Frequency of Sign Components in Russian Sign Language

Abstract

We investigate the structures of Signs in the Russian Sign Language (RSL) and their components of different categories. These categories allow us to convey all the variety of Sings. Another area of RSL that has not yet been sufficiently studied is how the components of Signs of different categories differ from one another; the categories allow us to convey the whole variety of Signs of RSL or any national SL. Our study is based on the created corpus, where we gathered the most common Signs of the RSL using the SW system. As we compare individual Signs in a symbolic form, we see visual similarities between some of them, with minor differences in their components. When carrying out linguistic analysis, it is important to know the frequency characteristics of the language. The main goal of this work is to identify the components of Signs with the greatest frequency of their use. The object of this study is the handshapes that describe the state of the palm and fingers when performing Signs. These components of any Sign in the SL are basic and the most numerous among the components of other categories (movement, orientation, localization, etc.). The article provides data on the composition of signs in the category "Hands" from the general base of the SW system. Our pilot study presents the frequency of the component Signs of RSL based on the material collected within the developed corpus of Signs in the sign form of the SW system. The frequency of use of Signs and their components is an important factor to consider when we examine the variation in Signs that influences how the SL changes over time. The data on the frequency of Signs and their components may be useful as we develop Sign (gesture) recognition software, and as we further study linguistics and SL.

Keywords

• signs
• sign language
• components of signs
• hand configuration
• notation signwriting
• cor-pus of signs
• frequency of signs components