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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Thu Apr 5, 2001 6:51 pm Subject: Re: sign language processing and computational sign language processing | |
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SignWriting List April 5, 2001 ....A message for Themis Karaminis, Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa, Karen Emmorey, and Judy Kegl... Thank you for your message below, Themis.... Regarding the subject of the correspondence of SW to cognitive aspects of sign language processing in the brain, such as the visual-perception, understanding, production and acquisition mechanisms which you mention below.... Just wanted you to know that about a year ago, Dr. Karen Emmorey at Salk Institute asked me about a possible brain-scan of a Deaf person who is fluent in SignWriting...for a similar topic ...to see how the brain functions when reading SignWriting etc... Judy Kegl and Karen then started discussing the possibility of such a brain-scan or MRI...I don't believe the brain-scan ever took place.... but I wanted you to know about this, since others have expressed interest in brain activity and SignWriting ;-) Val --------------------------------- Themis Karaminis wrote: >> Could you state briefly what do you understand by "NLP with a cognitive >> view"? > >With the (unsuccessful) term "cognitive view to NLP", I refer >mostly to connectionist modelling and also other approaches that >incorporate evidence from cognitive science about language >organization in the brain for producing models for language >processing. > > >>What cognitive aspects of language processes would say that depend on >> the particular form that has been chosen for writing a language on paper > (or >> a computer screen)?> > > On the one hand, SignWriting is a writing system, i.e. a set of >symbols for encoding signs . Therefore, for any evaluation or >comparison to other writing systems or transcription systems, >what would matter are the units for which symbols have been >selected and not the symbols themselves. Moreover,when considering >using SW input for NLP the basic issue would be the computer >readability of the .sgn format (if the computer can read the >phonological elements of the sign). Thus, a cognitively plausible >model for sign language processing could not be based on the >form of the input. > On the other hand, SignWriting is easy to learn and use mostly >because it is iconographic. This fact implies a possible >correspondence of SW to cognitive aspects of sign language processing in >the brain, such as the visual-perception, understanding, production and >acquisition mechanisms. Could a computational model exploit >SignWriter's iconicity to get closer to cognition-based aspects of sign >language realization? How? For example could the extraction of the >phonological features from the .sgn format be based on a model for sign >visual perception process? |
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