Depicting signs and different text genres : Preliminary observations in the corpus of Finnish sign language

Abstract

In this article we first discuss the different kinds of signs occurring in sign languages and then concentrate on depicting signs, especially on their classification in Finnish Sign Language. Then we briefly describe the corpora of Finland's sign languages (CFINSL). The actual study concerns the occurrences of depicting signs in CFINSL in different text genres, introductions, narratives and free discussions. Depicting signs occurred most frequently in narratives, second most frequently in discussions and least frequently in introductions. The most frequent depicting signs in all genres were those that depicted the whole entity moving or being located. The second most frequent were those signs that expressed the handling of entities. The least frequent depicting signs were those with size- and shape-tracing handshapes. The proportion of depicting signs of all the signs in each genre was 17.9% in the narratives, 2.9% in the discussions and 2.2% in the introductions. In order to deepen the analysis, depicting signs will have to be investigated from the perspective of movement types and the use of one or two hands.