Describing sociolinguistic variation in verb directionality in British Sign Language: A corpus-based study

The aim of this project is to exploit an existing large video dataset of British Sign Language (or 'BSL', the language of the British deaf community), collected under the BSL Corpus Project (BSLCP, 2008-2011), and to conduct corpus-based investigations into a unique aspect of its grammar. In BSLCP, data were collected from 249 native and near-native deaf signers of BSL from 8 sites across the United Kingdom. The data are representative of the language community, including a mix of men and women, deaf adults with deaf parents and those with hearing parents, signers who are young and old, and individuals from working and middle class backgrounds as well as different ethnic groups. The primary aim of the project is to use the data collected to investigate variation and change in the use of directional verbs in BSL. Directional verbs like ASK in BSL move in the signing space between locations associated with, e.g. the person asking and the person being asked. Because these verbs incorporate an element of pointing within them, they are unique to sign languages, yet the way they are used in everyday conversation is not well understood. This project will enable us to relate the use of indicating verbs to social factors, such as a signer's language background, age, region or social class, in order to study how they vary. An understanding of variation in sign languages like BSL is important because of their unique sociolinguistic situations. Only 5-10% of the British deaf community acquires BSL as their first language from signing parents, with the majority of signers learning BSL from deaf peers in schools for deaf children or from friends in early adulthood. As a result of this unusual pattern of language transmission, together with other factors such as the lack of a widely-used writing system, no standard variety of BSL used in education, and extensive contact with the spoken language of the surrounding community, sign language use in the British deaf community exhibits a great deal of variation. Since the 1980s, the increasing use of BSL on television and in a wider variety of social situations means that the language is undergoing rapid change. The greater understanding of directional verbs in BSL as well as their variation and change which will result from this project will lead 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. Another aim of the current project is to transform part of this video dataset created under BSLCP (2008-2011) into a centralised source of data for ongoing research efforts that aim to understand BSL and sign languages of deaf communities in general. Advances in technology have made it possible for these video recordings of sign language data to be given linguistic annotations which can be accessed on-line. In the past, the use of analogue video material and the lack of video annotation software did not allow for efficient access to source material when analysing sign language data. Following BSLCP, the first national web-based and publicly accessible collection of BSL video material that can be used for sign language research is now available (www.bslcorpusproject.org), and the current project proposes to transform part of this collection into a searchable archive (i.e. a 'corpus'). A more searchable, accessible BSL Corpus will enable more research on the structure and use of BSL. This will in turn bring about improvements to the training of BSL teachers, sign language interpreters and educators of deaf children. Furthermore, the project also makes possible work comparing BSL with related and unrelated sign and spoken languages elsewhere in the world, and will lead to an improved understanding of human language in general.

Who will benefit:

-Practitioners: The greater understanding of BSL that will result from our work will lead to improved opportunities for training of sign language teachers, sign language interpreters, and educators of deaf children. Access to more information about the structure and use of BSL will lead to improved sign language teaching resources, such as textbooks and video/DVD/online materials, that accurately describe how the language is used by a range of subgroups within the British deaf community. This will in turn enable us to create more reliable and valid assessment instruments to evaluate deaf children's language development, as well as assess the progress of students in classes teaching BSL as an additional language or in sign language interpreter trainee programs. Thus, our work will benefit professionals in the wider field of deafness generally.
-BSL learners: The benefit of BSL research to practitioners and professionals such as BSL teachers, interpreter trainers and other educators will have an immediate impact on those who learn BSL from these educators. This includes hearing people who learn BSL formally as adult students (in further/higher education or in third sector adult learning programmes). But there are also many individuals (deaf and hearing, children, teenagers and adults, also some hearing parents of deaf children) who learn BSL informally through friends, family or by other means. The benefits to informal learners are perhaps not as immediate as formal learners but they will be just as powerful, if not more so, considering that most BSL signers have few opportunities to study BSL formally.
-Policy-makers: The greater understanding of BSL and improved resources for BSL teaching, learning and research will provide an evidence-base for policy-makers in supporting appropriate education, training and services for deaf children and adults. This will help close the gap in education, employment, and health between deaf people throughout their lifespan and their hearing peers.
-Deaf people in society: A major social benefit will be in relation to equity and the status of deaf people in British society. More appropriate resources for the bilingual education of deaf children, sign language teaching, and sign language interpreter training will lead to improved quality of educational and interpreting services for deaf people and provide more opportunities for self-development and employment. Deaf people who can become more highly qualified and trained will be in a better position to contribute to society in different ways, and will be able to achieve greater recognition, access, and equity in the wider community.

How they will benefit from this research:

-Accessible online BSL corpus: The fact that the BSL Corpus is available online (http://www.bslcorpusproject.org/data) and, with the current project, will be more searchable/accessible to the deaf community and the wider public, alongside publicly available online corpora of spoken languages such as the British National Corpus of English, will help justify and strengthen the linguistic status of BSL which will in turn support full participation of their users in British society.
-Knowledge exchange: Findings will be presented at the British Deaf Association annual conference, and we will host a workshop for the British deaf community not only to share our findings but also to set the agenda for future work on the BSL Corpus. Moreover, research findings will also be shared via DCAL seminars and workshops specifically targeting sign language teachers and interpreters, including the Association of BSL Tutors and Assessors, the Association of Sign Language Interpreters, and Signature.