Chapter 12. Developing an inventory of handshapes, locations, and movements in Hong Kong Sign Language

Abstract

In this chapter, we describe how we incorporate the Prosodic Model (Brentari 1998), especially the concept of a hierarchy of nodes with features, into a template for feature coding of sign entries in a lexical database, and how we make use of the features to organize learner’s dictionaries of the respective signed languages. Besides coding prosodic features, other information recorded includes sign category (monomorphemic or polymorphemic), sign type (whether the sign is one-handed or two-handed), the country of origin, gloss and grammatical category. Beginning with Hong Kong Sign Language, Asia SignBank has archived signs from Indonesian Sign Languages, Sri Lanka Sign Languages, Japanese Sign Languages, Ho Chi Ming Sign Languages, and Myanmar Sign Languages. Data input and feature coding were done by Deaf signers trained in sign language analysis and dictionary compilation. Archiving phonological features of individual sign entries also facilitates identification and comparison of phonological and morphological features of signs.