In this dissertation, I investigate various aspects of object marking and how these manifest themselves in the signed modality. The main focus is on Swedish Sign Language (SSL), the national sign language of Sweden, which is the topic of investigation in all five studies. Two of the studies adopt a comparative perspective, including other sign languages as well. The studies comprise a range of data, including corpus data, elicited production, and acceptability judgments, and combine quantitative and qualitative methods in the analyses. The dissertation begins with an overview of the topics of valency, argument structure, and object marking, primarily from a spoken language perspective. Here, the interactions between semantics and morphosyntax are presented from a typological perspective, introducing differential object marking as a key concept. With regard to signed language, object marking is discussed in terms of both verbal and nominal strategies. Verbal strategies of object marking among sign languages include directional verbs, object handshape classifiers, and embodied perspective in signing. The first study investigates the use of directionality and object handshapes as object marking strategies in Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), Israeli Sign Language (ISL), and SSL. It is shown that the strategies generally display different alignments in terms of the types of objects targeted, which is uniform across languages, but that directionality is much more marginal in ABSL than in the other two languages. Also, we see that there is a connection between object marking strategies and the animacy of the object, and that the strategies, object animacy, and word order preferences interact. In the second and third studies, SSL is investigated with regard to the transitive–reflexive distinction. Here, we see that there are interactional effects between object handshapes and the perspective taken by the signer. This points to intricate iconic motivations of combining and structuring complex verb sequences, such as giving preference to agent focusing structures (e.g., agent perspective and handling handshapes). Furthermore, the use of space is identified as a crucial strategy for reference tracking, especially when expressing semantically transitive events. Nominal strategies include object pronouns and derivations of the sign PERSON. The fourth study provides a detailed account of the object pronoun OBJPRO in SSL, which is the first in-depth description of this sign. It is found that the sign is in widespread use in SSL, often corresponds closely to object pronouns of spoken Swedish, and is argued to be grammaticalized from the lexical sign PERSON. In the final study, the possible existence of object pronouns in other sign languages is investigated by using a sample of 24 languages. This analysis reveals that the feature is found mostly in the Nordic countries, suggesting areal contact phenomena. However, the study also shows that there are a number of derivations of PERSON, such as reflexive pronouns, agreement auxiliaries, and case markers. The use of PERSON as a source of grammaticalization for these functions is attributed to both semantic and phonological properties of the sign. This dissertation is unique in that it is dedicated to the topic of object marking in the signed modality. It brings a variety of perspectives and methods together in order to investigate the domain of object marking, cross-linguistically and cross-modally.

INTRODUÇÃO: Pesquisas nacionais enfatizam que os surdos apresentam dificuldade no uso da flexão verbal de tempo na escrita do português. Esta afirmação é inquestionável, contudo a origem desta dificuldade é atribuída a vários fatores, tais como: influência da Língua de Sinais, dificuldade de acesso à Língua Portuguesa e práticas de ensino descontextualizadas. Buscando compreender melhor este processo, o presente estudo teve como objetivos verificar se e como os surdos flexionam os verbos na Língua Portuguesa Escrita e se eles utilizam outros marcadores de tempo nesta língua e na Língua Brasileira de Sinais. MÉTODOS: O estudo foi realizado com 18 sujeitos com perda auditiva neurossensorial profunda bilateral pré-lingüística, com idade entre 15 e 23 anos, escolaridade de 3ª a 6ª série do Ensino Fundamental, matriculados em sala regular de escola pública, usuários da Língua Brasileira de Sinais, filhos de pais ouvintes e sem comprometimentos associados à surdez. Os indivíduos foram avaliados quanto ao conhecimento em Língua Brasileira de Sinais de nove verbos de ação, por meio de cartelas contendo figuras que os representavam, e em seguida foram orientados a elaborar três frases na Língua Portuguesa Escrita e na Língua Brasileira de Sinais com cada verbo, sendo uma no tempo passado, uma no presente e uma no futuro. Os dados foram avaliados qualitativa e quantitativamente. RESULTADOS: Apesar de a maioria dos participantes da pesquisa utilizar adequadamente os marcadores de tempo nas frases expressas na Língua Brasileira de Sinais, esperava-se melhor desempenho dos sujeitos por ser a língua preferencial de comunicação. Nas frases do passado e do futuro predominaram o uso de adjuntos adverbiais para marcar o tempo e no presente predominou o uso de advérbios de tempo. Nas frases escritas houve o predomínio do verbo na forma nominal do infinitivo. Apenas quatro sujeitos fizeram uso de marcadores utilizados na língua de sinais para indicar o tempo nas frases escritas. Os sujeitos apresentaram melhor desempenho no tempo presente na elaboração das frases na Língua Brasileira de Sinais e na Língua Portuguesa Escrita. Houve relação estatisticamente significante entre o uso das flexões verbais no tempo presente e a utilização de outros marcadores de tempo na escrita com o aumento da escolaridade. CONCLUSÃO: A maioria dos surdos do estudo utiliza marcadores de tempo nas frases expressas na Língua Brasileira de Sinais e apresenta dificuldade na Língua Portuguesa Escrita. Os resultados sugerem que com o avanço da escolaridade esta dificuldade é sanada. Este fato demonstra a necessidade de se repensar as práticas de ensino da Língua Portuguesa, como segunda língua, para que o surdo tenha a oportunidade de ampliar seus conhecimentos e apropriar-se cada vez mais cedo da escrita / INTRODUCTION: National researches have emphasized that deaf students present difficulty in the use of verbal inflexion for tense in written Portuguese. This statement is unquestionable; nevertheless the origin of this difficulty is attributed to several factors, such as: influence of Sign Language, difficulty to access the Portuguese Language, and teaching practices out of context. In order to better understand this process, this study aimed to verify if and how deaf signers use verbal inflection for tense in Portuguese written language and to observe the presence of other resources for tense marking in this language and in Brazilian Sign Language. METHODS: The study was carried out with 18 subjects with profound bilateral sensoryneural hearing loss, ranging in age from 15 to 23 years old, and with an educational level varying from the 3rd to the 7th grade of a regular public Elementary School. All subjects were users of Brazilian Sign Language and had hearing parents; they did not present other disorders associated to deafness. Subjects were assessed concerning the knowledge of nine action verbs in Brazilian Sign Language through boards with pictures representing the actions; they were asked to elaborate three sentences with each verb in written Portuguese and in Brazilian Sign Language, one in the past tense, one in the present and one in the future tense. Data were analyzed qualitative and quantitatively. RESULTS: Despite the adequate use of tense markers by most of the participants of the study in Brazilian Sign Language, a better performance was expected once sign language was the preferable communication language. Adjuncts of adverb were the most frequent tense markers used in the past and in the future sentences, and adverbs of time were predominant in the present tense. Only four subjects used sign language markers to indicate time in written sentences. Subjects presented better performance in the elaboration of sentences in the present tense in both, Brazilian Sign Language and in Written Portuguese. There was a significant statistical relation between the use of verbal inflexion in the present tense and the use of other tense markers in written production according to the increase of the educational level. CONCLUSION: Most of the deaf participants use tense markers in sentences expressed in Brazilian Sign Language and present difficulty in the Written Portuguese. Results suggest that the greater the educational level, less difficulty will be presented. This fact demonstrates the need for rethinking practices of Portuguese teaching as a second language in order for the deaf to have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and to master writing sooner

Deng Jiangwen. / "April 2002." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-170). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Scotland’s oral traditions have received scholarly attention since the 18th Century; however, collection and analysis has exclusively focused on those passed on ‘by word of mouth,’ and the traditional arts of Scotland’s deaf communities have been overlooked. This thesis begins to address this oversight by examining storytelling practices passed on ‘by sign of hand’ in British Sign Language (BSL). Neither fully acculturated to majority society nor ‘foreigners in their own country’ (Murray 2008:102), signing-deaf people have distinct ways of ‘doing’ culture which involve negotiating a bilingual-bicultural continuum between the hearing and deaf worlds. The historical exclusion of signing-deaf culture from conceptualisations of Scotland’s cultural heritage is increasingly being challenged, both overtly and tacitly, through an emergent ‘deaf public voice’ (Bechter 2008:72); in light of this, I consider three case-studies in which BSL storytelling practices have been placed in the public domain. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews and the in-depth analysis of BSL performance-texts, I examine the ways in which signing-deaf biculturality is expressed and performed, and consider the artistry involved in storytelling in a visual-spatial-kinetic language. In so doing, a working methodology is proposed for presenting signed material to non-signers, laying the groundwork for further collection and analysis. Applying Bauman and Murray’s concept of ‘Deaf Gain’ (2009), I argue that the study of this new corpus of oral material has a radical contribution to make to the field of ethnology and folklore, not least in highlighting phonocentric assumptions embedded in the study of oral traditions. I emphasise the extent to which the transmission of culture is predicated on particular ‘techniques of the body’ (Mauss 1973), and argue that, in drawing on different modality-specific affordances, both spoken and signed storytelling should be understood as part of the totality of Scotland’s ‘corp-oral’ traditions through which culture is transmitted ‘by performance of body.’

A presente tese, intitulada Lexicografia da Língua de Sinais Brasileira (Libras) do Nordeste, objetiva documentar o léxico de sinais de Libras usado por uma amostra da população surda residente nos nove estados do Nordeste (AL, BA, CE, MA, PB, PE, PI, RN, e SE) a partir de informantes surdos nativos desses estados, com vistas a aumentar a representatividade geográfica lexical dos sinais de uso comum entre os surdos nordestinos nas próximas edições do Novo Deit-Libras: Novo Dicionário Enciclopédico Ilustrado Trilíngue da Língua de Sinais Brasileira (Capovilla, Raphael, & Mauricio). A região Nordeste, com sua população de 53 milhões de habitantes, dos quais 3 milhões têm alguma deficiência auditiva, ocupa a primeira posição nacional em incidência relativa de pessoas com alguma perda auditiva na população. Considerando a média nacional de incidência de perda auditiva de 5,1% da população, observa-se que todos os nove estados têm incidência de perda auditiva acima da média nacional: CE com 6,2%; PB e RN com 6,1; AL, PI e PE com 6,0; BA com 5,5; SE com 5,4; e MA com 5,3. Diante desses dados alarmantes identificou-se a necessidade de fazer uma pesquisa que pudesse registrar o léxico de sinais usados pelos surdos dessa população. Esta pesquisa lexicográfica, que documenta a língua de sinais da região Nordeste, é parte do programa de pesquisa de documentação lexicográfica de Libras, empreendido no Laboratório de Neuropsicolinguística Cognitiva Experimental da Universidade de São Paulo, que tem documentado a língua de sinais de cada região brasileira. Por isso foram adotados e expandidos os procedimentos metodológicos canônicos de coleta e análise lexicográfica originais do Novo Deit-Libras. A pesquisa produziu um corpus de 4.287 sinais de Libras de todos os nove estados, todos plenamente documentados, descritos e ilustrados em sua forma e em seu significado, bem como distribuídos em 25 categorias semânticas, e devidamente validados por juízes surdos de cada estado / The present thesis aims to document the lexicon of signs of the Brazilian Sign Language, Libras, used by a sample of native deaf informers from all nine states of Northeastern Brazil (Alagoas, Bahia, Ceara, Maranhao, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Piaui, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe). The purpose was to increase the geographic representation of Northeastern Libras signs in the upcoming edition of the New Deit-Libras: New Trilingual Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brazilian Sign Language (see 2nd edition: Capovilla, Raphael, & Mauricio, 2012). In the Northeast Brazil, out of its population of 53 million people, there are 3 million people with some kind of hearing impairment. When compared to the rest of the countrys regions, Northeast Brazil has the highest relative incidence of people with any hearing loss. Considering a 5.1% national average of the hearing loss incidence, it is observed that all nine states have an incidence percentage that is over the national average: Ceara with 6.2%, Paraiba and Rio Grande do Norte with 6.1%, Alagoas, Piaui and Pernambuco with 6.0 %, Bahia with 5.5%, Sergipe with 5.4%, and Maranhao with 5.3%. Such alarming data prove the urgent need to conduct lexicographic research of the Libras sign lexicon used by deaf population in the Northeast Brazil. The present lexicographic research of the Northeast Libras lexicon is part of the major research program conducted by the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsycholinguistics at the University of Sao Paulo, which aims at documenting the Libras lexicon from all geographic regions of Brazil. Therefore, it used the same canonic methods created by the authors of the original Deit-Libras (Capovilla & Raphael, 2001). This research has mapped a corpus of 4,287 Libras signs from all nine states. All signs are fully described and illustrated, both in terms of form and meaning, and are classified into 25 semantic categories. Last, but not least, all signs have been validated by deaf judges from all states

A presente tese, intitulada Lexicografia da Língua de Sinais Brasileira (Libras) do Nordeste, objetiva documentar o léxico de sinais de Libras usado por uma amostra da população surda residente nos nove estados do Nordeste (AL, BA, CE, MA, PB, PE, PI, RN, e SE) a partir de informantes surdos nativos desses estados, com vistas a aumentar a representatividade geográfica lexical dos sinais de uso comum entre os surdos nordestinos nas próximas edições do Novo Deit-Libras: Novo Dicionário Enciclopédico Ilustrado Trilíngue da Língua de Sinais Brasileira (Capovilla, Raphael, & Mauricio). A região Nordeste, com sua população de 53 milhões de habitantes, dos quais 3 milhões têm alguma deficiência auditiva, ocupa a primeira posição nacional em incidência relativa de pessoas com alguma perda auditiva na população. Considerando a média nacional de incidência de perda auditiva de 5,1% da população, observa-se que todos os nove estados têm incidência de perda auditiva acima da média nacional: CE com 6,2%; PB e RN com 6,1; AL, PI e PE com 6,0; BA com 5,5; SE com 5,4; e MA com 5,3. Diante desses dados alarmantes identificou-se a necessidade de fazer uma pesquisa que pudesse registrar o léxico de sinais usados pelos surdos dessa população. Esta pesquisa lexicográfica, que documenta a língua de sinais da região Nordeste, é parte do programa de pesquisa de documentação lexicográfica de Libras, empreendido no Laboratório de Neuropsicolinguística Cognitiva Experimental da Universidade de São Paulo, que tem documentado a língua de sinais de cada região brasileira. Por isso foram adotados e expandidos os procedimentos metodológicos canônicos de coleta e análise lexicográfica originais do Novo Deit-Libras. A pesquisa produziu um corpus de 4.287 sinais de Libras de todos os nove estados, todos plenamente documentados, descritos e ilustrados em sua forma e em seu significado, bem como distribuídos em 25 categorias semânticas, e devidamente validados por juízes surdos de cada estado / The present thesis aims to document the lexicon of signs of the Brazilian Sign Language, Libras, used by a sample of native deaf informers from all nine states of Northeastern Brazil (Alagoas, Bahia, Ceara, Maranhao, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Piaui, Rio Grande do Norte, and Sergipe). The purpose was to increase the geographic representation of Northeastern Libras signs in the upcoming edition of the New Deit-Libras: New Trilingual Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brazilian Sign Language (see 2nd edition: Capovilla, Raphael, & Mauricio, 2012). In the Northeast Brazil, out of its population of 53 million people, there are 3 million people with some kind of hearing impairment. When compared to the rest of the countrys regions, Northeast Brazil has the highest relative incidence of people with any hearing loss. Considering a 5.1% national average of the hearing loss incidence, it is observed that all nine states have an incidence percentage that is over the national average: Ceara with 6.2%, Paraiba and Rio Grande do Norte with 6.1%, Alagoas, Piaui and Pernambuco with 6.0 %, Bahia with 5.5%, Sergipe with 5.4%, and Maranhao with 5.3%. Such alarming data prove the urgent need to conduct lexicographic research of the Libras sign lexicon used by deaf population in the Northeast Brazil. The present lexicographic research of the Northeast Libras lexicon is part of the major research program conducted by the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuropsycholinguistics at the University of Sao Paulo, which aims at documenting the Libras lexicon from all geographic regions of Brazil. Therefore, it used the same canonic methods created by the authors of the original Deit-Libras (Capovilla & Raphael, 2001). This research has mapped a corpus of 4,287 Libras signs from all nine states. All signs are fully described and illustrated, both in terms of form and meaning, and are classified into 25 semantic categories. Last, but not least, all signs have been validated by deaf judges from all states

Many advocates of the deaf fear that a whole generation of deaf children will be lost emotionally, socially, and educationally, this fear stems from the fact that many children who are deaf are not having their linguistic, sociocultural. and communicative needs met at home or at school (King, 1993). Their needs are not met primarily for three reasons. First. the hearing culture is often inaccessible to them because they do not understand most of the spoken language around them. When children lack the communicative abilities to interact with the hearing culture, they can not be expected to be knowledgeable of that culture, to participate in that culture, or to establish an identity as a part of that culture. Secondly, Deaf culture is unknown to many children who are deaf. Ninety percent of children who are deaf are born into hearing families who are unaware of Deaf culture (Moores, 1987). Most children who are deaf and hard of hearing do not know about Deaf culture until they become involved in it through a residential school for the deaf or the Deaf community (Padden & Humphries. 1988). Thirdly. Deaf culture. history. heritage. and American Sign Language are not taught as part of the curriculum in most schools nor in the mainstreamed or self-contained classrooms (Gannon. 1990).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2006. / "May 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-137). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

<p>The communication barriers between deaf and hearing society mean that interaction between these communities is kept to a minimum. The South African Sign Language research group, Integration of Signed and Verbal Communication: South African Sign Language Recognition and Animation (SASL), at the University of the Western Cape aims to create technologies to bridge the communication gap. In this thesis we address the subject of whole hand gesture recognition. We demonstrate a method to identify South African Sign Language classifiers using an eigenvector ap- proach. The classifiers researched within this thesis are based on those outlined by the Thibologa Sign Language Institute for SASL. Gesture recognition is achieved in real- time. Utilising a pre-processing method for image registration we are able to increase the recognition rates for the eigenvector approach.</p>

The multidimensional construct of perfectionism is well studied as it relates to coping with stress and burnout (Flett & Hewitt, 2002). Bontempo and Napier (2011) identify the personality trait of conscientiousness, which includes perfectionistic traits, as beneficial to an interpreter’s job performance. In contrast, several studies suggest that constructs related to maladaptive perfectionistic traits play a role in the development of burnout among interpreters, although perfectionism has not been explicitly identified or used as a research variable (Qin, Marshall, Mozrall, & Marschark, 2008). These studies identify key components of both adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism in the assessment of stress-related outcomes, thereby laying the groundwork for a more focused study on the particular role of perfectionism among interpreters who experience burnout. The multidimensional construct of perfectionism is well studied as it relates to coping with stress and burnout (Flett & Hewitt, 2002). Bontempo and Napier (2011) identify the personality trait of conscientiousness, which includes perfectionistic traits, as beneficial to an interpreter’s job performance. In contrast, several studies suggest that constructs related to maladaptive perfectionistic traits play a role in the development of burnout among interpreters, although perfectionism has not been explicitly identified or used as a research variable (Qin, Marshall, Mozrall, & Marschark, 2008). These studies identify key components of both adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism in the assessment of stress-related outcomes, thereby laying the groundwork for a more focused study on the particular role of perfectionism among interpreters who experience burnout. The current study evaluated the relationship between perfectionism, stress, coping resources and burnout in a sample of sign language interpreters. The results provided support for the mediating role of stress in the association of maladaptive perfectionism and burnout within a sign language interpreting sample. Coping resources did not serve as a moderator between perfectionism variables and burnout or a moderated mediator between perfectionism variables and perceived stress. The implications of these findings for sign language interpreters are discussed. The current study evaluated the relationship between perfectionism, stress, coping resources and burnout in a sample of sign language interpreters. The results provided support for the mediating role of stress in the association of maladaptive perfectionism and burnout within a sign language interpreting sample. Coping resources did not serve as a moderator between perfectionism variables and burnout or a moderated mediator between perfectionism variables and perceived stress. The implications of these findings for sign language interpreters are discussed.