Language attitudes in the British deaf community: Evidence from the British Sign Language Corpus

这个项目的目的是对BSL语料库进行二次数据分析，BSL语料库是现有的英国手语(或BSL，英国聋人社区的语言)的大型视频数据集，以研究BSL的语言意识和语言态度。BSL语料库包括来自英国8个地点的249名BSL本地和近本地聋人签名者的视频数据。这些数据代表了语言社区，包括男性和女性，父母失聪的聋人和父母听力正常的成年人，年轻和年老的手写者，来自工薪阶层和中产阶级背景以及不同种族的个人。该项目的主要目的是使用BSL语料库访谈数据调查英国聋人社区的语言态度，该语料库采访数据包括所有249名签名者对BSL、它是什么、它不是什么、它如何使用、它应该如何使用、它如何变化以及它如何变化(以及它是否应该或不应该变化/变化)等一系列问题的回答。我们将能够看到聋人社区内不同社会群体的语言态度是否有相似或不同(例如，年轻和年长的签名者对BSL的看法是否有差异)，以及态度如何与签名者自己的行为相关(例如，签名者是否意识到最近的研究发现，年轻和年长的签名者之间实际上存在差异，以及这些差异是什么)。这项研究也让我们有机会探索聋人社区对BSL和英语之间语言接触的态度--例如，通过对BSL的态度和以英语为基础的手语系统，如手语支持的英语(SSE)。这些信息将有助于今后对BSL的研究，也有助于语言规划和政策，包括BSL在英国的法律地位。此外，还将完成访谈数据的翻译，并在网上向公众提供。翻译采访数据意味着人们将能够看到来自英国不同地区、不同年龄段的聋人的视频剪辑，以及BSL的性别手势以及英语翻译。这将大大增加访谈数据的可搜索性和可浏览性，使其变得可访问，从而成为教师、学习者和研究人员更有价值的资源。

The aim of this project is to conduct secondary data analysis of the BSL Corpus, an existing large video dataset of British Sign Language (or 'BSL', the language of the British deaf community), to study language awareness and language attitudes in BSL. The BSL Corpus consists of video data collected from 249 native and near-native deaf signers of BSL from 8 sites across the United Kingdom. The data are representative of the language community, including a mix of men and women, deaf adults with deaf parents and those with hearing parents, signers who are young and old, and individuals from working and middle class backgrounds as well as different ethnic groups. The primary aim of the project is to investigate language attitudes of the British deaf community using the BSL Corpus interview data which consists of responses from all 249 signers to a range of questions about BSL, what it is and what it isn't, how it is used and how it should be used, how it varies and how it's changing (and whether it should or shouldn't vary/change). We will be able to see if there are similarities or differences in the language attitudes of different social groups within the deaf community (e.g. if there are differences in how BSL is viewed by younger and older signers), and how attitudes relate to signers' own behaviours (e.g. whether signers are aware that there are actually differences between younger and older signers, as found in recent research, and what those differences are). This study also gives us the opportunity to explore the deaf community's attitude towards language contact between BSL and English - e.g. via attitudes about BSL versus English-based sign systems such as Sign-Supported English (SSE). This information will be beneficial for future research on BSL but also in language planning and policy, including the legal status of BSL in the UK. Additionally, translations of the interview data will be completed and made publicly available online. Translating the interview data means people will be able to see video clips of deaf people from different areas of the UK, different age groups and gender signing in BSL along with English translations. This will dramatically increase the searchability and browsability of the interview data, making it accessible and thus a much more valuable resource for teachers, learners and researchers.