It is a well-known fact that sign languages are characterized with a wide range of simultaneous constructions, e.g. complex polymorphemic constructions, maintenance of list buoys in space while another hand continues signing, overlaying of various types of non-manuals with manual signing, etc. In transcribing these simultaneous constructions, decisions have to be made as to whether they should be given a single gloss or be glossed separately in two different tiers. This presentation discusses the transcription system of Hong Kong Sign Language acquisition data, with particular focus on how simultaneous constructions are analyzed and glossed, and the difficulties we encountered in the transcription process. We are currently developing a Hong Kong Sign Language acquisition Corpus (Tang et al.) with transcriptions done with ELAN. One major advantage of ELAN is that it allows us to represent different pieces of linguistic information simultaneously on separate tiers. However, it is not always easy to decide whether two different signs produced by two hands should be glossed as a single sign or be teased apart and glossed separately on two different tiers. For example, in a typical classifier predicate such as ‘a cup on a table’ in example one below, the signs can either be glossed as a single entry ‘CL-cup-on-table’, or marked separately by ‘CL-cup’ and ‘CL-flat surface’ on two different tiers: Example (1): ‘a cup on a table’ Left hand: CL-cup Right hand: CL-flat-surface The advantage of having a single gloss is that it reflects the native intuition that the two classifiers form a single syntactic unit. Yet it fails to reflect the morphological complexity of the construction, leading to a potential underestimation of the morphological development of the deaf child. On the other hand, having two separate glosses can clearly show that two classifiers are involved in the construction, reflecting its morphological complexities to some extent. From a theoretical point of view, however, once this method is adopted, the glosses are being used as ‘analyzable units’ to represent separate handshape morphemes. A question that arises logically is, why do we want to represent handshape morphemes separately in the transcription, but not morphemes of other phonological parameters, such as movements and locations? Another equally thorny issue is how to gloss classifiers or signs (i.e. list buoy) that are held in space. In example (2), the signer expresses two propositions: ‘A man stands here’ and ‘a woman shot him with a gun’: Example (2): Left hand: MAN CL-stand --------------------------------------------> Right hand: FEMALE SHOOT-WITH-A-GUN In terms of articulation, the classifier for ‘MAN’ is held in space while the second clause is signed. Syntactically, the classifier for MAN becomes the internal argument of the transitive verb SHOOT-WITH-A-GUN in the second clause. In the literature, if a sign is held in space, a broken line is usually used to represent the duration of which the sign is held. If the same method is used in the transcription, however, the fact that the classifier is the internal argument of the second clause cannot be captured. This may potentially lead to an under-estimation of the deaf child’s syntactic complexity, if statistics are based on figures generated by the search functions of ELAN. In this presentation, an attempt will be made to provide solutions to the above issues.
@inproceedings{fung:08001:sign-lang:lrec,
author = {Fung, Cat H-M and Sze, Felix and Lam, Scholastica and Tang, Gladys},
title = {Simultaneity vs. sequentiality: developing a transcription system of {Hong} {Kong} {Sign} {Language} acquisition data},
pages = {22--27},
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/08001.pdf}
}