1887
image of Discourse genres in French Sign Language
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of four discourse genres in French Sign Language (LSF): narrative, explanatory, argumentative and dialogical. We examine the association between the frequency and type of linguistic categories with regard to the discourse genres considered. The linguistic categories used are based on the Semiological Approach (Cuxac 2000), which suggests the existence of two main types of units: units stemming from an illustrative intent, grouped under the name ‘Transfer Units’, in contrast with units without any illustrative intent, i.e., Lexical Units, Pointing Units, and Fingerspelling Units. The data for this study were taken from two corpora and annotations were performed using the ELAN software. A range of descriptive statistics were used to complement the overall qualitative view of the data. One of the main outcomes of the quantitative approach is the identification, through Principal Component Analysis and Specificity Analysis, of an association between the two main types of units and different discourse genres. These findings deepen our understanding of genre-based variation in sign language, and hold potential for practical applications in areas such as bilingual education and automatic sign language processing.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/sll.24013.sal
2026-03-31
2026-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Adam, Jean-Michel
    2001Les textes: types et prototypes. Paris: Nathan Université.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Belissen, Valentin, Annelies Braffort & Michèle Gouiffès
    2020 Experimenting the automatic recognition of non-conventionalized units in sign language. Algorithms. –. 10.3390/a13120310
    https://doi.org/10.3390/a13120310 [Google Scholar]
  3. Benveniste, Emile
    1966Problèmes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Biber, Douglas
    1989 A typology of English texts, Linguistics(). –. 10.1515/ling.1989.27.1.3
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1989.27.1.3 [Google Scholar]
  5. 1991Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Biber, Douglas & Susan Conrad
    2019Register, genre, and style (2nd edition) New York: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781108686136
    https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108686136 [Google Scholar]
  7. Bouvet, Danielle
    1996Approche polyphonique d’un récit produit en Langue des Signes Française. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Capirci, Olga, Chiara Bonsignori & Alessio Di Renzo
    2022 Signed languages: A triangular semiotic dimension. Frontiers in Psychology: . 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.802911
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.802911 [Google Scholar]
  9. Cuxac, Christian
    1985 Esquisse d’une typologie des langues des signes. InChristian Cuxac (ed.), Proceedings of the workshop ‘Autour de la Langue des Signes’, –. Paris: Université Paris 5.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. 1999 The expression of spatial relations and the spatialization of semantic relations in French Sign Language. InCatherine Fuchs & Stéphane Robert (eds.), Language diversity and cognitive representations, –. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/hcp.3.11cux
    https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.3.11cux [Google Scholar]
  11. 2000La Langue des Signes Française. Les voies de l’iconicité. Faits de langue 15–16, Paris: Ophrys.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Cuxac, Christian, Annelies Braffort, Annick Choisier, Christophe Collet, Patrice Dalle, Ivani Fusellier, Gwenaëlle Jirou, Fanch Lejeune, Boris Lenseigne, Nathalie Monteillard, Annie Risler & Marie-Anne Sallandre
    2015Corpus LS-Colin sur plusieurs genres discursifs. https://cocoon.huma-num.fr/exist/crdo/search2.xql?lang=fr&keyword=LSF
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Cuxac, Christian & Marie-Anne Sallandre
    2007 Iconicity and arbitrariness in French Sign Language: Highly Iconic Structures, degenerated iconicity and diagrammatic iconicity. InElena Pizzuto, Paola Pietrandrea & Raffaele Simone (eds.), Verbal and signed languages: Comparing structures, constructs and methodologies, –. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. ELAN (Version 7.0) [Computer software]
    ELAN (Version 7.0) [Computer software] 2025 Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Language Archive. Retrieved fromhttps://archive.mpi.nl/tla/elan
  15. Garcia, Brigitte, Marie-Thérèse L’Huillier & Coralie Vincent
    2022Corpus Creagest, dialogues en LSF d’adultes sourds. Projet ANR. https://www.ortolang.fr/market/corpora/ortolang-000926
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Garcia, Brigitte & Marie-Anne Sallandre
    2014 Reference resolution in French Sign Language (LSF). InPatricia Cabredo Hofherr & Anne Zribi-Hertz (eds.), Crosslinguistic studies on noun phrase structure and reference, –. Leiden: Brill. 10.1163/9789004261440_012
    https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004261440_012 [Google Scholar]
  17. 2020 Contribution of the semiological approach to deixis–anaphora in sign language: The key role of eye-gaze. Frontiers in Psychology: . 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.583763
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.583763 [Google Scholar]
  18. Gonzalez, Stéphane, Frédéric Amauger, Fabrice Bertin, Paul Tsopgni & Anne Vanbrugghe
    2013Langue des signes française. Niveau A1. Paris: Editions Belin.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Heiden, Serge
    2010 The TXM platform: Building open-source textual analysis software compatible with the TEI encoding scheme. In24th Pacific Asia conference on language, information and computation(). –. Institute for Digital Enhancement of Cognitive Development, Waseda University.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Hickmann, Maya
    2003Children’s discourse: Person, space and time across languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hodge, Gabrielle & Kearsy Cormier
    2019 Reported speech as enactment. Linguistic Typology(). –. 10.1515/lingty‑2019‑0008
    https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2019-0008 [Google Scholar]
  22. Kaczmarek, Marion
    2022Spécification d’un logiciel de traduction assistée par ordinateur à destination des langues signées. Saclay: Université Paris-Saclay PhD dissertation.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Lafon, Pierre
    1980 Sur la variabilité de la fréquence des formes dans un corpus. Sociétés. –.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Levshina, Natalia
    2015How to do linguistics with R: Data exploration and statistical analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/z.195
    https://doi.org/10.1075/z.195 [Google Scholar]
  25. Martinod, Emmanuella, Brigitte Garcia & Ivani Fusellier
    2018 A typological perspective on the meaningful handshapes in the emerging sign languages on Marajó Island (Brazil). InOlivier Le Guen, Josefina Safar & Marie Coppola (eds.), Emerging sign languages in South America, –. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Metzger, Melanie
    1995 Constructed dialogue and constructed action in American Sign Language. InCeil Lucas (ed.), Sociolinguistics in deaf communities, –. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Meurant, Laurence & Aurélie Sinte
    2016 La reformulation en langue des signes de Belgique francophone (LSFB). Analyse dans un corpus de trois types de discours: narration, explication et conversation. L’Information grammaticale. –.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Millet, Agnès
    2019Grammaire descriptive de la langue des signes française. Dynamiques iconiques et linguistique générale. Grenoble: UGA Editions. 10.4000/books.ugaeditions.15959
    https://doi.org/10.4000/books.ugaeditions.15959 [Google Scholar]
  29. Rastier, François & Bénédicte Pincemin
    1999 Des genres à l’intertexte. Cahiers de praxématique. –. 10.4000/praxematique.1974
    https://doi.org/10.4000/praxematique.1974 [Google Scholar]
  30. Risler, Annie
    2016 Parler de soi, parler des autres en langue des signes française. Autopointage et prise de rôle. L’Information grammaticale. –.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Russo, Tomasso
    2004 Iconicity and productivity in sign language discourse: An analysis of three LIS discourse registers. Sign Language Studies. –. 10.1353/sls.2004.0006
    https://doi.org/10.1353/sls.2004.0006 [Google Scholar]
  32. Sallandre, Marie-Anne
    2003Les unités du discours en Langue des Signes Française. Tentative de catégorisation dans le cadre d’une grammaire de l’iconicité. Saint-Denis: Université Paris 8 PhD dissertation.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. 2014Compositionnalité des unités sémantiques en langues des signes. Perspectives typologique et développementale. Saint-Denis: Université Paris 8 Habilitation dissertation.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Sallandre, Marie-Anne, Antonio Balvet, Geoffrey Besnard & Brigitte Garcia
    2019 Etude exploratoire de la fréquence des catégories linguistiques dans quatre genres discursifs en LSF. LIDIL. –. 10.4000/lidil.7136
    https://doi.org/10.4000/lidil.7136 [Google Scholar]
  35. Sallandre, Marie-Anne & Brigitte Garcia
    2023 Overview of and epistemological conditions for building and using LSF corpora. InElla Wehrmeyer (ed.), Advances in sign language corpus linguistics, –. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/scl.108.10sal
    https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.108.10sal [Google Scholar]
  36. Swales, John
    1990Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Takkinen, Ritva, Jarkko Keränen & Juhana Salonen
    2018 Depicting signs and different text genres: Preliminary observations in the corpus of Finnish Sign Language. InBono Mayumi, Eleni Efthimiou, Stavroula-Evita Fotinea, Thomas Hanke, Julie A. Hochgesang, Jette Kristoffersen, Johanna Mesch & Osugi Yutaka (eds.), Proceedings of the LREC2018 8th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages, –. Miyazaki, Japan. lrec-conf.org/workshops/lrec2018/W1/pdf/18038_W1.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Vermeerbergen, Myriam
    2006 Past and current trends in sign language research. Language & Communication(). –. 10.1016/j.langcom.2005.10.004
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2005.10.004 [Google Scholar]
  39. Volterra, Virginia, Maria Roccaforte, Alessio Di Renzo & Sabina Fontana
    2022Italian Sign Language from a cognitive and socio-semiotic perspective. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 10.1075/gs.9
    https://doi.org/10.1075/gs.9 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/sll.24013.sal
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/sll.24013.sal
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: transfer unit ; corpus ; iconicity ; discourse genre ; statistics ; lexical unit ; French Sign Language (LSF)
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error