Collaborative research: The structure of the ASL lexicon: experimental and statistical evidence from a large lexical database (ASL-LEX)

这个合作项目将记录和研究美国手语中词汇形式的特性。我们对人类语言的几乎所有了解都来自于对口语的研究。然而，只有通过研究手语，才有可能发现哪些语言规则和约束对所有人类语言是通用的，哪些取决于个别语言的特定属性。通过研究手语，研究人员可以发现与发音器的性质(即手与声道)或与语言被感知的特定方式(即视觉与听觉)相关的语言模式。研究人员还可以发现由口语和手语之间系统性差异产生的语言模式，例如手语中标志性形式(与其意思相似的单词)的高度流行。对口语的心理学和语言学研究依赖于词汇数据库--关于语言单词的信息储存库--来确定影响单词理解和产生的因素，了解单词在大脑和大脑中是如何组织和结构的(在我们的“心理词典”中)，并发现语言中存在的语言模式。然而，不幸的是，目前还没有美国手语(ASL)的词汇库，美国手语是美国聋哑人和听力正常的人使用的手语。该项目的主要目标是创建一个大型的、可搜索的、公共可用的约2500个ASL手语的数据库。该数据库(称为ASL-Lex)将包含每个手势的以下信息：主观使用频率评级、来自聋人手语者和听力非手语者两者的象似性评级、手势持续时间测量、词汇类别信息(例如，名词、动词等)、以及基于手势的语音特征的代码(例如，位置、手形、移动)，其可用于计算手势的形式是相对常见的(具有许多形式的‘邻居’)还是相对独特的(具有较少的‘邻居’)。第二个目标是使用ASL-Lex对ASL词汇进行第一次定量分析，以揭示语音特征在ASL符号中出现(或不出现)的规律，以及这些模式是如何受到符号属性(如频率和象似性)的影响的。第三个目标是进行实验，以确定这些语音模式的心理现实(例如，签名者是否下意识地知道哪些模式是常见的，哪些模式是罕见的？)并发现语音和词汇特性如何影响手势识别(使用一种新的手势识别技术)和产生(使用图片命名任务)的速度。这些实验的数据和相关材料(如图片刺激)将通过ASL-Lex向公众提供。这些材料构成了基本的工具，使科学家和教育工作者能够创建控制良好的ASL刺激，用于研究和课堂。教育工作者和早期干预专家也可以使用ASL-Lex来制定评估手语儿童词汇发展的基准(例如，儿童知道最常见的手势吗？)并支持扫盲发展(例如，寻找基于手语的“押韵”)。该项目的一个平行目标是，通过将聋人研究人员纳入该项目，并为聋人学生提供获得培训和研究经验的无障碍环境，增加聋人在科学领域的代表性。

This collaborative project will record and study the properties of lexical forms in American Sign Language. Almost everything we know about human language comes from the study of spoken languages. However, only by studying sign languages is it possible to discover which linguistic rules and constraints are universal to all human languages and which depend on the particular properties of an individual language. By studying sign languages researchers can uncover language patterns that are tied to the nature of the articulators (i.e., the hands vs. the vocal tract) or that are linked to the specific way a language is perceived (i.e., visually vs. auditorally). Researchers can also uncover language patterns that result from properties that systematically vary between spoken and signed languages, such as the high prevalence of iconic forms (words that resemble what they mean) in sign languages. Psychological and linguistic research on spoken languages has relied on lexical databases--repositories of information about the words of a language--to identify factors that influence how words are comprehended and produced, to understand how words are organized and structured in the mind and brain (in our "mental lexicon"), and to discover the linguistic patterns that are present in languages. Unfortunately however, there is currently no comparably large lexical database for American Sign Language (ASL), the sign language used by deaf and hearing people in the United States.A primary aim of this project is to create a large, searchable, and publically available database of approximately 2,500 ASL signs. The database (called ASL-LEX) will contain the following information for each sign: subjective frequency-of-use ratings, iconicity ratings from both deaf signers and hearing non-signers, sign duration measures, lexical category information (e.g., noun, verb, etc.), and codes for sign-based phonological features (e.g., location, handshape, movement) that can be used to calculate whether the form of a sign is relatively common (has many form 'neighbors') or relatively unique (has few 'neighbors'). A second aim is to use ASL-LEX to conduct the first quantitative analysis of the ASL lexicon in order to uncover regularities in the way that phonological features appear (or do not appear) in ASL signs and how these patterns are influenced by sign properties such as frequency and iconicity. A third aim is to conduct experiments to determine the psychological reality of these phonological patterns (e.g., do signers unconsciously know which patterns are common and which are rare?) and to discover how phonological and lexical properties impact how quickly a sign is recognized (using a novel sign recognition technique) and produced (using a picture-naming task). Data from these experiments and related materials (e.g. picture stimuli) will be made available to the public through ASL-LEX. These materials constitute essential tools that will allow scientists and educators to create well-controlled ASL stimuli for use in research and the classroom. ASL-LEX can also be used by educators and early intervention specialists to develop benchmarks for assessing vocabulary development in signing children, (e.g., do children know the most frequent signs?) and to support literacy development (e.g., to find sign-based "rhymes"). A parallel aim of the project is to increase the representation of deaf people in science by including deaf researchers on the project and by providing an accessible environment for deaf students to gain training and research experience.