How Pragmatics Shape Articulation: A Computational Case Study in STEM ASL Discourse

Imai, Saki | Kezar, Lee | Aichler, Laurel | Inan, Mert | Walker, Erin | Wooten, Alicia | Quandt, Lorna Cobban | Alikhan, Malihe

Volume:: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2026)
Venue:: Palma, Mallorca, Spain
Date:: 11 to 16 May 2026
Pages:: 8476–8490
Publisher:: European Language Resources Association (ELRA)
Licence:: CC BY-NC 4.0
DOI:: 10.63317/2wjnaaabgz4d
ISBN:: 978-2-493814-49-4

Abstract

Most state-of-the-art sign language models are trained on interpreter or isolated vocabulary data, which overlooks the variability that characterizes natural dialogue. However, human communication dynamically adapts to contexts and interlocutors through spatiotemporal changes and articulation style. This specifically manifests itself in educational settings, where novel vocabularies are used by teachers, and students. To address this gap, we collect a motion capture dataset of American Sign Language (ASL) STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) dialogue that enables quantitative comparison between dyadic interactive signing, solo signed lecture, and interpreted articles. Using continuous kinematic features, we disentangle dialogue-specific entrainment from individual effort reduction and show spatiotemporal changes across repeated mentions of STEM terms. On average, dialogue signs are 24.6%-44.6% shorter in duration than the isolated signs, and show significant reductions absent in monologue contexts. Finally, we evaluate sign embedding models on their ability to recognize STEM signs and approximate how entrained the participants become over time. Our study bridges linguistic analysis and computational modeling to understand how pragmatics shape sign articulation and its representation in sign language technologies.

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Citation in ACL Citation Format

Saki Imai, Lee Kezar, Laurel Aichler, Mert Inan, Erin Walker, Alicia Wooten, Lorna Cobban Quandt, Malihe Alikhan. 2026. How Pragmatics Shape Articulation: A Computational Case Study in STEM ASL Discourse. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2026), pages 8476–8490, Palma, Mallorca, Spain. European Language Resources Association (ELRA).

BibTeX Export

@inproceedings{imai-etal-2026-shape:lrec,
  author    = {Imai, Saki and Kezar, Lee and Aichler, Laurel and Inan, Mert and Walker, Erin and Wooten, Alicia and Quandt, Lorna Cobban and Alikhan, Malihe},
  title     = {How Pragmatics Shape Articulation: A Computational Case Study in {STEM} {ASL} Discourse},
  pages     = {8476--8490},
  editor    = {Piperidis, Stelios and Bel, N{\'u}ria and van den Heuvel, Henk and Ide, Nancy and Krek, Simon and Toral, Antonio},
  booktitle = {15th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2026)},
  publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}},
  address   = {Palma, Mallorca, Spain},
  day       = {11--16},
  month     = may,
  year      = {2026},
  isbn      = {978-2-493814-49-4},
  language  = {english},
  url       = {https://lrec.elra.info/lrec2026-main-669},
  doi       = {10.63317/2wjnaaabgz4d}
}