The use of mimetic actions by deaf signers of British Sign Language: A corpus-based study

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The aim of this project is to conduct secondary data analysis of the British Sign Language (BSL) Corpus, an existing digital video dataset of the signed language of the British deaf community - specifically, to study how deaf signers of BSL mimetically reproduce the actions, utterances, thoughts and feelings of themselves, other people, animals, and things in their conversations and personal narratives. These highly improvised mimetic actions are referred to here as enactments. For example, a deaf signer might produce signs (equivalents of words in spoken languages) with an enactment of herself as a young child to express the sense of surprise and wonder she experienced as she learned BSL for the first time. Proficient use of enactment in deaf signed languages, including BSL, is vital for understanding others and making oneself understood. Previous research on stories told by deaf signers has shown that enactment is integral to the expression of key plot events in storytelling. Signers often use enactment to detail aspects of their stories and narratives that are otherwise expressed using signs. Indeed, signers often rely solely on enactment to show and imply relations between participants and events in a story. However, the use of enactment in BSL is complex and has not yet been described using large amounts of natural discourse data, such as personal narratives or conversations between deaf signers. We also do not know much about what signers use enactment for, when they use it and why, or what happens to signs used during periods of enactment. The possible effects of variation due to social factors such as the signer's age, their age of signed language acquisition and geographical location (which affect other aspects of signed language use) are also unknown. The primary aim of the project is to investigate patterns in the use of enactment within the British deaf community using existing conversation and personal narrative data in the BSL Corpus. The BSL Corpus consists of video data collected from 249 deaf signers of BSL from eight cities across the United Kingdom. The data are representative of a diverse language community, including men and women, deaf adults with deaf and/or hearing parents, signers who are young and old, and individuals from working and middle class backgrounds, as well as different ethnic groups. This consists of informal conversations between pairs of deaf signers, as well as spontaneous narratives told by individual signers to another signer. These conversations and narratives cover a wide range of topics, chosen by the signers themselves and reflecting their values and everyday experiences. Topics include reminiscences of growing up deaf and attending school, being a part of the British deaf community, relationships with family and friends, politics, sport, arts and culture. By analysing how deaf signers in the BSL Corpus use enactments in their conversations and narratives, we will gain a deeper understanding of the role of enactment in BSL. We will be able to describe the similarities and differences in how deaf signers mimetically reproduce actions, utterances, thoughts and feelings during their interactions. We will be able to determine if these similarities and differences are due to social factors that have been shown to influence other aspects of signed language use, such as the signer's age, or their age of signed language acquisition or geographical region, or whether they reflect more widespread and potentially universal patterns of face-to-face communication. This information will contribute to ongoing research on linguistic structure and use of BSL, as well as providing a benchmark for deaf children in bilingual English/BSL programs, and deaf and hearing adults learning BSL. These findings are essential for directly comparing the communicative strategies used by signers with those of speakers, and furthering our understanding of face-to-face communication in general.