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Chapter 11. W(h)ither the ASL corpus?

Considering trends in signed corpus development
  • Julie A. Hochgesang , Ryan Lepic and Emily Shaw
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Advances in Sign Language Corpus Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Advances in Sign Language Corpus Linguistics

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss logistic and ideological practices used by signed language corpus projects around the world to develop their corpora, starting with Johnston’s early call to develop signed language corpora in 2004. We then outline a brief history of existing American Sign Language (ASL) corpora or corpus-like collections, most of which are specialized and/or inaccessible. We unpack the lessons we have learned as we, North American linguists interested in signed language research and corpora, have sought to create a national-level corpus following the standards set by earlier projects. We conclude that our contexts are somewhat different, and describe projects that we think would be better suited for our ASL communities. In other words, though our dreams of having a single national-level ASL corpus have ‘withered’, we remain optimistic that corpus methods can be used to catalog and analyze the wealth of ASL signing data currently available.

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss logistic and ideological practices used by signed language corpus projects around the world to develop their corpora, starting with Johnston’s early call to develop signed language corpora in 2004. We then outline a brief history of existing American Sign Language (ASL) corpora or corpus-like collections, most of which are specialized and/or inaccessible. We unpack the lessons we have learned as we, North American linguists interested in signed language research and corpora, have sought to create a national-level corpus following the standards set by earlier projects. We conclude that our contexts are somewhat different, and describe projects that we think would be better suited for our ASL communities. In other words, though our dreams of having a single national-level ASL corpus have ‘withered’, we remain optimistic that corpus methods can be used to catalog and analyze the wealth of ASL signing data currently available.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Foreword ix
  4. Acknowledgements xi
  5. Notes on the contributors xii
  6. List of abbreviations and acronyms xxi
  7. Chapter 1. Sign language corpus linguistics 1
  8. Part I. Advances in sign language linguistics
  9. Chapter 2. Negative Concord in Sign Language of the Netherlands 30
  10. Chapter 3. Exploring sign-writing contact and multilingualism in the Norwegian Deaf community 66
  11. Chapter 4. Syntactic functions of nonmanuals in Russian Sign Language 90
  12. Chapter 5. A corpus-based analysis of coordinate structures in Libras 123
  13. Chapter 6. Verb classes in South African Sign Language 155
  14. Chapter 7. Exploring regional variation in the DGS Corpus 192
  15. Chapter 8. Studying microdiachronic change with the Catalan Sign Language corpus 219
  16. Part II. Advances in sign language corpus construction
  17. Chapter 9. Creating a multifaceted corpus of Swedish Sign Language 242
  18. Chapter 10. Overview of and epistemological conditions for building and using LSF corpora 262
  19. Chapter 11. W(h)ither the ASL corpus? 287
  20. Chapter 12. Developing an inventory of handshapes, locations, and movements in Hong Kong Sign Language 309
  21. Chapter 13. Utterance unit annotation for the Japanese Sign Language Dialogue Corpus 353
  22. Index 383
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.108.11hoc

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Foreword ix
  4. Acknowledgements xi
  5. Notes on the contributors xii
  6. List of abbreviations and acronyms xxi
  7. Chapter 1. Sign language corpus linguistics 1
  8. Part I. Advances in sign language linguistics
  9. Chapter 2. Negative Concord in Sign Language of the Netherlands 30
  10. Chapter 3. Exploring sign-writing contact and multilingualism in the Norwegian Deaf community 66
  11. Chapter 4. Syntactic functions of nonmanuals in Russian Sign Language 90
  12. Chapter 5. A corpus-based analysis of coordinate structures in Libras 123
  13. Chapter 6. Verb classes in South African Sign Language 155
  14. Chapter 7. Exploring regional variation in the DGS Corpus 192
  15. Chapter 8. Studying microdiachronic change with the Catalan Sign Language corpus 219
  16. Part II. Advances in sign language corpus construction
  17. Chapter 9. Creating a multifaceted corpus of Swedish Sign Language 242
  18. Chapter 10. Overview of and epistemological conditions for building and using LSF corpora 262
  19. Chapter 11. W(h)ither the ASL corpus? 287
  20. Chapter 12. Developing an inventory of handshapes, locations, and movements in Hong Kong Sign Language 309
  21. Chapter 13. Utterance unit annotation for the Japanese Sign Language Dialogue Corpus 353
  22. Index 383
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