1. Non-Manual Signals (NMS): What they mean and how do we interpret them?
Dustin Catt
Gallaudet University INT 492 May 4, 2016
Introduction
“We interpreters know we are responsible for the transmission of the content of speakers’ messages. An additional responsibility is to express the manner in which one person speaks, which allows the other participant to get a glimpse of who the person is.”
Stephanie Fayne, Street Leverage Live, 2013
Materials and Methods
Video Samples pulled from Ted X Talks – Gallaudet
Data analysis was recorded using Elan technology
Conclusion
Noted, even with a limited scope of this study, one can see the manifold of non-manual signals used in ASL to convey grammatical and sematic information.
Results of this study can benefit in several ways:
Linguists to form a deeper understanding of the importance of NMS in ASL.
Students can develop strategies to beVer represent the person they are interpreting for.
Allow working interpreters to self-analyze their own strategies by learning from other interpreters.
Non-manual signals in ASL are an intricate part in sign production providing emotion, punctuation, and meaning to what is being said.
We, as interpreters, decide what word choices we use and how to express what is signed reflects upon the presenter’s credibility.
Literature Review
Limitations
Data collected from two video sources. Multitude of data sources would find additional interpretation strategies.
Use of the same video, lecture, or story to elicit interpretation strategies on similar content.
Interview with interpreters to inquire about their decisions.
Collaboration with ASL / linguist experts for accuracy.
Early beliefs thought that affective or aUtudinal expressions have more global and inconsistent onset and offset patterns, and they are not timed to co-occur with specific signs or constituents (Messing and Campbell, 1999).
Liddell not only noticed that ASL sentence structure did not adhere to subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, but yet that specific combination of facial features and head position constitute a grammatical marker for relative clauses (2003).
There are at least six different roles known to be played by NMS at the time of this writing: reflections of emotional states, constructed actions, conversation regulators, lexical, grammatical markers, and modifiers such as adverbs and each of these roles played by NMS has a different function in ASL (Bridges and Metzger, 1996).
References
Results and Analysis
Baker-Shenk, C., & Cokley, D. (1980). American sign language: A teachers resource text on grammar and culture. Washington: Gallaudet University Press.
Sample portion of results and analysis charts
Bridges, B., & Metzger, M. (1996). Deaf Tend Your: Non-Manual Signals in ASL. Silver Spring, Maryland: Calliope Press.
Some non-manual markers can actually change the meaning of signs so that the non-manual marker/sign combination must be interpreted in a completely different way than the sign produced without the marker (Taylor, 2002).
Feyne, S. (2013). Authenticity: The Impact of a Sign Language Interpreter’s Choices. Street Leverage.
Liddell, S. (2003). Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Messing, L. S., & Campbell, R. (1999). Gesture, speech, and sign. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Taylor, M. M. (2002). Interpretation skills: American sign language to English. Edmonton: Interpreting Consolidated.
Acknowledgments
Keith Cagle, Mark Halley, Ricardo Ortiz. Thank you for your guidance and sharing your wisdom.
2016 BAI Cohort. Its been a heck of a journey!
Mom and Dad. For always supporting and believing in me.
Jennifer Tuell. For all your help and encouragement, I love you.
To all of those who have been there with me throughout my endeavors, Thank You!
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