NSSCO Namibian Sign Language 6107 flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Four sign parameters

Handshape, location, movement and palm orientation are the contrastive formational elements of a sign. Changing any one can produce a different word, forming minimal pairs.

Non-manual features

Facial expression, eyebrow position, mouth, head tilt and gaze that carry grammatical meaning in signed languages, marking negation, question type, topic and conditionals.

Yes/no question marking

Raised eyebrows, widened eyes and a forward head tilt held across the question. These non-manual markers distinguish a yes/no question from a statement with identical manual signs.

Wh-question marking

Lowered or furrowed eyebrows with a slight forward lean or head shake, held over the clause. The manual wh-sign may appear at the start or end of the sentence.

Topic-comment structure

The topic is signed first and marked with raised eyebrows, a head tilt and a short pause; the comment then follows. Common in signed languages and distinct from English subject-first order.

Role shift

A signer rotates the body and shifts gaze to portray another person speaking or acting, then returns to neutral position. It marks reported speech and character depiction in narratives.

Referential signing space

Locations in front of the signer are assigned to referents and reused; pointing to a location refers back to the entity placed there without repeating its name.

Classifier predicates

Productive signs whose handshape represents a class of object and whose movement depicts its action or position, such as a vehicle moving or a person walking.

Verb agreement in space

Directional verbs move between the locations of subject and object. A verb like give starts at the signer and moves toward the addressee to mean 'I give you'.

Aspect through movement

Sign languages express aspect by modifying movement: repeated or circular motion for habitual or continuous, a hold for completed, and rapid motion for sudden action.

Conditional marking

Raised eyebrows and a head tilt over the antecedent clause, followed by a pause and then the consequent. The manual if-sign is optional in many signed languages.

One-handed manual alphabet

Namibian fingerspelling uses one hand to represent letters. It is used for proper names, acronyms and words lacking an established sign.

Initialised signs

Signs whose handshape matches the first letter of a spoken-language word, a form of lexical borrowing common in signed languages in contact with written languages.

Number incorporation

A numeral handshape fused into a sign to express quantity, age, time or money, for example a sign for weeks produced with a numeral handshape.

Loan sign lexicalisation

A fingerspelled word that becomes reduced and fluid over time, functioning as a single lexical item rather than a letter-by-letter sequence.

Fingerspelling co-articulation

Skilled fingerspellers blend adjacent letters, so letter boundaries are not always distinct. Reception relies on recognising whole patterns rather than isolated letters.

Deaf Gain

A framework that treats deafness as a linguistic and cultural contribution rather than a deficiency, emphasising visual language, community and adaptive skills.

Audism

Discrimination or prejudice favouring hearing people and spoken language over Deaf people and signed languages, often appearing as assumptions that signing is inferior.

Name signs

Signs identifying individuals, assigned by members of the Deaf community rather than chosen by the person, often based on appearance or a translated spoken name.

Deaf identity

A cultural and linguistic self-identification with the Deaf community and signed language, distinguished from audiological hearing status.

First-person interpreting

The interpreter voices the Deaf client's words as 'I', not 'she says', so the Deaf person remains the speaker. Standard ethical practice in signed-language interpreting.

Interpreter confidentiality

The obligation not to disclose information learned during an assignment, except within the interpreting team. A core professional duty in signed-language interpreting.

Register in signing

Variation in formality shown by signing space size, pace, repetition, fingerspelling density and lexical choice. Formal settings favour fuller, slower, less colloquial signing.

Meaning-based translation

Translation between signed and spoken languages that preserves meaning and intent rather than mapping word to sign, since the two grammars differ structurally.

Simultaneity in signed grammar

Signed languages can express several morphemes at once, such as person, number and aspect in one sign, whereas spoken languages are largely linear.

Duality of patterning

Meaningless units combine into meaningful ones: handshape, location and movement combine into signs, as phonemes combine into words in spoken language.

Iconicity in signs

Visual resemblance between a sign's form and its meaning. It does not make sign language universal, because conventions still determine which signs are used.

Code-blending

Producing signs and spoken words together in Deaf-hearing interaction. Analysed as a contact phenomenon, not as the standard form of either language.

Visual vernacular

A signed performance style using the body and signing space cinematically, with zoom, pan and character shifts replacing camera movement in filmed texts.

ABC stories

A signed narrative form in which successive signs use handshapes in alphabetical order, imposing a structural constraint on the storytelling.

Number stories

Signed narratives built on numeral handshapes in sequence, analogous to ABC stories, with each sign fitting the next number in the sequence.

Signed poetry rhythm

Poetic structure in signed language built from repeated movement patterns, handshape rhyme, symmetry and visual imagery rather than sound-based devices.

Visual accessibility of media

Signed media must provide an in-vision signer; captions alone do not serve Deaf audiences whose primary language is a signed language.