Survey of elicitation materials (SignGram COST Action)

[Josep Quer]

(Our apologies for multiple postings)

Dear colleague,

We are writing to you as the coordinators of a network of researchers
working on European sign languages that has been funded by the
intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and
Technology (COST). The official name of this network is SignGram COST
Action *“*Unraveling the grammars of European sign languages: pathways to
full citizenship of deaf signers and to the protection of their linguistic
heritage”.  Its main goal is to coordinate existing research groups working
on sign language (SL) grammar in order to create a common blueprint to
develop grammars for the different European sign languages. We are still at
the beginning of a 4-year program and researchers have only met once. In
the first meeting, everyone agreed that there are still many aspects of the
grammar of European sign languages that need to be thoroughly explored
before a comprehensive reference grammar can be produced (this holds for
more well-studied sign languages, and even more so for sign languages that
have a more recent research tradition).

In order to facilitate this research, specific elicitation techniques for
the different grammatical properties are needed. Of course we know that
there are many techniques and materials which have been used for
elicitation before, and many of you have valuable experience based on those
techniques and materials. So the first step is collecting materials that
have already been used for elicitation and evaluating to what extent they
could accompany the blueprint as a development tool. That is why  we
decided to create a first inventory of such materials, classified for the
specific purpose it was used for. At a later stage (if the researchers
agree and there are no copyright problems) this material could be uploaded
in the SignGram Cost Action webpage. This should allow different teams to
use the same type of material to study the same linguistic phenomenon in
different sign languages (adapted for differences among them, of course).
“Materials” is an umbrella term, which includes pictures, videos but also
more immaterial devices (like plays, ways to set up linguistic exchanges,
suggestions on how to fix problems that usually arise when a specific
setting is used, etc.). Although the institutional goal of COST is
promoting the study of *European* sign languages, we know that this survey
might be helpful also for researchers working on non-European sign
languages.

We are writing to ask your help for this survey. If you or your research
group have any materials that have been used to elicit sign language
production for any kind of sign language research (anything from informal
settings when working with informants, to experimental settings), we kindly
request you answer the questionnaire that was prepared by our colleagues
Kearsy Cormier  and Christian Rathmann. You find it attached to this mail.
Please return the questionnaire to our colleague Galini Sapountzaki at the
following e-mail address, by THURSDAY 12 APRIL, 2012:

 gsapountz at uth.gr

This would be the first step. Those who answer the questionnaire will be
contacted again, with a follow-up about the possibility (or not) of sharing
materials. Note that sharing is not required for this initial survey; any
concerns or problems about possibly sharing materials should be included in
the survey. We will distribute a report about this survey to everyone who
responds. The more people who respond to this survey, the more useful this
exercise will be for everyone. To see an example of results from a similar
survey that was undertaken in 2009, see here:

http://www.bslcorpusproject.org/wp-content/uploads/posterlondonelizitation.pdf


We hope that you find this initiative useful and we thank you in advance
for your time and for your invaluable help,

Josep Quer and Carlo Cecchetto
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