about NOVO DEIT-LIBRAS, First Edition, and tools for experimental research on sign language processing and theoretical modeling

Wed Oct 7 21:57:32 UTC 2009

Dear Valerie!
Thank you so very much for your generosity and kindness in preparing such a
great announcement!
Congratulations for another piece of a beautiful work of yours!
I will subscribe to the list so to be able to reply to the questions. I
would like to apologize in advance should I not be able to reply immediately
to all questions. Thank you.
For the 2nd edition of the Novo Deit-Libras, we already have 1,700 brand new
signs and until 2012 shall prepare additional 7,000 brand new signs on
college curriculum areas such as Medicine, Biology, Physics,
Chemestry, Education, History, Geography, Anthropology, Law, Engeneering,
Mathematics etc. We are making an effort to engage Brazilian deaf people
with college degrees (preferably those pursuing graduate school) to
contribute with signs from their respective areas of study so as to obtain a
Libras sign lexicon capable of covering a wide range of disciplines in
Libras.
We are succeeding so far, as the beautiful Novo Deit-Libras show. Thanks to
the cooperation of brilliant and caring people, the future for the Brazilian
deaf child seems quite bright, at last!
Sincere fraternal love.
Fernando

Dear Tim,
Thank you for writing.
In 2001 here at the University of Sao Paulo we have created a nice system
(named BuscaSigno - or Libras SignRetrieval System) which allows anyone to
locate and retrieve Libras signs (from the corpus of the Trilingual
Encyclopedic Illustrated Libras Dictionary, Capovilla & Raphael, 2001) on
the basis of sign forms rather than on the basis of Portuguese glosses. I
have demonstrated that system during a Gallaudet Seminar on Sign Language
Lexicography in 2002, and a paper about that was published in Sign Language
Studies. Our Libras SignRetrieval System works nicely. It allows deaf
students as well as foreigners who do not read Portuguese to locate and
retrieve Libras signs from the dictionary without having to depend
on Portuguese glosses. In the following years I have used BuscaSigno in
order to *understand the cognitive processes involved in retrieving signs
from a lexicon* (either mental or computerized) by hearing and deaf people.
The findings were incredibly exciting. I have discovered that *the ease with
which someone manages to retrieve a give sign is an inverse function of the
logarithm of the average popularity of the cheremes that make up any given
sign*! The lower the popularity of any given chereme, the higher its
importance as index for sign retrieval. BuscaSigno helped us to obtain the
distribution of cheremes in the Brazilian lexicon and is a precious tool for
comparative linguistics and cognitive linguistics of sign language structure
and processing. The mathematical function fits data perfetly. Pretty cool
original finding on cognitive neuropsycholinguistics of Sign Language
processing. I wonder if people at Gallaudet might be interested in that.
Anyway, now that we have doubled the size of the corpus in the Novo
Deit-Libras (Capovilla, Raphael, Mauricio, 2001), we are working on
BuscaSigno in order to expand its lexicon. As soon as we manage to do that,
we intend to publish in the CD-Rom format. However, I suspect that the 2nd
ed. of the Novo Deit-Libras will be published before that. Thank you for
your kind message.
Fernando

2009/10/7 Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org>

> SignWriting List
> October 7, 2009
>
> ANNOUNCING!
>
> NOVO DEIT-LIBRAS, First Edition
> A brand new Brazilian Sign Language Dictionary, which includes SignWriting.
> It will be published and available for purchase in one month, November 2009.
> To order in advance, or for more information, contact:
>
> Fernando Capovilla, PhD, Livre Docente
> Professor, Instituto de Psicologia, USP
> Av. Prof. Melo de Morais 1721
> São Paulo, SP, 05508-900, BRAZIL
> fcapovilla at gmail.com
>
> The new NOVO DEIT-LIBRAS Dictionary contains 2,500 pages distributed in two
> beautiful large hardcover volumes. It contains an expanded lexicon of 10,000
> signs from all Brazilian geographic regions, all of them signwritten.
>
> I understand from Dr. Capovilla, that the dictionary explains research on a
> brand new and revolutionary paradigm on sign language lexicography based on
> cognitive neurosciences and neurolinguitics (instead of on mere linguistics)
> which includes a thorough analysis of morphological structure of Brazilian
> Sign Language and sign iconicity. In the paradigm, Dr. Capovilla explains
> why the new discoveries on prevalence of neurons in the cerebellum is so
> important to sign language lexicography and processing, which fits
> beautifully with right cerebral hemispheric processing when it comes to sign
> metaphors. The paradigm restitutes the broken line of sound sign language
> lexicography which was inaugurated by the very first sign language
> dictionaries of the world. The dictionary contains over 50,000 illustrations
> (most of them delightfully humorous in order to engage right cerebral
> hemisphere processing).
>
> Work on a 2nd edition of NOVO DEIT-LIBRAS has already begun. It will
> include 1,600 brand new signs and will add 7,000 new entries. The second
> edition is projected to be published 2011-2012.
>
> More examples from the First Edition of NOVO DEIT-LIBRAS will follow
> shortly. I am working on a new posting about the NOVO DEIT-LIBRAS
> publication. I really look forward to seeing these beautiful published
> volumes in November!
>
> Thank you, Fernando, for the amazing work you do in Brazil!
>
> Please see Artcover attached. This is the front cover, spine and back cover
> all in one piece... Val ;-)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Fernando Capovilla, PhD, Livre Docente
Professor, Instituto de Psicologia, USP
Av. Prof. Melo de Morais 1721
São Paulo, SP, 05508-900
fcapovilla at gmail.com

Sic transit gloria mundi. Aude sapere.
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