the relevant predicates is particularly salient in sign languages, due to the iconic nature of the visual …
Discourses Of Prejudice In The Professions: The Case Of Sign Languages, T. Humphries, P. Kushalnagar, G. Mathur, Donna Jo Napoli, C. Padden, C. Rathmann, S. Smith
Discourses Of Prejudice In The Professions: The Case Of Sign Languages, T. Humphries, P. Kushalnagar, G. Mathur, Donna Jo Napoli, C. Padden, C. Rathmann, S. Smith
Linguistics Faculty Works
There is no evidence that learning a natural human language is cognitively harmful to children. To the contrary, multilingualism has been argued to be beneficial to all. Nevertheless, many professionals advise the parents of deaf children that their children should not learn a sign language during their early years, despite strong evidence across many research disciplines that sign languages are natural human languages. Their recommendations are based on a combination of misperceptions about (1) the difficulty of learning a sign language, (2) the effects of bilingualism, and particularly bimodalism, (3) the bona fide status of languages that lack a written …
Review Of "Introducing Sign Language Literature: Folklore And Creativity" By R. Sutton-Spence And M. Kaneko, Donna Jo Napoli
Review Of "Introducing Sign Language Literature: Folklore And Creativity" By R. Sutton-Spence And M. Kaneko, Donna Jo Napoli
Linguistics Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Iconicity Chains In Sign Languages, Donna Jo Napoli
Iconicity Chains In Sign Languages, Donna Jo Napoli
Linguistics Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Suggestions For A Parametric Typology Of Dance, Donna Jo Napoli, L. Kraus
Suggestions For A Parametric Typology Of Dance, Donna Jo Napoli, L. Kraus
Linguistics Faculty Works
Dance and language are produced/performed by the body and governed by cognitive faculties. Yet regrettably little scholarship applies tools of formal analysis in one field to the other. This paper aims to enrich dialogue between the two fields. We introduce an approach to dance typology formed on analogy with the parametric theory of language analysis, useful in typologizing languages. This initial exploration paves the way for a physiological typology of dance, without reference to culture.
Syllable-Aware Neural Language Models: A Failure To Beat Character-Aware Ones, Z. Assylbekov, R. Takhanov, B. Myrzakhmetov, Jonathan North Washington
Syllable-Aware Neural Language Models: A Failure To Beat Character-Aware Ones, Z. Assylbekov, R. Takhanov, B. Myrzakhmetov, Jonathan North Washington
Linguistics Faculty Works
Syllabification does not seem to improve word-level RNN language modeling quality when compared to character-based segmentation. However, our best syllable-aware language model, achieving performance comparable to the competitive character-aware model, has 18%-33% fewer parameters and is trained 1.2-2.2 times faster.
Ud Annotatrix: An Annotation Tool For Universal Dependencies, F. M. Tyers, M. Sheyanova, Jonathan North Washington
Ud Annotatrix: An Annotation Tool For Universal Dependencies, F. M. Tyers, M. Sheyanova, Jonathan North Washington
Linguistics Faculty Works
In this paper we introduce the UD Annotatrix annotation tool for manual annotation of Universal Dependencies. This tool has been designed with the aim that it should be tailored to the needs of the Universal Dependencies (UD) community, including that it should operate in fully-offline mode, and is freely-available under the GNU GPL licence. In this paper, we provide some background to the tool, an overview of its development, and background on how it works. We compare it with some other widely-used tools which are used for Universal Dependencies annotation, describe some features unique to UD Annotatrix, and finally outline …
Avoiding Linguistic Neglect Of Deaf Children, T. Humphries, P. Kushalnagar, G. Mathur, Donna Jo Napoli, C. Padden, C. Rathmann, S. Smith
Avoiding Linguistic Neglect Of Deaf Children, T. Humphries, P. Kushalnagar, G. Mathur, Donna Jo Napoli, C. Padden, C. Rathmann, S. Smith
Linguistics Faculty Works
Deaf children who are not provided with a sign language early in their development are at risk of linguistic deprivation; they may never be fluent in any language, and they may have deficits in cognitive activities that rely on a firm foundation in a first language. These children are socially and emotionally isolated. Deafness makes a child vulnerable to abuse, and linguistic deprivation compounds the abuse because the child is less able to report it. Parents rely on professionals as guides in making responsible choices in raising and educating their deaf children. But lack of expertise on language acquisition and …
Fun Bilingual-Bimodal Ebooks For Deaf Children, Donna Jo Napoli, E. R. Mirus
Fun Bilingual-Bimodal Ebooks For Deaf Children, Donna Jo Napoli, E. R. Mirus
Linguistics Faculty Works
Ebooks provide new ways to advance developing literacy among deaf children. While some aim to promote literacy through explicit pedagogical techniques, the new ebooks described here aim only to offer stories that are fun to share, encouraging learning through interaction that naturally fosters language and preliteracy skills. Reading for pleasure is recognized as valuable for hearing children; it needs to be recognized as such for deaf children. We present the rationale for these ebooks and give examples of how they advance preliteracy skills, in the hopes that those raising and educating deaf children will use them, offered gratis on the …
Reactive Effort As A Factor That Shapes Sign Language Lexicons, N. Sanders, Donna Jo Napoli
Reactive Effort As A Factor That Shapes Sign Language Lexicons, N. Sanders, Donna Jo Napoli
Linguistics Faculty Works
Many properties of languages, including sign languages, are not uniformly distributed among items in the lexicon. Some of this nonuniformity can be accounted for by appeal to articulatory ease, with easier articulations being overrepresented in the lexicon in comparison to more difficult articulations. The literature on ease of articulation deals only with the active effort internal to the articulation itself. We note the existence of a previously unstudied aspect of articulatory ease, which we call reactive effort: the effort of resisting incidental movement that has been induced by an articulation elsewhere in the body. For example, reactive effort is needed …
A Cross-Linguistic Preference For Torso Stability In The Lexicon: Evidence From 24 Sign Languages, N. Sanders, Donna Jo Napoli
A Cross-Linguistic Preference For Torso Stability In The Lexicon: Evidence From 24 Sign Languages, N. Sanders, Donna Jo Napoli
Linguistics Faculty Works
When the arms move in certain ways, they can cause the torso to twist or rock. Such extraneous torso movement is undesirable, especially during sign language communication, when torso position may carry linguistic significance, so we expend effort to resist it when it is not intended. This so-called “reactive effort” has only recently been identified by Sanders and Napoli (2016), but their preliminary work on three genetically unrelated languages suggests that the effects of reactive effort can be observed cross-linguistically by examination of sign language lexicons. In particular, the frequency of different kinds of manual movements in the lexicon correlates …
Shared Reading Activities: A Recommendation For Deaf Children, Donna Jo Napoli, G. Mirus
Shared Reading Activities: A Recommendation For Deaf Children, Donna Jo Napoli, G. Mirus
Linguistics Faculty Works
There should be a focus on fun in shared reading activities with preschoolers in order to prepare them for later literacy, particularly those at risk of a poor foundation in a first language (L1), including deaf children (here “deaf” covers hard of hearing, as well). We look at how shared reading activities (SRAs) develop pre-literacy skills and describe bilingual-bimodal ebooks aimed purely at producing enjoyment, so families will engage in SRAs frequently.
What Medical Education Can Do To Ensure Robust Language Development In Deaf Children, T. Humphries, P. Kushalnagar, G. Mathur, Donna Jo Napoli, C. Padden, R. Pollard, C. Rathmann, S. Smith
What Medical Education Can Do To Ensure Robust Language Development In Deaf Children, T. Humphries, P. Kushalnagar, G. Mathur, Donna Jo Napoli, C. Padden, R. Pollard, C. Rathmann, S. Smith
Linguistics Faculty Works
The typical medical education curriculum does not address language development for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. However, this issue is medical because of the frequency with which DHH children as a population face health complications due to linguistic deprivation. The critical period for language development is early; if a child does not acquire an intact language before age five, the child is unlikely to ever have native-like use of any language. Such linguistic deprivation carries risks of cognitive delay and psycho-social health difficulties. Spoken language is inaccessible for many DHH children despite assistive-technology developments. But sign languages, because they are …