Représenter les langues des signes sous forme écrite : questions qui ont besoin (encore aujourd’hui) d’être posées

Sign Languages (SLs) are languages which do not have a writing system of their own and which, by their visual-gestural nature, cannot be written phonographically. The consequences of this "unscriptability" are at the center of the work of Elena Antinoro Pizzuto (EAP), carried out from 2000...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Claudia S. Bianchini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICO 2021-12-01
Series:Corela
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/corela/13190
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850264312493375488
author Claudia S. Bianchini
author_facet Claudia S. Bianchini
author_sort Claudia S. Bianchini
collection DOAJ
description Sign Languages (SLs) are languages which do not have a writing system of their own and which, by their visual-gestural nature, cannot be written phonographically. The consequences of this "unscriptability" are at the center of the work of Elena Antinoro Pizzuto (EAP), carried out from 2000. EAP, who died in 2011, highlighted the biases that glosses, used as substitutes for transcription, induce in the linguistic analysis of SLs. Over the past 10 years, technological and methodological advances have made it easier to automatically enter data from the body (thanks to motion capture), to annotate multilinearly multimodal corpora and to maintain the links between annotations and videos (thanks to software such as ELAN), as well as to distribute videos on which the analyses are based (thanks to F.A.I.R. principles). However, these technologies and good practices — although fundamental — do not act as a transcription system: they are solutions that eliminate some of the symptoms linked to SLs unscriptability, but do not make up for the lack of a system of graphic representation for these languages. Therefore, the questions raised by EAP are still relevant today. While various attempts to transcribe SLs have emerged, their use to exploit large corpora of SLs has often been hindered by their poor readability and/or queryability. By comparing the pros and cons of these systems, it is possible to draw up a list of characteristics that a transcription system for SLs (and for co verbal gestures too) should have. Nevertheless, developing a system that brings together all these specificities is a challenge that linguists cannot meet alone: it is in multidisciplinarity, and particularly in working jointly with specialists in the graphic aspects of writing, that the solution lies. In fact, the GestualScript team has employed this "grapholinguistic" approach to develop Typannot, a typographic transcription system for SLs and co-verbal gestures.
format Article
id doaj-art-075d139819dd4a63bfd9fd9f834232b4
institution OA Journals
issn 1638-573X
language English
publishDate 2021-12-01
publisher Cercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICO
record_format Article
series Corela
spelling doaj-art-075d139819dd4a63bfd9fd9f834232b42025-08-20T01:54:44ZengCercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICOCorela1638-573X2021-12-0119210.4000/corela.13190Représenter les langues des signes sous forme écrite : questions qui ont besoin (encore aujourd’hui) d’être poséesClaudia S. BianchiniSign Languages (SLs) are languages which do not have a writing system of their own and which, by their visual-gestural nature, cannot be written phonographically. The consequences of this "unscriptability" are at the center of the work of Elena Antinoro Pizzuto (EAP), carried out from 2000. EAP, who died in 2011, highlighted the biases that glosses, used as substitutes for transcription, induce in the linguistic analysis of SLs. Over the past 10 years, technological and methodological advances have made it easier to automatically enter data from the body (thanks to motion capture), to annotate multilinearly multimodal corpora and to maintain the links between annotations and videos (thanks to software such as ELAN), as well as to distribute videos on which the analyses are based (thanks to F.A.I.R. principles). However, these technologies and good practices — although fundamental — do not act as a transcription system: they are solutions that eliminate some of the symptoms linked to SLs unscriptability, but do not make up for the lack of a system of graphic representation for these languages. Therefore, the questions raised by EAP are still relevant today. While various attempts to transcribe SLs have emerged, their use to exploit large corpora of SLs has often been hindered by their poor readability and/or queryability. By comparing the pros and cons of these systems, it is possible to draw up a list of characteristics that a transcription system for SLs (and for co verbal gestures too) should have. Nevertheless, developing a system that brings together all these specificities is a challenge that linguists cannot meet alone: it is in multidisciplinarity, and particularly in working jointly with specialists in the graphic aspects of writing, that the solution lies. In fact, the GestualScript team has employed this "grapholinguistic" approach to develop Typannot, a typographic transcription system for SLs and co-verbal gestures.https://journals.openedition.org/corela/13190sign languagetranscriptionannotationmultimodal corporagrapholinguistics
spellingShingle Claudia S. Bianchini
Représenter les langues des signes sous forme écrite : questions qui ont besoin (encore aujourd’hui) d’être posées
Corela
sign language
transcription
annotation
multimodal corpora
grapholinguistics
title Représenter les langues des signes sous forme écrite : questions qui ont besoin (encore aujourd’hui) d’être posées
title_full Représenter les langues des signes sous forme écrite : questions qui ont besoin (encore aujourd’hui) d’être posées
title_fullStr Représenter les langues des signes sous forme écrite : questions qui ont besoin (encore aujourd’hui) d’être posées
title_full_unstemmed Représenter les langues des signes sous forme écrite : questions qui ont besoin (encore aujourd’hui) d’être posées
title_short Représenter les langues des signes sous forme écrite : questions qui ont besoin (encore aujourd’hui) d’être posées
title_sort representer les langues des signes sous forme ecrite questions qui ont besoin encore aujourd hui d etre posees
topic sign language
transcription
annotation
multimodal corpora
grapholinguistics
url https://journals.openedition.org/corela/13190
work_keys_str_mv AT claudiasbianchini representerleslanguesdessignessousformeecritequestionsquiontbesoinencoreaujourdhuidetreposees