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Article published In:
The Semiotic Diversity of Language: The Case of Signed Languages
Edited by Alysson Lepeut and Inez Beukeleers
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 36] 2022
► pp. 73–107

A corpus-based study of ‘Away gestures’ across four signed languages

DGS, LSC, LSFB and PJM

| Pompeu Fabra University | University of Namur
| University of Cologne

This paper presents a study of four recurrent gestures: sweeping away, holding away, brushing away and throwing away. These forms have so far only been studied for spoken languages and are said to form the ‘family of Away gestures’, which is semantically motivated by the effect of actions of removing or keeping away of things. Our corpus-based study aims to investigate these forms in four sign languages: Catalan, French Belgian, German, and Polish. We select and study a data sample that lasts approximately three hours. Our findings reveal the frequency, functions, and the lexicalisation status of the forms across the four studied languages.

Keywords: sign language, recurrent gestures, away-family, multimodality, corpus linguistics, German Sign Language (DGS), French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB), Catalan Sign Language (LSC), Polish Sign Language (PJM)
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1The family of Away gestures
    • 2.2Overview of the languages and data sources
      • 2.2.1German Sign Language (DGS)
      • 2.2.2Catalan Sign Language (LSC)
      • 2.2.3French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB)
      • 2.2.4Polish Sign Language (PJM)
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Data samples
    • 3.2Annotation
    • 3.3Taxonomy of functions
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Frequency of the Away forms across SL samples
    • 4.2Functions
    • 4.3Degree of lexicalisation
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Summary and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 9 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.00072.gab
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