Research project DEPICT – Depiction as an Engine for Promoting Inclusion, Communication, and Translation
DEPICT investigates how depiction supports and enhances multilingual communication involving Norwegian sign language. It includes six unique projects that touch on the many different language environments where Norwegian sign language is used. DEPICT received 12 million NKR in funding from the Norwegian Research council.
People use depictive gestures to support and enhance the "dictionary words" they use to communicate. This is true for both spoken and signed languages. Depictions in signed languages happen within the sign-stream, not separately alongside the speech-stream like they do when speakers gesture at the same time they are speaking. Because sign language depictions are "hidden" in the sign-stream they have often been ignored and their importance has been understated.
Project description
Excellence
The main objective of this project is to promote the inclusion of deaf individuals into Norwegian society through a deeper understanding of the richly multimodal language behavior in which they regularly engage. Multimodal approaches to language and interaction (Svennevig, 2015) allow for not only words and grammar as the tools for communication, but also hand gestures, body postures, eye gaze, and the use of physical surroundings. Without adequately understanding and recruiting these uniquely visual aspects of communication, the quality of inclusion, integration, and interpreting for deaf people who experience the world visually will necessarily be impoverished. Equal access to public services is a stated aim of the Norwegian government (Lande Hasle et al., 2014). Against this backdrop our project centers on the investigation of depiction – acts of “showing” rather than “telling” – which are a key aspect of the visual grammar of all signed languages (Liddell, 2003), including Norwegian sign language (NSL) (Erlenkamp, 2011).
State of the art, knowledge needs and project objectives
Signed languages are fully fledged languages. Their users can therefore be considered members of linguistic minorities (United Nations General Assembly, 2020). From an international perspective, deaf people have historically been more isolated than their hearing counterparts. Yet, when a deaf signer from one country meets a deaf signer from another country, they can communicate far more effectively than hearing people. Gaining this skill is not simply a matter of learning a national sign language. A hearing person learning a sign language will not be able to communicate with a deaf person from another country using sign language as easily. By learning more about this unique skill we aim to understand more about how deaf people communicate, which can contribute to an improved quality of access to society. At the heart of the matter is the use of depiction as a strategy for communication. An example of depiction is when we form a “telephone receiver” with our hand and put it to our ear. Any other person familiar with the concept of telephone will understand something along the lines “I’ll call you”. Depiction shows meaning through iconicity, motivated links between form and meaning. Depiction also relies on the specific contexts in which it is embedded. In this way they partially require a shared experience to fulfill their communicative purpose. Depictions are an essential part of signed languages, and deaf people are skilled at using depictions in conventional and creative ways during interactions. By understanding the ways cultural experience shapes signed language depiction we can better prepare practitioners for effective and beneficial interactions with the deaf communities and individuals they serve. For example, it is unclear to what extent and in what contexts depictions are useful in interpreted interactions and whether hearing or deaf interpreters use them more. To guide our investigations, we put forth the following core hypothesis:
The Depiction Engine Hypothesis
Signed language depiction may under certain circumstances drive:
(a) Basic communication without a shared signed language
(b) Enhanced communicative effectiveness within a shared signed language
(c) More linguistically and culturally appropriate signed language interpretations
This project will investigate depiction and its role in the communication practices of sign language users. We will investigate this main aim through a cluster of interdisciplinary work packages (WPs): 1) an experimental study of word level iconicity, 2) a vocabulary size assessment controlling for access to sign supported speech among hearing preschoolers, 3) interviews and participant observations eliciting depictions with deaf female immigrants, 4) transcription and analysis of depictions in interpreted communication with deaf interpreters, 5) transcription and analysis of depictions in interpreted communication for deafblind individuals, and 6) an interpreting roleplay and introspection task focusing on depiction with novice, skilled, and deaf interpreters.
Research questions and hypotheses, theoretical approach, and methodology
Each work package empirically investigates and test the Depiction Engine hypothesis. A variety of methods and data types will be used, and in some cases multiple WPs will analyze the same data with different approaches. Our multidisciplinary approach reflects DEPICT’s ambition to exhaustively capture the facets of depiction in the diverse language ecology (Haugen, 1972) of NSL. All personal data collected will follow NSD and GDPR. Possible risks include a) failure to elicit community engagement, b) delays/complications in data collection, c) complications in coordination of numerous partners across multiple WPs, and d) ethical considerations of conducting research with vulnerable populations. Risks are anticipated through a) early dissemination goals and pre-project recruitment of community stakeholders as collaborators, b) clear workload expectations, and budgeted partner coordination meetings, c) funding set aside for personnel especially administrative and research assistant positions in addition to PhD and postdoc funding, and d) approval through NSD and training for researchers and collaborators for issues regarding consent in vulnerable populations.
WP1 Culturally specific perceptions of lexically depicting signs
1) To what extent are depictive motivations shared between signers of different signed languages?
2) Are depictions with shared semantic factors communicatively expedient?
WP2 Depiction as a tool for language learning and language development
3) Will Sign Supported Speech increase acquisition and retention of abstract concepts among preschoolers?
WP 3 Depiction in communication with deaf female immigrants
4) What do female deaf immigrants report regarding linguistic possibilities and obstacles of living in Norway?
5) What type of depiction can be identified in different communicative situations involving deaf female immigrants?
WP4 Deaf interpreters’ depicting when creating intersubjectivity
6) How do deaf interpreters and deaf immigrants create intersubjectivity in sign language interpreted communication?
7) Which types of depiction can be identified in these encounters?
WP5 Depiction in deafblind interpreting
8) How do interpreters use depiction when interpreting for deafblind individuals?
WP6 Differences in depicting between experienced and inexperienced sign language interpreters
9) Are there observable differences in the use of depiction between inexperience vs. experienced interpreters vs. deaf interpreters?
10) What are the characteristics of these differences if found?
Project members
Project managers
Gro Hege Saltnes Urdal
Associate Professor
Members
Benjamin Anible
Associate Professor
Vadim Kimmelman
Professor
Johanna Mesch
Professor
Corinne Occhino
Natasha Parkins-Maliko
LECTURER
Ari Price
PhD Candidate
Elisabet Trengereid Olsen
PhD Candidate
Christopher Stone
Dr
Elisabet Tiselius
Docent
Inger-Birgitte Thorbjørnsen
Assistant Professor
Lori Whynot
Dr