@inproceedings{jiang-etal-2024-swisssli:lrec, author = {Jiang, Zifan and G{\"o}hring, Anne and Moryossef, Amit and Sennrich, Rico and Ebling, Sarah}, title = {SwissSLi: the Multi-parallel Sign Language Corpus for Switzerland}, pages = {15448--15456}, editor = {Calzolari, Nicoletta and Kan, Min-Yen and Hoste, Veronique and Lenci, Alessandro and Sakti, Sakriani and Xue, Nianwen}, booktitle = {2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC-COLING} 2024)}, publisher = {{ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA) and the International Committee on Computational Linguistics (ICCL)}}, address = {Torino, Italy}, day = {20--25}, month = may, year = {2024}, isbn = {978-2-493814-10-4}, language = {english}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/2024.lrec-main.1342}, abstract = {In this work, we introduce SwissSLi, the first sign language corpus that contains parallel data of all three Swiss sign languages, namely Swiss German Sign Language (DSGS), French Sign Language of Switzerland (LSF-CH), and Italian Sign Language of Switzerland (LIS-CH). The data underlying this corpus originates from television programs in three spoken languages: German, French, and Italian. The programs have for the most part been translated into sign language by deaf translators, resulting in a unique, up to six-way multi-parallel dataset between spoken and sign languages. We describe and release the sign language videos and spoken language subtitles as well as the overall statistics and some derivatives of the raw material. These derived components include cropped videos, pose estimation, phrase/sign-segmented videos, and sentence-segmented subtitles, all of which facilitate downstream tasks such as sign language transcription (glossing) and machine translation. The corpus is publicly available on the SWISSUbase data platform for research purposes only under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.} } @inproceedings{trolvi-delmonte-2020-annotating:lrec, author = {Trolvi, Serena and Delmonte, Rodolfo}, title = {Annotating a Fable in {I}talian {S}ign {L}anguage ({LIS})}, pages = {6025--6034}, editor = {Calzolari, Nicoletta and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric B{\'e}chet and Blache, Philippe and Choukri, Khalid and Cieri, Christopher and Declerck, Thierry and Goggi, Sara and Isahara, Hitoshi and Maegaard, Bente and Mariani, Joseph and Mazo, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and Moreno, Asuncion and Odijk, Jan and Piperidis, Stelios}, booktitle = {12th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2020)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Marseille, France}, day = {11--16}, month = may, year = {2020}, isbn = {979-10-95546-34-4}, language = {english}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/2020.lrec-1.738}, abstract = {This paper introduces work carried out for the automatic generation of a written text in Italian starting from glosses of a fable in Italian Sign Language (LIS). The paper gives a brief overview of sign languages (SLs) and some peculiarities of SL fables such as the use of space, the strategy of Role Shift and classifiers. It also presents the annotation of the fable ''The Tortoise and the Hare'' - signed in LIS and made available by Alba Cooperativa Sociale -, which was annotated manually by first author for her master's thesis. The annotation was the starting point of a generation process that allowed us to automatically generate a text in Italian starting from LIS glosses. LIS sentences have been transcribed with Italian words into tables on simultaneous layers, each of which contains specific linguistic or non-linguistic pieces of information. In addition, the present work discusses problems encountered in the annotation and generation process.} } @inproceedings{kimmelman-etal-2018-ipsl:lrec, author = {Kimmelman, Vadim and Klezovich, Anna and Moroz, George}, title = {{IPSL}: A Database of Iconicity Patterns in Sign Languages. Creation and Use}, pages = {4230--4234}, editor = {Calzolari, Nicoletta and Choukri, Khalid and Cieri, Christopher and Declerck, Thierry and Goggi, Sara and Hasida, Koiti and Isahara, Hitoshi and Maegaard, Bente and Mariani, Joseph and Mazo, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and Moreno, Asuncion and Odijk, Jan and Piperidis, Stelios and Tokunaga, Takenobu}, booktitle = {11th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2018)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Miyazaki, Japan}, day = {7--12}, month = may, year = {2018}, isbn = {979-10-95546-00-9}, language = {english}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/L18-1667} } @inproceedings{yu-etal-2018-sign:lrec, author = {Yu, Shi and Geraci, Carlo and Abner, Natasha}, title = {Sign Languages and the Online World Online Dictionaries {\&} Lexicostatistics}, pages = {4235--4240}, editor = {Calzolari, Nicoletta and Choukri, Khalid and Cieri, Christopher and Declerck, Thierry and Goggi, Sara and Hasida, Koiti and Isahara, Hitoshi and Maegaard, Bente and Mariani, Joseph and Mazo, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and Moreno, Asuncion and Odijk, Jan and Piperidis, Stelios and Tokunaga, Takenobu}, booktitle = {11th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2018)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Miyazaki, Japan}, day = {7--12}, month = may, year = {2018}, isbn = {979-10-95546-00-9}, language = {english}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/L18-1668} } @inproceedings{geraci:14017:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Geraci, Carlo and Mazzei, Alessandro}, title = {Last train to ``{Rebaudengo} {Fossano}'': The case of some names in avatar translation}, pages = {63--66}, editor = {Crasborn, Onno and Efthimiou, Eleni and Fotinea, Stavroula-Evita and Hanke, Thomas and Hochgesang, Julie A. and Kristoffersen, Jette and Mesch, Johanna}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2014} 6th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Beyond the Manual Channel}, maintitle = {9th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2014)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Reykjavik, Iceland}, day = {31}, month = may, year = {2014}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/14017.html}, abstract = {In this study, we present an unorthodox case study where cross-linguistic and cross modal information is provided by a ``non-manual'' channel during the process of automatic translation from spoken into sign language (SL) via virtual actors (avatars). Specifically, we blended written forms (crucially, not subtitles) into the sign stream in order to import the names of less-known train stations into Italian Sign Language (LIS). This written Italian-LIS blending is a more effective compromise for Deaf passengers than fully native solutions like fingerspelling or using the local less-known SL names. We report here on part of an ongoing project, LIS4ALL, aiming at producing a prototype avatar signing train station announcements. The final product will be exhibited at the train station of Torino Porta Nuova in Turin, Italy.} } @inproceedings{mantovan:14016:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Mantovan, Lara and Geraci, Carlo and Cardinaletti, Anna}, title = {Addressing the cardinals puzzle: New insights from non-nanual markers in {Italian} {Sign} {Language}}, pages = {113--116}, editor = {Crasborn, Onno and Efthimiou, Eleni and Fotinea, Stavroula-Evita and Hanke, Thomas and Hochgesang, Julie A. and Kristoffersen, Jette and Mesch, Johanna}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2014} 6th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Beyond the Manual Channel}, maintitle = {9th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2014)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Reykjavik, Iceland}, day = {31}, month = may, year = {2014}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/14016.html}, abstract = {This paper aims at investigating the main linguistic properties associated with cardinal numerals in LIS (Italian sign language). Considering this issue from several perspectives (phonology, prosody, semantics and syntax), we discuss some relevant corpus and elicited data with the purpose of shedding light on the distribution of cardinals in LIS. We also explain what triggers the emergence of different word/sign orders in the noun phrase. Non-manual markers are crucial in detecting two particular subcases.} } @inproceedings{shoaib-etal-2012-platform:lrec, author = {Shoaib, Umar and Ahmad, Nadeem and Prinetto, Paolo and Tiotto, Gabriele}, title = {A platform-independent user-friendly dictionary from {I}talian to {LIS}}, pages = {2435--2438}, editor = {Calzolari, Nicoletta and Choukri, Khalid and Declerck, Thierry and Do{\u g}an, Mehmet U{\u g}ur and Maegaard, Bente and Mariani, Joseph and Moreno, Asuncion and Odijk, Jan and Piperidis, Stelios}, booktitle = {8th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2012)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Istanbul, Turkey}, day = {21--27}, month = may, year = {2012}, isbn = {978-2-9517408-7-7}, language = {english}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/L12-1541}, abstract = {The Lack of written representation for Italian Sign Language (LIS) makes it difficult to do perform tasks like looking up a new word in a dictionary. Most of the paper dictionaries show LIS signs in drawings or pictures. It's not a simple proposition to understand the meaning of sign from paper dictionaries unless one already knows the meanings. This paper presents the LIS dictionary which provides the facility to translate Italian text into sign language. LIS signs are shown as video animations performed by a virtual character. The LIS dictionary provides the integration with MultiWordNet database. The integration with MultiWordNet allows a rich extension with the meanings and senses of the words existing in MultiWordNet. The dictionary allows users to acquire information about lemmas, synonyms and synsets in the Sign Language (SL). The application is platform independent and can be used on any operating system. The results of input lemmas are displayed in groups of grammatical categories.} } @inproceedings{bertoldi:10054:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Bertoldi, Nicola and Tiotto, Gabriele and Prinetto, Paolo and Piccolo, Elio and Nunnari, Fabrizio and Lombardo, Vincenzo and Mazzei, Alessandro and Damiano, Rossana and Lesmo, Leonardo and Del Principe, Andrea}, title = {On the creation and the annotation of a large-scale {Italian-LIS} parallel corpus}, pages = {19--22}, editor = {Dreuw, Philippe and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Johnston, Trevor and Mart{\'i}nez Ruiz, Gregorio and Schembri, Adam}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2010} 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies}, maintitle = {7th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2010)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Valletta, Malta}, day = {22--23}, month = may, year = {2010}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/10054.html}, abstract = {This paper presents the current development of the first large parallel corpus between Italian and Italian Sign Language (Lingua Italiana dei Segni, LIS). This initiative has been taken within the ATLAS project (Automatic Translation into Sign Languages), that aims at realizing a virtual interpreter, which automatically translates an Italian text into LIS. \par The Italian-LIS virtual interpreter is implemented by means of two modules interfaced by the ATLAS Extended Written LIS (AEWLIS), which is a translation-oriented representation of LIS: The first module translates the source Italian text into AEWLIS; the second module transforms the AEWLIS content into a coherent LIS sequence, smoothly animated by a virtual character. \par As no significant amount of electronic data are available for Italian and LIS, we have started building a parallel corpus from scratch in order to train and tune the Italian-AEWLIS translation system, and to compare the resulting virtual animations with human-performed LIS interpretations. The corpus, which will be freely available, actually presents a tri-lingual structure, with the Italian text, the AEWLIS sequence, and the signed LIS video.} } @inproceedings{borgotallo:10053:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Borgotallo, Roberto and Marino, Carmen and Piccolo, Elio and Prinetto, Paolo and Tiotto, Gabriele and Rossini, Mauro}, title = {A Multilanguage Database for supporting Sign Language Translation and Synthesis}, pages = {23--26}, editor = {Dreuw, Philippe and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Johnston, Trevor and Mart{\'i}nez Ruiz, Gregorio and Schembri, Adam}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2010} 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies}, maintitle = {7th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2010)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Valletta, Malta}, day = {22--23}, month = may, year = {2010}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/10053.html}, abstract = {The design of a language database is an important task within projects targeting sign language research. In this paper is presented a database structure that supports both linguistic information and visualisation oriented data to assist a final publication of services for deaf people. The database has been designed within the Automatic Translation into sign LAnguageS (ATLAS) project that takes aim at getting the automatic translation from written Italian to Italian Sign Language (LIS). The final step of the overall process is the enrichment of the original video with a superimposed virtual character realised by 3D animated computer graphics. The top element within the database is the A{\_}Product defined as the main primitive element managed by the ATLAS platform under which all the other data, from input sources to the final publication modalities and attributes lay. The A{\_}Product includes the reference to the original content and all the intermediate elaborations results towards the final publication comprehensive of the virtual character animations. Among the others, the most important transformation is the automatic translation from a written Italian text to the intermediate language AEWLIS (ATLAS Extended Written LIS), formalized within the ATLAS project.} } @inproceedings{conte:10024:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Conte, Genny and Santoro, Mirko and Geraci, Carlo and Cardinaletti, Anna}, title = {Why are you raising your eyebrows?}, pages = {53--56}, editor = {Dreuw, Philippe and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Johnston, Trevor and Mart{\'i}nez Ruiz, Gregorio and Schembri, Adam}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2010} 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies}, maintitle = {7th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2010)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Valletta, Malta}, day = {22--23}, month = may, year = {2010}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/10024.html}, abstract = {It is widely known that sign languages make an extensive use of non-manual markers (NMM) to transmit linguistic information. Some NMMs are specific to particular constructions (in several Sign Languages, furrowed eyebrows is mostly used to mark wh-questions, while headshake is used to mark negation), others may occur in several unrelated constructions (see eyebrow raising in American sign language). This study presents preliminary results of a quantitative investigation of the distribution of raised eyebrows (re-NMM) in Italian Sign Language (LIS). Re-NMM frequently occurs in spontaneous signing and is used to mark a variety of constructions; therefore re-NMM qualifies as a good candidate for a VARBRUL analysis. In particular, re-NMM may mark 8 different constructions in LIS: yes/no-questions, topics, if-clauses, correlative clauses, focus, contrastive focus, subordinate clauses, and the signer's attitude. Data come from a corpus of LIS and have been analyzed with the ELAN software. Results show an even distribution across the sample for most of the uses of re-NMM. Only two functions turned out to be significantly different: the use of re-NMM as a focus marker and the use of re-NMM as an attitude marker, which are sensitive to age.} } @inproceedings{geraci:10023:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Geraci, Carlo and Bayley, Robert and Branchini, Chiara and Cardinaletti, Anna and Cecchetto, Carlo and Donati, Caterina and Giudice, Serena and Mereghetti, Emiliano and Poletti, Fabio and Santoro, Mirko and Zucchi, Sandro}, title = {Building a corpus for {Italian} {Sign} {Language}. Methodological issues and some preliminary results}, pages = {98--101}, editor = {Dreuw, Philippe and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Johnston, Trevor and Mart{\'i}nez Ruiz, Gregorio and Schembri, Adam}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2010} 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies}, maintitle = {7th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2010)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Valletta, Malta}, day = {22--23}, month = may, year = {2010}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/10023.html}, abstract = {The aim of this paper is to discuss some methodological issues that emerged during the creation of a corpus of data for Italian Sign Language, LIS. Data were collected from 10 cities spread across the country. 18 signers from each city have been recruited. They are native speakers of LIS or later-exposed to LIS and are divided into 3 age groups (19-38, 39-58, 59-78) of 6 signers each (3 males and 3 females). The methodology of data collection and transcription is similar to that used in previous studies of variation in American Sign Language (Lucas, Bayley {\&} Valli 2001) and Australian Sign Language (Johnston {\&} Schembri 2006), with some differences that we discuss. The corpus consists of various kinds of texts collected with different strategies: free conversation (45 minutes), elicited dialogues (about 5-10 minutes), narration (10 minutes) and a picture-naming task (42 items). For the transcription we adopted the ELAN software (Johnston {\&} Crasborn 2006). Finally, a brief report on some preliminary results is presented.} } @inproceedings{vendrame:10018:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Vendrame, Mara and Tiotto, Gabriele}, title = {{ATLAS} Project: Forecast in {Italian} {Sign} {Language} and Annotation of Corpora}, pages = {239--242}, editor = {Dreuw, Philippe and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Johnston, Trevor and Mart{\'i}nez Ruiz, Gregorio and Schembri, Adam}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2010} 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies}, maintitle = {7th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2010)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Valletta, Malta}, day = {22--23}, month = may, year = {2010}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/10018.html}, abstract = {The paper presents the preliminary results of a research project focused on the creation and the annotation of one Italian Sign Language corpus concerning the weather forecasts domain. As a result of the annotation process, our annotations of signs sequences showed that the semantics of the signed discourse cannot be grasped just through an annotation of single weather signs which exploits the five parameters handshape, movements, directions, locations and non-manual components. Rather, from the annotation process appears that, in order to grasp the discourse semantics, it is necessary to consider the extensive use of Highly Iconic Structures in order to specify the iconic properties of the different atmospherics phenomena. In particular, it often occurs that several signs are combined among themselves (see also Cuxac, 2000; Di Renzo, et al, 2006; Pizzuto et al., 2008; Pizzuto, Rossini {\&} Russo, 2006). Thus, respect to single signs, our analysis of complex manual and non-manual units stored in our database suggests the necessity to better explore multidimensional aspects, in order to properly develop and train an automatic translator able to translate from Italian written text to Italian Sign Language.} } @inproceedings{pizzuto:08014:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Pizzuto, Elena Antinoro and Chiari, Isabella and Rossini, Paolo}, title = {The Representation Issue and its Multifaceted Aspects in Constructing Sign Language Corpora: Questions, Answers, Further Problems}, pages = {150--158}, 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/08014.html}, abstract = {This paper aims to address and clarify one issue we believe is crucial in constructing Sign Languages (SL) corpora: identifying appropriate tools for representing in written form SL productions of any sort, i.e. lexical items, utterances, discourse at large. Towards this end, building on research done within our group on multimedia corpora of both SL and spoken or verbal languages (vl), we first outline some of the major requirements and guidelines followed in current work with vl corpora (e.g. regarding transcription, representation [mark-up], coding [or annotation] Chiari, 2007; Edwards {\&} Lampert; 1993; Leech {\&} al, 1995; Ochs, 1979; Powers, 2005, among others). We highlight that a basic requirement of vl corpora is an easily readable transcription that, aside from specialist linguistic annotations, allows anyone who knows the object language to reconstruct its forms, and its form-meaning correspondences. Second, we show how this basic requirement is not met in most current work on SL, where the `transcription' of SL productions consists primarily of word-labels taken from vl, inappropriately called `glosses'. As argued by some authors (e.g. Pizzuto {\&} Pietrandrea, 2001; Russo, 2005; Pizzuto et al., 2006), the use of such word-labels as a primary representation tool grossly misrepresents SL, even when supported by specialist linguistic annotations (e.g. Stokoe-based notations, the Berkeley Transcription System [Slobin et al., 2001]). Drawing on a crosslinguistic overview of relevant work on SL lexicon and discourse (e.g. Brennan, 2001; Cuxac, 2000; Cuxac {\&} Sallandre, 2007; Russo, 2004; Antinoro Pizzuto et al., 2007), we illustrate how the `transcriptions' most widely used for SL do not allow to anyone who knows the specific SL to reconstruct its forms and form-meaning correspondences, and are especially inadequate for representing complex sign units that are very frequent in SL discourse, and exhibit highly iconic, muldimensional/multilinear features that have no parallel in vl. Third, we present and discuss ongoing research on Italian Sign Language (LIS) in which experienced deaf signers explore the use of SignWriting (Sutton, 1995) as a tool for both composing texts conceived in written form -- thereby creating a corpus of written LIS -- and for transcribing corpora of face-to-face LIS discourse (Di Renzo et al., 2006; Di Renzo, in press; Lamano et al., in press). The results show that, in both cases, deaf signers can easily represent the form-meaning patterns of their language with an accuracy never experienced with other representation or notation systems. The analysis of the texts produced has also provided new indications on the structure of LIS, highlighting the need of revising the criteria for constructing lexical corpora on the grounds of regularities (and variance) found in discourse corpora. While all of this suggests that SignWriting can be a valuable tool for addressing the representation issue in constructing SL corpora, the present computerized form of SignWriting poses technical problems that severely constrain its use. We conclude specifying the problems that need to be faced for conducting more extensive experimentations.} } @inproceedings{direnzo:06003:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Di Renzo, Alessio and Lamano, Luca and Lucioli, Tommaso and Pennacchi, Barbara and Ponzo, Luca}, title = {{Italian} {Sign} {Language} ({LIS}): Can We Write it and Transcribe it with {SignWriting}?}, pages = {11--16}, editor = {Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2006} 2nd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic Matters and Didactic Scenarios}, maintitle = {5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2006)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Genoa, Italy}, day = {28}, month = may, year = {2006}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/06003.html}, abstract = {This paper is the result of our discussions and reflections on using Signwriting for writing and transcribing LIS texts} } @inproceedings{infantino:06006:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Infantino, Ignazio and Rizzo, Riccardo and Gaglio, Salvatore}, title = {A Software System for Automatic Signed {Italian} Recognition}, pages = {25--30}, editor = {Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2006} 2nd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic Matters and Didactic Scenarios}, maintitle = {5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2006)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Genoa, Italy}, day = {28}, month = may, year = {2006}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/06006.html}, abstract = {The paper shows a system for automatic recognition of Signed Italian sentences. The proposed system is based on a multi-level architecture that models and manages the knowledge involved in the recognition process in a simple and robust way, integrating a common sense engine in order to deal with sentences in their context. In this architecture, the higher abstraction level introduces a semantic control and an analysis of the correctness of a sentence given a sequence of previously recognized signs. Experimentations are presented using a set of signs from the Italian Sign Language (LIS) and a sentence template useful for domotic applications, and show a high recognition rate that encourages to investigate on larger set of sign and more general contexts.} } @inproceedings{kellettbidoli:06008:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Kellett Bidoli, Cynthia J.}, title = {Glossary Compilation of {LSP} Including a Signed Language: a Corpus-based Approach}, pages = {37--42}, editor = {Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2006} 2nd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic Matters and Didactic Scenarios}, maintitle = {5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2006)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Genoa, Italy}, day = {28}, month = may, year = {2006}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/06008.html}, abstract = {Sign language interpreters not only work in a `community' context but also are called to conferences on deafness-related issues containing language for special purposes (LSP). In Trieste, within an Italian national research project, one particular area of research has been centred on investigating textual recasting that may take place during English to Italian Sign Language (LIS) interpretation based on the compilation of parallel multimodal corpora in English, Italian and LIS. Electronic analysis of the corpora enabled the collecting and concordancing of specialized terminology and the development of a pilot version of a trilingual electronic terminological dictionary (on CD-ROM). The glossary will contain dynamic imagery of LIS and will provide a useful and innovative tool for future interpreter trainees.} } @inproceedings{insolera:06019:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Insolera, Emilio and Militano, Maria Giuseppina and Radutzky, Elena and Rossini, Alessandra}, title = {Pilot Learning Strategies in Step with New Technologies: {LIS} and {Italian} in a Bilingual Multimedia Context `Tell Me a Dictionary'}, pages = {92--95}, editor = {Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2006} 2nd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic Matters and Didactic Scenarios}, maintitle = {5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2006)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Genoa, Italy}, day = {28}, month = may, year = {2006}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/06019.html}, abstract = {A pilot project designed for the integrated or non-integrated classroom, speech therapy setting, and family at home, this multi-media DVD + book series offers deaf and hearing children ``of all ages'' a lively interactive tool for discovering and comparing two very different languages, Italian Sign Language and Italian. \par ``Raccontami un dizionario''(Tell Me A Dictionary) is rich in vocabulary presented through stories and sentences that project both languages as living languages, thanks also to a lively 8-minute animated cartoon, signed and spoken narration, Italian with subtitles, vocabulary building games and a glossary that takes you back to the vocabulary items in the DVD. \par The illustrations and story in the accompanying book derive from the DVD: both animated and printed versions tell the story even without the support of language, permitting access even to young children just beginning to read. \par The animated story facilitates the understanding of written Italian, especially verbs which, through animation, offer a dynamism that is limited by two dimensional book illustrations. The book reinforces the written Italian and children can experiment narrating the story to their friends and engage in dramatization with classmates. \par Published by LisMedia {\&} CO, it is easily adapted to other spoken and signed languages.} } @inproceedings{cameracanna:06020:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Cameracanna, Emanuela and Franchi, Maria Luisa}, title = {Metodo Vista -- Teaching Sign Language in {Italy}}, pages = {96--99}, editor = {Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2006} 2nd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic Matters and Didactic Scenarios}, maintitle = {5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2006)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Genoa, Italy}, day = {28}, month = may, year = {2006}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/06020.html}, abstract = {The Metodo VISTA is a video course consisting of a Teacher's Book and a Teacher's Video, a Student's Book and a Student's Video. It is based on the book ``Signing Naturally'' for the teaching of American Sign Language written by Chery Smith, Ella Mae Lentz and Ken Mikos, and has been adapted for the teaching of LIS. Thus the first, second and third volume are intended for teachers who wish to teach LIS and for students who want to learn it. Its aim is to help teachers organize a series of lessons divided into three different levels of language learning. The Metodo VISTA leads the students who know nothing about deafness or Sign Language to interact with deaf people in a wide range of situations. The knowledge of the culture of the deaf is an integral part of the programme. It is also taught by the presentation of native signers who show cultural and linguistic behaviour in various situations in a video.} } @inproceedings{vettori:04011:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Vettori, Chiara and Streiter, Oliver and Knapp, Judith}, title = {From Computer Assisted Language Learning ({CALL}) to Sign Language Processing: the Design of {E-LIS}, an Electronic Bilingual Dictionary of {Italian} {Sign} {Language} and {Italian}}, pages = {59--62}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04011.html}, abstract = {This paper presents the design of e-LIS (Electronic Bilingual Dictionary of Italian Sign Language (LIS) and Italian), an ongoing research project at the European Academy of Bolzano. We will argue that an electronic sign language dictionary has to fulfil the function of a reference dictionary as well as the function of a learner's dictionary. We therefore provide an analysis of CALL approaches and technologies, taking as example the CALL systems ELDIT and GYMN@ZILLA developed at the European Academy of Bolzano too. We will show in how far these approaches or techniques can be ported to create an electronic dictionary of sign languages, for which system components new solutions have to be found and whether specific modules for the processing of sign languages have to be integrated.} } @inproceedings{ochse:04013:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Ochse, Elana}, title = {A language via two others: learning {English} through {LIS}}, pages = {68--74}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04013.html}, abstract = {The complex intercultural activity of teaching/learning to read and write in a foreign language clearly involves a reciprocal cultural exchange. While trying to get students to efficiently learn the language in question, namely English, the teacher adapts to her pupils' culture and communication mode: in this case LIS or Italian Sign Language. \par This paper attempts to demonstrate the complex process of developing a corpus for analysis of selected foreign language classroom exchanges. Here our emphasis is on face-to-face communication: what is imparted to the students by the teacher in Italian, how this information is transmitted or filtered by the LIS interpreter, what information the students eventually receive and how they react to it. A particular example of classroom activity has been filmed, transcribed and analysed from the points of view of successful communication, on the one hand, and failure or breakdown of exchange, on the other.} } @inproceedings{laterza:04024:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Laterza, Paola and Baj, Claudio}, title = {Progetto {e-LIS@}}, pages = {113--125}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04024.html}, abstract = {Progetto e-LIS@ is the presentation of a work-in- progress, which was started in November 2000 by two Italian scholars, Paola Laterza (who is a hearing psychologist) and Claudio Baj, a Deaf LIS teacher. Their aim is to find a system of cataloguing signs in order to create a complete but flexible multimedial dictionary, to be used both by competent Italian Sign Language users and by competent users of Italian. This research presents a new way of ordering signs, different from the usual alphabetical one, and is more congenial to the signing community's linguistic needs, which are clearly oriented to the visual-corporeal channel rather than to the written- oral one. In fact, there are Italian/Sign Language dictionaries based on the alphabetical order, but there is none that goes from Sign Language to the written-oral language (Italian). Special attention has been paid to how signs are systematised: so far the handshape parameter has been explored in detail, but in the near future we plan to associate it with two more parameters, viz. location and orientation. At a later date movement and non-manual signals will also be included among the cataloguing criteria. The objective is not only to put signs in order according to a more flexible and therefore acceptable system for signers (like the alphabetical order satisfies hearing people's phonological needs), but also to allow for the quick search of signs in the multimedial dictionary. The paper describes how, after elaborating different versions in their step-by-step research, the two researchers decided that the present format was more functional, practical and economical from the point of view of the dictionary as an instrument. They will present the results already obtained in their research as well as their intermediate findings to demonstrate their chosen work method but also to receive feedback from other Italian and European realities.} }