Title |
Lexical Variation and Change in British Sign Language
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, April 2014
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0094053 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Rose Stamp, Adam Schembri, Jordan Fenlon, Ramas Rentelis, Bencie Woll, Kearsy Cormier |
Abstract |
This paper presents results from a corpus-based study investigating lexical variation in BSL. An earlier study investigating variation in BSL numeral signs found that younger signers were using a decreasing variety of regionally distinct variants, suggesting that levelling may be taking place. Here, we report findings from a larger investigation looking at regional lexical variants for colours, countries, numbers and UK placenames elicited as part of the BSL Corpus Project. Age, school location and language background were significant predictors of lexical variation, with younger signers using a more levelled variety. This change appears to be happening faster in particular sub-groups of the deaf community (e.g., signers from hearing families). Also, we find that for the names of some UK cities, signers from outside the region use a different sign than those who live in the region. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 11 | 31% |
United States | 5 | 14% |
Australia | 3 | 8% |
Israel | 1 | 3% |
Netherlands | 1 | 3% |
Curaçao | 1 | 3% |
Germany | 1 | 3% |
Unknown | 13 | 36% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 26 | 72% |
Scientists | 9 | 25% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 3% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom | 2 | 2% |
Netherlands | 1 | <1% |
Belgium | 1 | <1% |
Australia | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 97 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Master | 18 | 18% |
Researcher | 14 | 14% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 14 | 14% |
Student > Bachelor | 13 | 13% |
Professor | 5 | 5% |
Other | 17 | 17% |
Unknown | 21 | 21% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Linguistics | 38 | 37% |
Psychology | 12 | 12% |
Social Sciences | 6 | 6% |
Computer Science | 5 | 5% |
Engineering | 4 | 4% |
Other | 14 | 14% |
Unknown | 23 | 23% |