The British Sign Language (BSL) Corpus Project: Sociolinguistic variation, language change, language contact and lexical frequency in BSL
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Human Communication Science
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
- University College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM (Collaboration)
- Gallaudet University (Collaboration)
- European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) (Collaboration)
- University of Surrey (Collaboration)
- National School of Mineral Industry (Collaboration)
- University of Connecticut (Collaboration)
- Mason Perkins Deafness Fund (MPDF) (Collaboration)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (Collaboration)
- University of Jyväskylä (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN (Collaboration)
- University of Sheffield (Collaboration)
- New Scientist (Collaboration)
- Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) (Collaboration)
- Central Institute of Indian Languages (Collaboration)
Publications
Adam Schembri (Author)
(2009)
Documenting and describing language variation and change in the British Sign Language corpus
Adam Schembri (author)
(2009)
British Sign Language Corpus Project : documenting and describing the local, regional and supralocal in BSL
in 7th UK Language Variation and Change Conference, University of Newcastle
Adam Schembri (author)
(2009)
Sociolinguistic variation in the 1 handshape in British Sign Language
in 38th Annual Meeting of New Ways of Analysing Variation (NWAV). Ottowa, Canada
Adam Schembri (Author)
(2013)
Building the British Sign Language Corpus
in Language Documentation and Conservation
Adam Schembri (author)
(2009)
Sociolinguistic variation in the 1 handshape in British Sign Language
in Colloque International sur les Langues des signes, Namur, Belgium
Adam Schembri (Author)
(2008)
British Sign Language corpus project : open access archives and the observer's paradox
Adam Schembri (Author)
(2011)
The relevance of sign language linguistics for sign language interpreters : some recent research on Auslan and BSL
Adam Schembri (author)
(2008)
British Sign Language Corpus Project
Adam Schembri (author)
(2008)
British Sign Language Corpus Project : open access archives and the observer's paradox
in British Association for Applied Linguistics Annual Conference
| Title | Mini-lecture : the truth about sign language |
| Description | People outside the deaf community may not know that the regional variations found in spoken language also exist in sign language. This variation is the subject of the current BSL Corpus Project, led by the team at the UCL Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL). Dr Adam Schembri, Senior Research Fellow and Project Director, explains what this research is telling us about the history of a language that, like every other, is continually changing. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2010 |
| Description | All BSL Corpus Project video data have been made available online (http://www.bslcorpusproject.org/data/). In addition, the following studies have been completed. Phonological variation in the 1 handshape study: This study examined variation in BSL signs produced with the 1 handshape (ie a typical pointing handshape with extended index finger). Analysis of 2110 signs indicates that variation in the 1 handshape is conditioned by linguistic factors including (a) grammatical category of the sign, with functor signs (eg pointing signs) showing significantly more variation than content signs (eg WOMAN, TRY), and (b) phonological environment, with the preceding and following signs conditioning the variation. These results were published in Fenlon et al. (2013). Lexical variation and change in numbers, colours, and placename signs: In this study on lexical variation conducted by project-linked PhD student Rose Stamp, we have found that a) younger signers, b) signers who attended a school outside of their region, and c) signers with non-signing parents were all less likely to use traditional signs (which may be specific to the region they lived in), compared to a) older signers, b) signers who attended school in their region and c) signers with signing parents. We also found that sign category was an important factor (signs for countries are changing faster than signs for colours). These results were published in Stamp et al. (2014) and Stamp et al. (2015). Lexical frequency: The study on lexical frequency includes 24,920 sign tokens from the corpus conversation data: approximately 500 signs each from 50 participants from two regions, balanced as much as possible for age, gender, and language background. Results (presented at the) indicate that 60 per cent of the data consists of signs from the core lexicon, with high frequency items including more content words than is typical of a spoken language like English. This data provides the first lexical frequency information for a sign language based on a large conversational dataset, and complements existing work on sign familiarity. These results were published in Cormier et al. (2011) and Fenlon et al. (2014). Outputs: In addition to a range of peer-reviewed conferences and workshops (in the UK and internationally), and the peer-reviewed publications noted above, we have given presentations invited by local universities and training centres (eg Middlesex University and City Lit Centre for Adult Learning in London), and at Deaf community events hosted by the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL) and the BSLCP (DCAL Deaf Open Day in London, 2010, 6 UK-wide DCAL Roadshow events in 2011, and the 10-year BSL Corpus anniversary event in 2018). |
| Exploitation Route | Overall the studies on sociolinguistic variation and change and lexical frequency have clarified previously held assumptions about how BSL varies across different social groups and in different linguistic contexts, how it is changing, and which signs occur frequently in natural conversation. These findings will lead directly to improved sign language teaching resources that will more accurately describe how the language is used by a range of subgroups within the British Deaf community. This will in turn bring about improvements to the training of BSL teachers, sign language interpreters and educators of deaf children. Better sign language/interpreting resources will result in improved services for deaf people, better ensuring their full participation in society. In 2014, DCAL launched BSL Signbank, an online dictionary and lexical database based on signs from the BSL Corpus, which contains lexical and phonological information for 2500+ BSL signs. This dictionary and phonological description will prove invaluable references for research and teaching/learning of BSL and for linguistics more generally. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.bslcorpusproject.org/ |
| Description | Most immediately after the project completion in June 2011, the BSL Corpus Project increased capacity building relating to junior researchers (both Deaf and hearing) within sign language linguistics; this was evident from the placements/progress of project staff/students who have gone on todo postgraduate degrees or postdoctoral positions at other universities. In terms of impact on BSL teaching and research, the lexical frequency study under the BSL Corpus Project led to the creation of a lexical database for BSL, which under the UCL Deafness, Cognition & Language Research Centre has become BSL SignBank (http://bslsignbank.ucl.ac.uk), an online dictionary of BSL and the first corpus-based dictionary for any sign language. This dictionary will prove invaluable references for research and teaching/learning of BSL and for linguistics more generally. Internationally, the BSL Corpus is one of very few large sign language corpus projects (along with projects in Australia, The Netherlands and Germany) and only the second to have video data available online (after The Netherlands). The BSL Corpus team was involved in the Sign Language Corpora Network (2009-2010) and maintains strong links with researchers working on these corpus projects. The BSLCP-hosted 2009 workshop "Sign Language Corpora: Linguistic Issues" had international attendance (>100 academics), and many were researchers starting or planning sign language corpora in their own countries. Since then, the BSL Corpus team have worked and consulted with such researchers, including those from USA, Italy, India and Japan. The BSL video data and web interfaces were gradually curated/developed and uploaded from early 2011. From July 2011, the form for requesting access to the conversation and interview data has been available. Since then (as of October 2014) we have received requests for user licenses from around 30 researchers from all over the world. We expect to receive many more in the future. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2011 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | DCAL Research Skills Summer School |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | This summer school for research students examined linguistic, psycholinguistic and neuroscience approaches to the research area of language of deaf people. It attracted research students from Europe, Africa and beyond. |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/study/short-and-online-courses/research-skills-summer-school |
| Description | Coordination and scalar implicature in British Sign Language: a corpus-led pragmatic study |
| Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 2055585 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 09/2021 |
| Description | Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre: ESRC Legacy Centre |
| Amount | £101,843 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/T001461/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2019 |
| End | 10/2024 |
| Description | Describing sociolinguistic variation in verb directionality in British Sign Language: A corpus-based study |
| Amount | £199,639 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/K003364/1 |
| Organisation | Research Councils UK (RCUK) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2012 |
| End | 05/2014 |
| Description | Digging into Data Challenge |
| Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | Digging into Signs |
| Organisation | Jisc |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2014 |
| End | 05/2015 |
| Description | Digging into signs: Developing standard annotation practices for cross-linguistic quantitative analysis of sign language data |
| Amount | £124,965 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Research Councils UK (RCUK) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2014 |
| End | 04/2015 |
| Description | ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language |
| Amount | £971,921 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R03298X/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | NWO Rubicon fellowship to Elizabeth Manrique |
| Amount | € 158,000 (EUR) |
| Organisation | Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Start | 12/2016 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | When do gestures become linguistic? Understanding the gesture-language interface through a corpus-based study of pointing signs in sign languages |
| Amount | $345,000 (AUD) |
| Organisation | Australian Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Australia |
| Start | 06/2014 |
| End | 05/2015 |
| Title | BSL SignBank |
| Description | BSL SignBank: A lexical database and dictionary of British Sign Language (First Edition) |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Use of the resource by students, teachers, interpreters, researchers. |
| URL | http://bslsignbank.ucl.ac.uk |
| Title | British Sign Language corpus project : a corpus of digital video data of British Sign Language 2008-2009 |
| Description | The primary output (dataset) produced by the BSL Corpus Project |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2011 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Use of the resource by students, teachers, interpreters, researchers. |
| URL | http://www.bslcorpusproject.org |
| Description | Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language. PI: Richard Bowden (U-Surrey); Co-investigators: Bencie Woll (UCL), Andrew Zisserman (U-Oxford). Total £1,195,431 fEC. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language. PI: Richard Bowden (U-Surrey); Co-investigators: Bencie Woll (UCL), Andrew Zisserman (U-Oxford). Total £1,195,431 fEC. |
| Impact | In progress |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language. PI: Richard Bowden (U-Surrey); Co-investigators: Bencie Woll (UCL), Andrew Zisserman (U-Oxford). Total £1,195,431 fEC. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language. PI: Richard Bowden (U-Surrey); Co-investigators: Bencie Woll (UCL), Andrew Zisserman (U-Oxford). Total £1,195,431 fEC. |
| Impact | In progress |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language |
| Organisation | University of Surrey |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language. PI: Richard Bowden (U-Surrey); Co-investigators: Bencie Woll (UCL), Andrew Zisserman (U-Oxford). Total £1,195,431 fEC. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as Co-Investigator on Research Grant from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), ExTOL: End to End Translation of British Sign Language. PI: Richard Bowden (U-Surrey); Co-investigators: Bencie Woll (UCL), Andrew Zisserman (U-Oxford). Total £1,195,431 fEC. |
| Impact | In progress |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | Consultation about creation of Finnish Sign Language corpus |
| Organisation | University of Jyvaskyla |
| Country | Finland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Ritva Takkinen, University of Jyväskylä, about creation of Finnish Sign Language corpus |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation about creation of Finnish Sign Language corpus |
| Organisation | University of Jyvaskyla |
| Country | Finland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Ritva Takkinen, University of Jyväskylä, about creation of Finnish Sign Language corpus |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation about creation of Indian Sign Language corpus |
| Organisation | Central Institute of Indian Languages |
| Country | India |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Amaresh Gopalakrishnan, Central Institute of Indian Languages, about creation of Indian Sign Language corpus |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation about creation of Moroccan Sign Language corpus |
| Organisation | National School of Mineral Industry |
| Country | Morocco |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Abdelhadi Soudi, Head of the interdisciplinary research team "Mathematics-Computer Science and Linguistics", Ecole Nationale de l'Industrie Minérale, Rabat, Morocco |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Consultation about creation of Moroccan Sign Language corpus |
| Organisation | National School of Mineral Industry |
| Country | Morocco |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Abdelhadi Soudi, Head of the interdisciplinary research team "Mathematics-Computer Science and Linguistics", Ecole Nationale de l'Industrie Minérale, Rabat, Morocco |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Consultation about creation of historical corpus of American Sign Language |
| Organisation | University of Connecticut |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Ted Supalla, University of Connecticut about creation of historical corpus of American Sign Language |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation about creation of historical corpus of American Sign Language |
| Organisation | University of Connecticut |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Ted Supalla, University of Connecticut about creation of historical corpus of American Sign Language |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation about phonological change in sign languages |
| Organisation | Mason Perkins Deafness Fund (MPDF) |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Elena Radutzky, Mason Perkins Deafness Fund, Rome, Italy |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Consultation about phonological change in sign languages |
| Organisation | Mason Perkins Deafness Fund (MPDF) |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Elena Radutzky, Mason Perkins Deafness Fund, Rome, Italy |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Consultation about sign language documentation at borders of Brazil, Uraguay, Argentina |
| Organisation | Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Tatiana Lebedeff, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Consultation about sign language documentation at borders of Brazil, Uraguay, Argentina |
| Organisation | Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Tatiana Lebedeff, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Consultation about sign language machine translation techology in Brazil |
| Organisation | New Scientist |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Niall Firth, New Scientist magazine |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Consultation about sign language machine translation techology in Brazil |
| Organisation | New Scientist |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Niall Firth, New Scientist magazine |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Consultation about use of BSL corpus data for improvement of sign language recognition technology |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Department | Department of Computing Science |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Ernesto Compatangelo, Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen about use of BSL Corpus data to improve Portable Sign Language Translator (http://www.technabling.co.uk/pslt) |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation about use of BSL corpus data for improvement of sign language recognition technology |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Department | Department of Computing Science |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Ernesto Compatangelo, Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen about use of BSL Corpus data to improve Portable Sign Language Translator (http://www.technabling.co.uk/pslt) |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation about use of BSL corpus data for improvement of sign language recognition technology |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Department | Department of Computer Science |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Trevor Cohn, Dept of Computer Science, University of Sheffield about use of BSL Corpus data for work on automatic machine translation |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation about use of BSL corpus data for improvement of sign language recognition technology |
| Organisation | University of Sheffield |
| Department | Department of Computer Science |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Trevor Cohn, Dept of Computer Science, University of Sheffield about use of BSL Corpus data for work on automatic machine translation |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | Consultation on language and gesture in sign language and multimodal corpora |
| Organisation | University of Nottingham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Svenja Adolphs, Professor of English Language and Linguistics, Nottingham University |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Creation of Indian Sign Language corpus |
| Organisation | Central Institute of Indian Languages |
| Country | India |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Consultation with Amaresh Gopalakrishnan, Central Institute of Indian Languages, about creation of Indian Sign Language corpus |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | European COST action SignGram : unraveling the grammars of European sign languages : pathways to full citizenship of deaf signers and to the protection of their linguistic heritage |
| Organisation | European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) |
| Department | Unraveling the Grammars of European Sign Language |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Member of European COST action SignGram: Unraveling the grammars of European sign languages: pathways to full citizenship of deaf signers and to the protection of their linguistic heritage. http://parles.upf.edu/en/content/cost-signgram |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | European COST action SignGram : unraveling the grammars of European sign languages : pathways to full citizenship of deaf signers and to the protection of their linguistic heritage |
| Organisation | European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) |
| Department | Unraveling the Grammars of European Sign Language |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Member of European COST action SignGram: Unraveling the grammars of European sign languages: pathways to full citizenship of deaf signers and to the protection of their linguistic heritage |
| Start Year | 2011 |
| Description | Funded expert consultant on Gallaudet University Priority Research grant to Dr. Julie Hochgesang, "A Motivated Look at Indicating Verbs in ASL", 2020-2022 |
| Organisation | Gallaudet University |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as funded expert consultant on Gallaudet University Priority Research grant to Dr. Julie Hochgesang, "A Motivated Look at Indicating Verbs in ASL" |
| Collaborator Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as funded expert consultant on Gallaudet University Priority Research grant to Dr. Julie Hochgesang, "A Motivated Look at Indicating Verbs in ASL" |
| Impact | In progress |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Funded expert consultant on Norwegian Research Council grant to Dr. Lindsay Ferrara, "Language use in the Norwegian deaf community: Reflections of a signed language ecology", 2020-2023 |
| Organisation | Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) |
| Country | Norway |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as funded expert consultant on Norwegian Research Council grant to Dr. Lindsay Ferrara, "Language use in the Norwegian deaf community: Reflections of a signed language ecology", 2020-2023 |
| Collaborator Contribution | Kearsy Cormier as funded expert consultant on Norwegian Research Council grant to Dr. Lindsay Ferrara, "Language use in the Norwegian deaf community: Reflections of a signed language ecology", 2020-2023 |
| Impact | In progress |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | A sign of where you're from? BDN article |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | "A sign of where you're from?" Research article by Rose Stamp, Adam Schembri, Bronwen Evans, Kearsy Cormier, featuring research on accommodation in BSL, British Deaf News, April 2015. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | BBC See Hear, featuring British Sign Language Corpus |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interviewee for BBC See Hear, featuring British Sign Language Corpus, 28 May 2014. Aired on BBC early 2015. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | BSL Corpus ten year celebration event. 3 November, 2018. DCAL. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | On Saturday 3 November, DCAL hosted the BSL Corpus 10-year celebration event. This public event was hosted live in central London and simultaneously live streamed online to viewers in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. DCAL invited every single person who has been involved in the creation and development of the BSL Corpus over the past ten years: fieldworkers, language consultants, researchers, teachers, community members, visiting scholars and more. Anyone who is interested in BSL and signed language linguistics was also invited and welcome to attend. Half of the day was about disseminating research findings - what has been learned over the years from doing research using the BSL Corpus and also the related BSL Signbank dictionary. The other half of the day showcased people from across the UK who have been using the BSL Corpus and/or BSL SignBank for reasons other than research, especially for BSL teaching and/or interpreter training. The main language of the event was BSL, with over 100 Deaf and hearing BSL signers attend in person, with another 200+ people watching online. The event was fully accessible with voice interpretation from BSL into English and live English captions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://bslcorpusproject.org/events/bsl-corpus-10-year-celebration/ |
| Description | BSL Linguistics for BSL tutors, DCAL CPD 18 April 2015 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | BSL Linguistics for BSL tutors. Workshop delivered with Robert Adam as part of DCAL's Continuing Professional Development programme for teachers of BSL, 18 April 2015. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | BSL SignBank is the First British Sign Language Dictionary Based on Actual Use |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Kearsy Cormier as interviewee for "BSL SignBank is the First British Sign Language Dictionary Based on Actual Use," featuring BSL SignBank. News item on Shiny Shiny, mainstream technology website for women, 26 September 2014. http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2014/09/signbank-bsl-dictionary.html |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2014/09/signbank-bsl-dictionary.html |
| Description | BSL SignBank is the first British Sign Language dictionary based on actual use |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | ShinyShiny article about BSL SignBank Greater knowledge among the Deaf community |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2014/09/signbank-bsl-dictionary.html |
| Description | BSL SignBank, a 'living' British Sign Language dictionary, is launched online |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Kearsy Cormier as interviewee for "Deaf News: BSL SignBank, a 'living' British Sign Language dictionary, is launched online", featuring BSL SignBank. Limping Chicken (world-leading deaf blog), 7 October 2014. http://limpingchicken.com/2014/10/07/deaf-news-bsl-signbank-a-living-british-sign-language-dictionary-is-launched-online/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://limpingchicken.com/2014/10/07/deaf-news-bsl-signbank-a-living-british-sign-language-dictionar... |
| Description | BSL SignBank: The first usage-based sign language dictionary |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | "BSL SignBank: The first usage-based sign language dictionary", featuring BSL SignBank. News item in Hearing Times, national newspaper for deaf and hard-of-hearing, 30 September 2014, http://www.hearingtimes.co.uk/News/21961/BSL%20SignBank-%20The%20first%20usage-based%20sign%20language%20dictionary |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.hearingtimes.co.uk/News/21961/BSL%20SignBank-%20The%20first%20usage-based%20sign%20langua... |
| Description | BSL corpus project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Kearsy Cormier (current British Sign Language Corpus Project leader) featured, speaking about the BSL Corpus Project on BSL Zone episode 'The Hub 2: Programme 2' on the Community Channel |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | BSL corpus project : documenting and describing variation in BSL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation given to the Association of BSL Teachers and Assessors, 13th March 2010 Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | BSL online dictionary and reference grammar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to the deaf community in Birmingham as part of the DCAL roadshow http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/public-engagement/roadshow http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/public-engagement/roadshow |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | British Sign Language Corpus project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Talk given to the Midlands Regional Association for the Deaf, at Walsall Deaf Centre, September 23, 2009. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009 |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | DCAL roadshow at Belfast Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/public-engagement/roadshow |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at the Japanese Federation of the Deaf, Tokyo, Japan Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at National Centre of Sign Language Education, Kyoto, Japan Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at the department of linguistics, Gallaudet Unviersity |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at Japanese Association of Sign Language Interpreters, Kyoto, Japan Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project : documenting and describing variation in BSL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given in Belfast as part of the DCAL Roadshow Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/public-engagement/roadshow |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project : documenting and describing variation in BSL, J Fenlon et al., DCAL Roadshow |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research and patient groups |
| Results and Impact | DCAL roadshow at Belfast Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/public-engagement/roadshow |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project : open access archives and the observer's paradox |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at the Department of Linguistics, School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London . |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.soas.ac.uk/events/event47977 |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project : variation in BSL numbers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at Deaf Connections, Glasgow as part of the DCAL Roadshow Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/public-engagement/roadshow |
| Description | British Sign Language corpus project, A Schembri, Invited talk, JASLSI, Kyoto |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at Japanese Association of Sign Language Interpreters, Kyoto, Japan Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | British Sign Language resource available online |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Article published in Hearing Times about the BSL Corpus online, quoting Bencie Woll Hearing times |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.mpldigital.com/hearing-times/online/33 |
| Description | Changes in British Sign Language (BSL) : the effects of dialect contact, increased mobility and political correctness on lexical variation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Invited seminar presentation. Paper presented at the University of Glasgow, Research Seminars in English Language. October 6th 2011. N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Changes in British Sign Language : the effects of dialect contact, increased mobility & political correctness on lexical variation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Paper presented at the University of Glasgow, Research Seminars in English Language. October 6th 2011. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Corrections and clarifications |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Correction about Guardian article about BSL Corpus Project published 8 October 2012, mentioning misrepresentation of the BSL Corpus Project and of Gwilym Morris (spokesperson for DCAL) The Guardian |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/dec/23/corrections-and-clarifications?INTCMP=SRCH |
| Description | Creating a sign language corpus |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Broadcast in Japan on television programme, The life as a Deaf and the life as a Hard-of-Hearing person. Features the BSL Corpus Project Deaf public beacame more aware of our research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Creating a sign language corpus |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Television broadcast in Japan, May 2012 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | DCAL roadshow : Belfast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A roadshow of workshops visiting six cities in the UK (Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Belfast) to disseminate to the Deaf Community research being undertaken at DCAL. This was funded by UCL Beacons for Public Engagement and the British Sign Language Corpus Project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | DCAL roadshow : Birmingham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A roadshow of workshops visiting six cities in the UK (Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Belfast) to disseminate to the Deaf Community research being undertaken at DCAL. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | DCAL roadshow : Bristol |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A roadshow of workshops visiting six cities in the UK (Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Belfast) to disseminate to the Deaf Community research being undertaken at DCAL. This was funded by UCL Beacons for Public Engagement and the British Sign Language Corpus Project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | DCAL roadshow : Glasgow |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A roadshow of workshops visiting six cities in the UK (Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Belfast) to disseminate to the Deaf community research being undertaken at DCAL. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | DCAL roadshow : Manchester |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A roadshow of workshops visiting six cities in the UK (Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Belfast) to disseminate to the Deaf Community research being undertaken at DCAL. This was funded by UCL Beacons for Public Engagement and the British Sign Language Corpus Project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | DCAL roadshow : Newcastle |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | A roadshow of workshops visiting six cities in the UK (Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Belfast) to disseminate to the Deaf Community research being undertaken at DCAL. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Deaf News: Researchers find that regional variations of BSL are in decline |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Cormier interviewed about BSL Corpus - Limping Chicken website Deaf public became more aware of our research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://limpingchicken.com/2014/04/24/deaf-news-researchers-find-that-regional-variations-of-bsl-are-... |
| Description | Digging into Signs Workshop: Developing Annotation Standards for Sign Language Corpora |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Cormier, Kearsy & Onno Crasborn. Digging into Signs Workshop: Developing Annotation Standards for Sign Language Corpora. Workshop organised at UCL, 30-31 March 2015. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.bslcorpusproject.org/events/digging-workshop/ |
| Description | Documenting sign languages |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Plenary lecture given at the International Summer School on Language Documentation and Description |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Documenting sign languages : from field to archive |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Plenary lecture given at the International Summer School on Language Documentation and Description. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.hrelp.org/events/3L/index.html |
| Description | Early exposure to BSL. BATOD magazine, 2013 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Early exposure to BSL. British Association of Teachers of the Deaf magazine, January 2013:19. (10) N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | England's regional sign language dialects 'in decline' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | K Cormier, interviewee for "England's regional sign language dialects 'in decline'", featuring British Sign Language Corpus. BBC News England, 24 April 2014. N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27053639 |
| Description | Evolution of BSL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Post-doctoral researcher Jordan Fenlon appeared on this programme and described regional variation in the United Kingdom with reference to the BSL Corpus Project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | From corpus to lexical database to online dictionary : issues in annotation of the BSL corpus and the development of BSL SignBank, LREC 2012 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Poster presented at the 5th Workshop on the representation and processing of sign languages: Interactions between corpus and lexicon [workshop part of 8th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation]. N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Hot off the press: New DCAL paper on lexical variation and change in BSL in PLOS ONE |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This paper presents results from a corpus-based study investigating lexical variation in BSL. An earlier study investigating variation in BSL numeral signs found that younger signers were using a decreasing variety of regionally distinct variants, suggesting that levelling may be taking place. Here, we report findings from a larger investigation looking at regional lexical variants for colours, countries, numbers and UK placenames elicited as part of the BSL Corpus Project. Age, school location and language background were significant predictors of lexical variation, with younger signers using a more levelled variety. This change appears to be happening faster in particular sub-groups of the deaf community (e.g., signers from hearing families). Also, we find that for the names of some UK cities, signers from outside the region use a different sign than those who live in the region. Authours: Rose Stamp, Adam Schembri, Jordan Fenlon, Ramas Rentelis, Bencie Woll & Kearsy Cormier Deaf public and researchers became more aware of our research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0094053 |
| Description | How British Sign Language developed its own dialects, The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-british-sign-language-developed-its-own-dialects-112445 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Schembri A, Cormier K. 2019. How British Sign Language developed its own dialects. The Conversation, 5 March 2019. https://theconversation.com/how-british-sign-language-developed-its-own-dialects-112445 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://theconversation.com/how-british-sign-language-developed-its-own-dialects-112445 |
| Description | Interview of Kearsy Cormier for The Hub, 2012, on BSL Corpus Project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Kearsy Cormier (current British Sign Language Corpus Project leader) featured, was interviewed about the BSL Corpus Project on The Hub programme, series 2 programme 2, on British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust (BSLBT). The programme aired on 12 March 2012. As a followup we were invited to be interviewed by the BBC's See Hear about regional variation in BSL. This will air in 2015. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.bslzone.co.uk/bsl-zone/the-hub-2-programme-2/ |
| Description | Is BSL changing? (British Deaf News, 2014) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | "Is BSL changing?" Research article featuring research on lexical variation and change in the BSL Corpus, British Deaf News, June 2014. N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Issues in creating annotation standards for sign language description |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | In this paper, we discuss the need for a standardised system of annotation for sign language corpora. Although several tools exist for the annotation of video data (such as ELAN or iLex), and some existing projects have annotation guidelines (e.g., Crasborn et al., 2007; Johnston, 2010), a widely adopted standard is currently unavailable. First, we discuss the purpose of a set of unified annotation standards for sign languages: such standards would provide a shared set of conventions for the easy exchange of data across different sign language corpus projects and may increase consistency within corpora. Next, we discuss the properties that would define a good set of shared annotation conventions (Beckman et al., 2009). We examine some of the proposed annotation standards for spoken language description, such as the ToBI conventions for prosody and the Leipzig Glossing Rules for morpho-syntax. Lastly, we discuss the relationship between theory and description. Dryer (2006) pointed out that linguists often contrast 'theoretical linguistics' with 'descriptive' work. But if one accepts the argument that there is indeed no 'atheoretical description', then sign language linguists need to agree on a shared theory for basic sign language description, and how this translates into annotation practices. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Issues in creating annotation standards for sign language description |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | In this paper, we discuss the need for a standardised system of annotation for sign language corpora. Although several tools exist for the annotation of video data (such as ELAN or iLex), and some existing projects have annotation guidelines (e.g., Crasborn et al., 2007; Johnston, 2010), a widely adopted standard is currently unavailable. First, we discuss the purpose of a set of unified annotation standards for sign languages: such standards would provide a shared set of conventions for the easy exchange of data across different sign language corpus projects and may increase consistency within corpora. Next, we discuss the properties that would define a good set of shared annotation conventions (Beckman et al., 2009). We examine some of the proposed annotation standards for spoken language description, such as the ToBI conventions for prosody and the Leipzig Glossing Rules for morpho-syntax. Lastly, we discuss the relationship between theory and description. Dryer (2006) pointed out that linguists often contrast 'theoretical linguistics' with 'descriptive' work. But if one accepts the argument that there is indeed no 'atheoretical description', then sign language linguists need to agree on a shared theory for basic sign language description, and how this translates into annotation practices. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Lexical frequency in British Sign Language |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Invited lecture in the Linguistics department, Swarthmore College |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Lexical frequency in signed languages : a corpus-based approach |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Invited lecture given to the Department of Linguistics, Gallaudet University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Lexical variation and change in British Sign Language |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Paper presented at the University College London, Speech Sciences Forum. October 2010. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Limping Chicken Article: BSL SignBank, a 'living' British Sign Language dictionary, is launched online |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Limping Chicken Article about BSL SignBank Greater knowledge among the Deaf community |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://limpingchicken.com/2014/10/07/deaf-news-bsl-signbank-a-living-british-sign-language-dictionar... |
| Description | New British Sign Language Dictionary - BSL SignBank |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Article about BSL SignBank Deaf public became more aware of our research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.signhealth.org.uk/new-british-sign-language-living-dictionary/ |
| Description | Panel discussion : sign language corpora: what's in it for Deaf communities? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Sign Language Corpora Network, 4th workshop. No paper or presentation was given at this event. Adam Schembri was member of panel discussion after presentations given by other speakers on 4 Dec 2010. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| URL | http://www.ru.nl/slcn/workshops/4_exploitation/ |
| Description | Phonological variation and change in Australian and New Zealand sign languages : the forehead location variable |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Lecture at the department of language and linguistic science, University of York. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| Description | Possession in British Sign Language |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given at the Deafness Cognition and Language (DCAL) deaf open day, part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/documents/DOD2010_Programme.pdf |
| Description | Project summary : BSL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Presented at Sign Language Corpora Network 1st workshop |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| URL | http://www.ru.nl/slcn/workshops/1_data_collection/ |
| Description | Sign language corpora, Corpus MOOC interview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Kearsy Cormier interviewed about sign language corpora. Invited expert interview as part of 'In-conversation' teaching materials, Lancaster University's internationally recognised Corpus MOOC, "Corpus linguistics: method, analysis, interpretation," spring term 2014, recorded 23.1.14. www.futurelearn.com/courses/corpus-linguistics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.futurelearn.com/courses/corpus-linguistics |
| Description | Sign language corpora, interview for Corpus MOOC, K Cormier |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Filmed informal interview, "In Conversation", KC answering questions about sign language corpora, one of a group of experts talking about applications of corpora offered as supplementary materials as part of CASS Corpus MOOC https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/corpus-linguistics N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Signs of the times : deaf community minds its language |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | First major study of how British sign language has evolved shows younger users are more reluctant to use 'offensive' signs The Guardian |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://m.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/07/british-sign-language-changing?cat=society&type=article |
| Description | Signs of the times : deaf people drop hand signals that use slanted eyes to describe the Chinese and a limp wrist for gays |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Article in the Daily Mail Daily Mail |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214467/Signs-times-Deaf-people-drop-hand-signals-use-slante... |
| Description | Sociolinguistic variation and change in sign languages |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Part of Monash Linguistics seminar series |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | Sociolinguistic variation and change in sign languages, A Schembri |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Iecture at Monash Linguistics Seminar Series N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | The BSL Corpus training session for Moscow students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | "The BSL Corpus," training session for Russian Sign Language interpreting students from Moscow State Linguistic University N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | The British Sign Language Corpus and BSL SignBank, K Cormier |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | invited lecture at CASS, Lancaster N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | The British Sign Language corpus project : documenting and describing sociolinguistic variation and change in BSL |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | DLLL lecture series in linguistics and applied linguistics, York University, Toronto Canada |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/dlll/linguistics/documents/DLLLSchembriOct2909.pdf |
| Description | The core lexicon and non-core lexicon in sign languages, training for Moscow students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | "The core lexicon and non-core lexicon in sign languages," training session for Russian Sign Language interpreting students from Moscow State Linguistic University, 21-23 April 2015. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | The importance of language documentation and corpora for sign languages |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Primary Audience | |
| Results and Impact | Invited presentation at SOAS Endangered Languages Week 2013 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | |
| Description | The importance of language documentation and corpora for sign languages, SOAS, 2013, K Cormier |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | invited presentation at SOAS Endangered Languages Week 2013 N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Variation and change in BSL number signs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research and patient groups |
| Results and Impact | Presented at a DCAL deaf open day. N/A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk/Events/DCAL_Deaf_Open_Day.html |
| Description | What can we do with a sign language corpus?: Insights from the British Sign Language Corpus Project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Class presentation given to teachers and assistants at Frank Barnes School as a training opportunity Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Workshop delivered at International Mother Language Day event, Communication ID |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Cormier, Kearsy & Robert Adam. 2015. "Current Issues in BSL Lingustics", workshop delivered at International Mother Language Day event for Deaf community, co-sponsored by DCAL and Communication ID, 20 February 2015. Two workshops delivered, one in morning and one in afternoon - questions and discussion followed each. Several expressions of interest in DCAL's Continuing Professional Development programme and Msc programmes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.communicationid.co.uk/news/international-mother-language-day-2015 |