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Sign Language: Presented by 01211805309 Under The Guidance of
Sign Language: Presented by 01211805309 Under The Guidance of
Presented by
Harash Pal
01211805309
Under the Guidance of
Dr. P. R. Gupta
Facts about Sign Language
• Sign languages are NOT the same all over the world.
• Sign languages are NOT just gestures and pantomime, but do have
their own grammar.
• Sign languages are NOT dependent on spoken languages and do not
resemble spoken languages used in the same region.
• Sign languages are NOT “languages of the hands” only, but use non-
manual expressions as well.
• Sign languages have NOT been invented by hearing people.
• Western sign languages (e.g. American Sign Language) are NOT
better than Indian Sign Language.
• Signed codes for spoken languages (e.g. Signed English) are NOT
better than Indian Sign Language.
Some Misconceptions
• All Deaf Users are Written-English Literate
• We Can Generate SL Text as Output
• SL is Just Manually Performed English where English and SL have
the same linguistic structure – that one language is merely a direct
encoding of the other.
• SL Can Easily Use Written-Language MT Technology
• It’s OK to Ignore Classifier Predicates
• Many software designers incorrectly assume that written English
text in a user-interface is always accessible to deaf users
• Many designers believe that if audio information is also presented
as written English text, then the needs of a deaf user are met
Research Areas of Sign Language
• Sign Language Recognition
• Statistical Machine Translation
• English Text-to-Sign Language Animation(3D)
• Speech-to-Sign Language Animation(3D Avtar)
• Sign Language HCI & Computer Applications
• Sign Language into Speech
Sign language vs. English Language
• Sign Language has a grammar that is independent of and quite
distinct from English
• SL allows much freer word order compared to English
• English marks tense morphologically on verbs, whereas SL (like
many languages e.g. ASL) expresses tense lexically via temporal
adverbs
• ASL and English also differ in structure at the level of phonology
• Signed languages, like spoken languages, exhibit a level of
sublexical structure that involves segments and combinatorial rules,
but phonological features are manual rather than oral
• English and ASL differ quite dramatically with respect to how
spatial information is encoded
Sign language vs. English Language
• English, like many spoken languages, expresses locative
information with prepositions, such as “in,” “on,” or “under.”
• In contrast, SL encodes locative and motion information with
verbal classifier constructions where handshape morphemes
specify object type, and the position of the hands in signing
space schematically represents the spatial relation between
two objects
• Thus, English and ASL are quite distinct from each other
within phonological, morphological, and syntactic domains
Sign language vs. English Language
• A natural language with a linguistic structure distinct from
English
• Many deaf adults with English reading difficulty are fluent in
Sign Language
• A majority of deaf 18-year-olds in the United States have an
English reading level below that of a typical 10-year-old
student
• Studies have shown that the majority of deaf high school
graduates in the United States have only a fourth grade
English reading level (Holt, 1991).
Example #1
For example, after saying “pipe,” a Signer
produced an ASL classifier construction
indicating a vertically oriented thin cylinder
without any accompanying speech. In this ASL
construction, two “F” handshapes (thumb and
index finger form a circle) overlapped with
contact, and the right hand moved upward. This
ASL expression does not have an exact English
translation and describes the spatial orientation
and general size of the pipe
Example #2
English sentence and corresponding glosses: