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Linguistic Foundations of Narration in Spoken and Sign Languages
Edited by Annika Hübl and Markus Steinbach
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 247] 2018
► pp. 15–40

A new technique for analyzing narrative prosodic effects in sign languages using motion capture technology

| Purdue University
| Purdue University

The present paper addresses prosody at a sentence level analysis within short narratives, developing a novel method based on a combination of data. Our first objective, then, is to establish the validity of our new method by confirming the findings of previous reports on Phrase Final Lengthening. Our second objective is to further extend the validity of the new method by confirming a prior claim regarding the role of increased velocity for signs that are stressed in sentences. Finally, we report new results in the form of patterns across signs within sentences using our new method.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Perceptual studies of prosody and fluency
    • 1.2Production studies of fluency and prosody
    • 1.3Prior kinematic work
      • 1.3.1Prior motion capture work showing sign lowering
      • 1.3.2Prior motion capture work showing verb class differences
      • 1.3.3Prior motion capture work showing phrase final lengthening
      • 1.3.4Prior motion capture work showing stress marking
  • 2.The present study
    • 2.1Procedure
      • 2.1.1Motion capture method for current report
      • 2.1.2Coding for non-kinematic linguistic and perceptual variables
      • 2.1.3Coding for kinematic variables
    • 2.2Analyses
    • 2.3Results
      • 2.3.1Kinematic analysis by sentence position
      • 2.3.2Kinematic analysis of stress
      • 2.3.3More general test of relationships among measured variables and weight
    • 2.4Summary
  • 3.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.247.02wil
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