EXPRESSION OF PROPER NOUNS AND PRONOUNS BY DEAF SIGNERS OF INDIAN SIGN LANGUAGE (MUMBAI-DELHI DIALECT)

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the expression of proper nouns and pronouns by deaf signers of Indian Sign Language (ISL) (Mumbai-Delhi dialect) in narration. Ten fluent Deaf signers of Indian Sign Language (5 Males & 5 Females), in the age range of 18-40 years using signs of Mumbai-Delhi dialect were included in the study. The picture cards of the story ?The snake and the mongoose? was used for the narration task. The participants were presented with the picture cards and instructed to narrate the story using sign language. The signed expressions of the participants were video recorded and later analyzed by two judges individually. The judges transcribed and coded the signed expression of the participants for proper nouns and pronouns types using ELAN software and the frequency of occurrence was calculated for the proper nouns and pronoun types. The results showed that the deaf signers of ISL used noun sign or fingerspelling to express the proper nouns; and used a combination of ?manual pointing and eye gaze? as a predominant strategy to indicate pronouns. Use of other strategies such as a) manual pointing/indexing alone and b) manual pointing/indexing using combination of non-manual markers were also used to express the pronoun types.