SW-HamNoSys

[Adam Schembri]

The number of unique signs in the German Sign Language (DGS) Dictionary
caught my eye - that's a very high number compared to other collections.
I've just had a look at the DGS dictionary on SignPuddle Online, and it
seems that some of the entries really would not deserve to be listed as
unique entries for DGS as suggested in this message. For example, the same
lexical sign appears to be listed under 'krank' (sick) and 'nicht krank'
(not sick). In the case of 'nicht krank', you have the lexical item
combined with a headshake. There is also 'erkranken' (get sick) which is
translated by what appears to be a phrase in DGS meaning 'become sick'.
This is a translation of the German word into DGS, and not a 'unique sign'
in DGS as such. 
Although I do not wish to diminish the impressive effort that has gone
into making this SignPuddle collection for DGS and the many hours of work
that it required (well done!), we do have to be careful when comparing
sign language dictionaries, glossaries and wordlists because the same
approach to documenting and recording sign languages is not taken across
all of them. In particular, we have to be careful when listing the number
of entries and their relationship to the actual number of unique lexical
items documented for the sign language in question.
Thanks,
Adam
-- 
Assoc. Prof. Adam Schembri, PhD
Director | National Institute for Deaf Studies and Sign Language
(www.latrobe.edu.au/nids)
Interim director | Centre for Research on Language Diversity
(www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt)
La Trobe University | Melbourne (Bundoora) | Victoria |  3086 |  Australia
Tel : +61 3 9479 2887/6401 | Mob: +61 432 840 744
|http://www.adamschembri.net/webpage/Welcome.html








On 3/07/12 5:51 , "Valerie Sutton" <sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG> wrote:

>Hello Sarah, Penny, Gerard, Dan, all Š.
>
>If you are in need of other sign languages written in SignWriting for
>parallel data, we certainly have a long list SignPuddles filled with
>dataŠsome of the country dictionaries in SignPuddle Online include far
>larger databases than the DSGS SignPuddleŠ
>
>For example, below are two puddle files for German Sign LanguageŠthe
>dictionary alone has over 17,000 entriesŠ thanks to Stefan Woehrmann and
>others in Hamburg for your hard work to make this data available:
>
>German Sign Language Dictionary in SignPuddle:
>17,796 Unique Signs
>http://www.signbank.org/signpuddle2.0/index.php?ui=8&sgn=53
>
>German Sign Language Literature in SignPuddle:
>2, 645 Entries (Documents in Written DGS)
>http://www.signbank.org/signpuddle2.0/index.php?ui=8&sgn=26
>
>When you go to the SignPuddle Online Directory:
>
>SignPuddle Online
>http://www.signbank.org/signpuddle
>
>... you will find flags from different countries. Click on the flags.
>Some have large files and some have not entered anything publicly - but
>there are private SignPuddles that are very large too. If you would like
>links to other large SignPuddles I will be happy to provide them for
>you...
>
>If you would like programming assistance to help transfer SignWriting
>data from SignPuddle to your new database, we will be glad to help any
>project. Just write to me privately to arrange this:
>
>Valerie Sutton
>sutton at signwriting.org
>or
>signwriting at mac.com
>
>Look forward to hearing from you -
>
>And congrats on your new project...
>
>Val ;-)
>
>---------
>
>
>
>
>On Jul 1, 2012, at 10:50 PM, Sarah Ebling wrote:
>
>> Hi Dan,
>> 
>> thanks for clarifying this.    I agree; that's why we'd be happy to get
>>additional parallel data (from other sign languages).
>> 
>> Best wishes, 
>> Sarah and Penny
>> 
>> 
>> On Jul 2, 2012, at 6:00 AM, SLLING-L automatic digest system wrote:
>> 
>>> There is 1 message totalling 21 lines in this issue.
>>> 
>>> Topics of the day:
>>> 
>>> 1. SW-HamNoSys
>>> 
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> Date:    Sun, 1 Jul 2012 19:05:41 -0400
>>> From:    Dan Parvaz <dparvaz at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject: Re: SW-HamNoSys
>>> 
>>> Penny,
>>> 
>>> I think Gerard's question is that since you are using your corpus of
>>>signs... are 
>>> we talking about signs written in DSGS? If so, then your conversion
>>>will be 
>>> based on a particular language's statistical model (DSGS HS inventory
>>>and 
>>> distribution ‚ BSL inventory, for example). How well a conversion
>>>based on this 
>>> model will work with another signed language is an interesting
>>>question.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> -Dan.
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------
>>> 
>>> End of SLLING-L Digest - 29 Jun 2012 to 1 Jul 2012 (#2012-66)
>>> *************************************************************
>>> 
>> 
>