Auslan

This paper describes an innovative approach to training sign language interpreters, through a program established at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. The course is innovative because sign language and spoken language interpreting students jointly study key subjects, which enables all students to gain insight into the theoretical applications and professional practices of their respective working experiences. This component is particularly innovative as sign language interpreting programs are typically provided as language specific courses with little (if any) exposure to interpreting students of other languages. This paper will provide an overview of the program for both spoken and signed language interpreters, detailing the structure, content and delivery modes, with the aim of encouraging other interpreter educators to consider combining the teaching of all language interpreters.RésuméCet article décrit une approche innovatrice de la formation des interprètes en langue des signes, grâce à un programme fondé à la Macquarie University de Sydney, Australie. Le cours est innovateur parce que les étudiants en interprétation dans la langue des signes et dans la langue parlée étudient ensemble les matières principales, ce qui leur permet, à tous, de se familiariser avec les applications théoriques et les pratiques professionnelles de leurs expériences de travail respectives. Cet élément est particulièrement innovateur étant donné que les programmes d’interprétation en langue des signes sont généralement donnés en tant que cours spécifiques à la langue, avec peu de contacts avec les étudiants en interprétation d’autres langues, voire aucun. Cet article donnera un aperçu du programme des interprètes en langue des signes et en langue parlée, en détaillant la structure, le contenu et les modes de mise en oeuvre, dans le but d’encourager d’autres enseignants d’interprètes à envisager de combiner l’enseignement de tous les interprètes en langue.

These guidelines explain and exemplify the annotations found in the Auslan Corpus.

This is the first revision of these guidelines since November 2019. The main changes are:

- Correction to text and expression throughout

- Removal of repetition

- Replacement of almost all interlinear glossed examples with screen grabs from ELAN annotation files (eafs) of actual examples from the Auslan Corpus.

- Major rewriting of the sections on Secondary annotations, especially sections on clause level annotation and clause complexity annotation.

This study investigates the conventionalization of mouth actions in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Signed languages were once thought of as simply manual languages because the hands produce the signs which individually and in groups are the symbolic units most easily equated with the words, phrases and clauses of spoken languages. However, it has long been acknowledged that non-manual activity, such as movements of the body, head and the face play a very important role. In this context, mouth actions that occur while communicating in signed languages have posed a number of questions for linguists; are the silent mouthings of spoken language words simply borrowings from the respective majority community spoken language(s); and are those mouth actions that are not silent mouthings of spoken words conventionalized linguistic units proper to each signed language, culturally linked semi-conventional gestural units shared by signers with members of the majority speaking community, or even gestures and expressions common to all humans? We use a corpus-based approach to gather evidence of the extent of the use of mouth actions in naturalistic Auslan—making comparisons with other signed languages where data is available—and the form/meaning pairings that these mouth actions instantiate.

This study investigates clause constructions in Auslan. It looks at the alignment of constituent semantic role with constituent position and order in clauses, changes in the morphology of signs according to position and/or role, and the interpretation of omitted arguments. The aim is to determine if there are grammatical relations in Auslan. The most frequent constituent order parallels English, thus Auslan might be said to also instantiate a basic SVO word order. However, every possible constituent order pattern is also attested without there being other coding and behavioural properties associated with grammatical relations that could explain this flexibility. I conclude that constituent order in Auslan is the result of the interaction of pragmatic and semantic factors, visual representation, and language contact with English, rather than autochthonous grammatical relations. Auslan grammar draws on both so-called gestural and so-called linguistic resources at the clause level, not just at the word (sign) level.

This study investigates the conventionalization of mouth actions in signed languages. Signed languages were once thought of as simply manual languages because the hands produce the signs which individually and in groups are the symbolic units most easily equated with the words, phrases and clauses of spoken languages. However, it has long been acknowledged that non-manual activity, such as movements of the body, head and the face play a very important role. In this context, mouth actions that occur while communicating in signed languages have posed a number of questions for linguists; are the silent mouthings of spoken language words simply borrowings from the respective majority community spoken language(s); and are those mouth actions that are not silent mouthings of spoken words conventionalized linguistic units proper to each signed language, culturally linked semi-conventional gestural units shared by signers with members of the majority speaking community, or even gestures and expressions common to all humans? We use a corpus-based approach to gather evidence of the extent of the use of mouth actions in naturalistic Auslan (Australian Sign Language)—making comparisons with other SLs where data is available—and the form/meaning pairings that these mouth actions instantiate.

Social interaction, and the attendant negotiation of meaning, is of prime importance for developing second language (L2) skills. Yet how learners go about building L2 social networks-and why some have more success than others in doing so-remains underexplored. This article explores this phenomenon via a 12-month longitudinal case study of three hearing adult learners of Auslan (Australian Sign Language) who were studying the language in a vocational education setting. Drawing on language diaries and stimulated recall