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Discourse genres in French Sign Language

A qualitative and quantitative corpus study

ORCiD logo with link | Université Paris 8 and CNRS — UMR 7023 Structures Formelles du Langage
 | Université de Lille and CNRS — UMR 8163 Savoirs, Textes, Langage
 | Université Paris 8 and CNRS — UMR 7023 Structures Formelles du Langage
Published online: 31 March 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.24013.sal
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 (. 2000. La Langue des Signes Française. Les voies de l’iconicité. Faits de langue 15–16, Paris: Ophrys.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), 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 (Version 7.0) [Computer software]. 2025. Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Language Archive. Retrieved from [URL] 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.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical perspective
    • 2.1Discourse genres and heterogeneity
    • 2.2Theoretical framework and linguistic categories
    • 2.3Discourse genres in sign languages
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data selection
    • 3.2The signers
    • 3.3Annotations
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Corpus exploration
    • 4.2Breakdown of linguistic categories by genre
    • 4.3Statistical exploration: Linguistic categories x discourse genres
      • 4.3.1Independence tests: χ2
      • 4.3.2Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
      • 4.3.3Correspondence analysis
      • 4.3.4Specificities
  • 5.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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