Cross-signing in the UK and Japan.

[Background] Individuals unfamiliar with sign language are often unsure if it is universal. In fact, sign language is not a universal language: each country, (and sometimes different regions within countries) has its own sign language. In mainland Europe, which is characterised by landlocked countries, International Sign is used during meetings. In the UK and Japan, which are island nations, research has focused more on regional sign language than on contact between different sign languages.
In Deaf people's folklore, when deaf individuals who use different sign languages encounter one another, they are capable of engaging in basic conversation after around 30 minutes. This is likely because sign language is a highly visual language and deaf people are skilled in visual communication. This phenomenon has recently been labelled 'cross-signing', and has attracted considerable attention in the fields of cognitive linguistics and communication (Zeshan, 2015; Byun et al., 2017).
[Target] This study focuses on how deaf people from different regions and different countries participate in translanguaging when cross-signing, which is a specific feature of communications among deaf people, and analyses improvisations and changes in sign language communication styles in the context of video conferencing systems.

[Research Methods] We will perform surveys, and language and interaction analyses. Also, a next-generation sign language corpus will be devised, with movements detected using AI techniques for annotation purposes. Interviews will be performed to clarify deaf people's attitudes towards video conferencing communications, and a large-scale questionnaire will be distributed to determine the time spent using video conferencing systems, the number of people communicated with via this modality, and the type of sign language used (according to region and generation) before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This research will focus on changes in sign language expressions due to language contact during video conferences, considering translanguaging and cross-signing practices. The interaction analysis will consider basic CA concepts, such as turn-taking and repair sequences.

[Scientific Significance] The scientific significance of this research is to understand how sign language users have been affected by the major changes in the communication environment precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is a rare example of rapid penetration of information technology into a community using a specific language, and has significance in terms of cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology, especially given that humanity may encounter a similar situation in the future.