The Klagenfurt lexicon database for sign languages as a web application: A free sign language database for international use

Krammer, Klaudia | Bergmeister, Elisabeth | Bornholdt, Silke | Dotter, Franz | Hausch, Christian | Hilzensauer, Marlene | Pirker, Anita | Skant, Andrea | Unterberger, Natalie

Volume:: Proceedings of the LREC2008 3rd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Construction and Exploitation of Sign Language Corpora
Venue:: Marrakech, Morocco
Date:: 1 June 2008
Pages:: 105–111
Publisher:: European Language Resources Association (ELRA)
License:: CC BY-NC
sign-lang ID:: 08029

Content Categories

Projects:: LedaSila
Languages:: Austrian Sign Language
Lexical Databases:: LedaSila

Abstract

Klagenfurt University has created a database which is described in Sign Language & Linguistics 4 (2001), 191-201. The objective of turning it into a web application was to offer our database for sign languages and users all over the world. In accordance with the self-conception of the Internet community and the rules of linguistic ethics, this is a basic service for sign language communities: the database can be used for free for non-commercial deaf and scientific issues.
As for the procedure: In order to add a sign language to the database, you need to provide a legitimation from the respective deaf organisation (i.e. of those people who use the sign language in question regionally or nationally), then you will be authorised to enter the data for this sign language into the database. By entering data you open them for communities of deaf people, scientists, and learners.
The data of the sign languages entered in the database will be stored on a Klagenfurt server. There is no limitation on calling up sign language data (searching for a certain sign or parameter value(s) etc.). For downloading videos, the users have to disclose their identity.
Main characteristics of the database
The database is designed in a way that everything which should appear in any monolingual or bilingual dictionary can be entered. All descriptive categories are as closely related to phenomena as possible. The analysis of the categories does not have to follow a strictly linear procedure or any assumed phonological or grammatical hierarchy. Additionally it offers:

Openness of the sets of categories and their values (the users can add new categories or values to the database at their discretion). They can also translate the English terms of the description language into any other language which uses an alphabet.
Quick production of entries: In order to enable the users to enter signs as fast as possible, we provide the possibility of a "minimum entry": it is sufficient to enter only one item, e.g. a single meaning, and then to store the sign video. The entries can then be amended later on.

Fields of data types within the database

Type of sign (e.g. one-handed or two-handed symmetrical/asymmetrical; hand shape, location, orientation, type of contact, type of movement, intensity, etc.)

Non-manual component: facial gestures, mouth gestures, body orientation, eye gaze, etc.

Semantics: translation equivalents for a bilingual dictionary or explanation in the respective sign language for a monolingual dictionary); connotations or sign etymologies can also be added.

Pragmatics: use, collocations, or idioms can be documented with video examples.

Text/context examples

Morphosyntax: categories of parts of speech, coding properties (e.g. morphological changes or position in a sentence or phrase) and syntactic functions

Word field(s).

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Citation in ACL Citation Format

Klaudia Krammer, Elisabeth Bergmeister, Silke Bornholdt, Franz Dotter, Christian Hausch, Marlene Hilzensauer, Anita Pirker, Andrea Skant, Natalie Unterberger. 2008. The Klagenfurt lexicon database for sign languages as a web application: A free sign language database for international use. In Proceedings of the LREC2008 3rd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Construction and Exploitation of Sign Language Corpora, pages 105–111, Marrakech, Morocco. European Language Resources Association (ELRA).

BibTeX Export

@inproceedings{krammer:08029:sign-lang:lrec,
  author    = {Krammer, Klaudia and Bergmeister, Elisabeth and Bornholdt, Silke and Dotter, Franz and Hausch, Christian and Hilzensauer, Marlene and Pirker, Anita and Skant, Andrea and Unterberger, Natalie},
  title     = {The {Klagenfurt} lexicon database for sign languages as a web application: A free sign language database for international use},
  pages     = {105--111},
  editor    = {Crasborn, Onno and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Thoutenhoofd, Ernst D. and Zwitserlood, Inge},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2008} 3rd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Construction and Exploitation of Sign Language Corpora},
  maintitle = {6th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2008)},
  publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}},
  address   = {Marrakech, Morocco},
  day       = {1},
  month     = jun,
  year      = {2008},
  language  = {english},
  url       = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/08029.pdf}
}