Dictionary (DW-DGS)

The Digital Dictionary DGS (DW-DGS) will be the first corpus-based general language dictionary of DGS. The full name of the dictionary is: DW-DGS. Digitales Wörterbuch der Deutschen Gebärdensprache - Das korpusbasierte Wörterbuch DGS - Deutsch'.

The creation of the dictionary is an important step in the documentation, research and teaching of German Sign Language. It is intended as a basic reference work for anyone who uses or is interested in DGS.

The dictionary focuses primarily on the description of individual DGS signs and how to use them. It contains a lot of information on the signs, for example on variants, meanings and distribution. Therefore, it is more of a monolingual dictionary of DGS, but with the difference that we use written German for the explanations of meanings and comments in the entries.

Although the DW-DGS is more of a monolingual dictionary, it also contains some bilingual elements and search options. For example, German translations of the signs are also listed and you can also search for and find signs using these German words.

With its detailed information, the dictionary is primarily aimed at all people who regard DGS as their mother tongue and advanced learners with German as their mother tongue. Another target group are people who deal theoretically and practically with the structure and use of DGS, such as DGS lecturers, sign language interpreters or linguists.

But all other people with an interest in DGS, such as late-deafened people, hearing people who work with deaf people, parents of deaf children and anyone who wants to start learning DGS, will also find a lot of interesting information in the dictionary.

The basis for the dictionary is the DGS corpus. The corpus contains a broad database of signed narratives and conversations of deaf people from all over Germany. The descriptions of the signs in the dictionary are based on an analysis of this data. They show the use of the signs in different contexts, as they were filmed in the contexts of fluent language use for the corpus. This data is examined for the dictionary and the results are summarized in the entries.

A special feature of the dictionary is that short film excerpts from the DGS corpus are integrated directly into the entries as example sentences to illustrate the meanings and use of the signs.

For the first time, the DGS corpus data can also be used to provide well-founded information on particularly frequent and typical sign combinations (collocations) and the distribution of regional variants. The dictionary also contains distribution maps for regional signs.

The dictionary offers various ways to access the information it contains.

• Search by gesture form: If, for example, you have seen the form of a certain gesture, you can search for it in the dictionary. Go to the DGS page with the micons. Micons are small figures with a number underneath that show how a gesture is performed. You can then use the shapes shown to find the gesture you are looking for. If you want more detailed information on the gesture, click on the number of the micon to access the entry.
• Search using a German word: You can search for a German word in the German index and then get a list of matching gestures.
• Search via subject groups: You can search for a subject group in the list of subject groups via a word and then get signs listed that are assigned to this subject group.

The dictionary is a “living document”, which means that it is still being worked on and the contents change from time to time. The dictionary already contains many completed entries. For some signs, however, not all steps have been completed. There are currently automatically generated entries for these signs. The information in the automatic entries is not yet as complete and has not yet been processed and checked in the same way as the completed entries. Additions to the entries and new content will be added at regular intervals so that the dictionary will contain more and more completed entries.

It is also planned that there will soon be a more convenient search for sign forms in the dictionary.

You can access the dictionary here: dw-dgs.de.

Have fun browsing!