Article published In: International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
Vol. 20:1 (2015) ► pp.102–120
Gloss annotations in the Swedish Sign Language Corpus
Published online: 30 March 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.20.1.05mes
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.20.1.05mes
The Swedish Sign Language Corpus (SSLC) was compiled during the years 2009–2011 and consists of video-recorded conversations with 42 informants between the ages of 20 and 82 from three separate regions in Sweden. The overall aim of the project was to create a corpus of Swedish Sign Language (SSL) that could provide a core data source for research on language structure and use, as well as for dictionary work. A portion of the corpus has been annotated with glosses for signs and Swedish translations, and annotation of the entire corpus is ongoing. In this paper, we outline our scheme for gloss annotation and discuss issues that are relevant in creating the annotation system, with unique glosses for lexical signs, fingerspelling and productive signs. The annotation guidelines discussed in this paper cover both one- and two-handed signs in SSL, based on 33,600 tokens collected for the SSLC.
References (45)
Balvet, A. (2010). Issues underlying a common sign language corpora annotation scheme. In P. Dreuw, E. Efthimiou, T. Hanke, T. Johnston, G. Martínez Ruiz & A. Schembri (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Corpora and Sign Language Technologies [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 15–18). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Bergman, B. (1978). On motivated signs in the Swedish Sign Language. Studia Linguistica, 32(1–2), 9–17.
. (1979). Signed Swedish [Educational research]. National Swedish Board of Education, Liber Utbildningsförlaget.
. (1982). Teckenspråkstranskription. Forskning om teckenspråk X1. Institutionen för lingvistik, Stockholms universitet.
Bergman, B., Boyes Braem, P., Hanke, T., & Pizzuto, E. (Eds.) (2001). Sign Transcription and Database Storage of Sign Information [Special issue]. Sign Language & Linguistics, 4 (1–2).
Bergman, B., & Wallin, L. (1999). A first step towards a multimedia corpus for Swedish Sign Language [Unpublished paper]. European Science Foundation, Scientific Network Intersign: Sign Linguistics and Data Exchange 1997–2000, Certosa di Pontignano, Siena, Italy, March 12–15 1999.
Börstell, C. (2011). Revisiting reduplication: Toward a description of reduplication in predicative signs in Swedish Sign Language. (Unpublished master dissertation). Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Börstell, C., Mesch, J., & Wallin, L. (2014). Segmenting the Swedish Sign Language Corpus: On the possibilities of using visual cues as a basis for syntactic segmentation. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, E. Fotinea, T. Hanke, J. Kristoffersen, & J. Mesch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Beyond the Manual Channel [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 7–10). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Cormier, K., Fenlon, J., Johnston, T., Rentelis, R., Schembri, A., Rowley, K., Adam, R. & Woll, B. (2012). From corpus to lexical database to online dictionary: Issues in annotation of the BSL Corpus and the development of BSL SignBank. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, E. Fotinea, T. Hanke, J. Kristoffersen, & J. Mesch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Interactions between Corpus and Lexicon [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 5–12). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Crasborn, O., Mesch, J., Waters, D., Nonhebel, A., van der Kooij, E., Woll, B., & Bergman, B. (2007). Sharing sign language data online. Experiences from the ECHO project. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 12(4), 537–564.
Crasborn, O., & Sloetjes, H. (2008). Enhanced ELAN functionality for sign language corpora. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, T. Hanke, E. Thoutenhoofd, & I. Zwitserlood (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on construction and exploitation of sign language corpora [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 39–43). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Crasborn, O., Zwitserlood, I., & Ros, J. (2008). Corpus NGT: 72 hours of dialogues of Sign Language of the Netherlands. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed August 2014).
Fenlon, J., Cormier, K.A., & Schembri, A. (forthcoming). Building BSL SignBank: The lemma dilemma revisited.
Ferrara, L. (2012). The grammar of depiction: Exploring gesture and language in Australian Sign Language (Auslan). (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
Garcia, B., & Sallandre, M-A. (2013). Transcription systems for sign languages: A sketch of the different graphical representations of sign language and their characteristics. In C. Müller, A. Cienki, E. Fricke, S. Ladewig, D. McNeill & S. Tessendorf (Eds.), Body — Language — Communication (pp. 1125–1138). Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter.
Hanke, T., König, S., Konrad, R., & Langer, G. (2012). Towards tagging of multi-sign lexemes and other multi-unit structures. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, S.-E. Fotinea, T. Hanke, J. Kristoffersen, & J. Mesch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Interactions between Corpus and Lexicon [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 67–68). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Johnston, T. (2003). Language standardization and signed language dictionaries. Sign Language Studies, 3(4), 431–468.
. (2008). Corpus linguistics and signed languages: No lemmata, no corpus. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, T. Hanke, E. Thoutenhoofd & I. Zwitserlood (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on construction and exploitation of sign language corpora [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 80–87). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
. (2010). From archive to corpus: Transcription and annotation in the creation of signed language corpora. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 15(1), 106–131.
. (2014). Auslan corpus annotation guidelines. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed October 2014).
Konrad, R. (2013). The lexical structure of German Sign Language (DGS) in the light of empirical LSP lexicography. On how to integrate iconicity in a corpus-based lexicon model. Sign Language & Linguistics, 16(1), 111–118.
Konrad, R., Hanke, T., König, S., Langer, G., Matthes, S., Nishio, R., & Regen, A. (2012). From form to function. A database approach to handle lexicon building and spotting token forms in sign languages. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, S.-E. Fotinea, T. Hanke, J. Kristoffersen, & J. Mesch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Interactions between Corpus and Lexicon [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 87–94). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Leeson, L. (2008). Quantum leap. Leveraging the signs of Ireland digital corpus in Irish Sign Language/English interpreter training. The Sign Language Translator and Interpreter, 2(2), 231–258.
Liddell, S.K. (2003). Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Liddell, S.K., Vogt-Svendsen, M., & Bergman, B. (2007). A crosslinguistic comparison of buoys. In M. Vermeerbergen, L. Leeson, & O.A. Crasborn (Eds.), Simultaneity in Signed Languages: Form and Function (pp. 187–215). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing.
Mårtensson, K. (2012). Temabojen i svenskt teckenspråk — form och användning. [The THEME buoy in Swedish Sign Language]. (Unpublished Bachelor dissertation). Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Mesch, J. (2010). Viittomien glossit ja ajalliset pituudet: Annotointityöskentelyyn liittyviä kysymyksiä [The glosses and temporal durations of signs: Questions relating to sign language annotation]. In T. Jantunen (Ed.), Näkökulmia Viittomaan ja Viittomistoon [Perspectives on Sign and Lexicon] (pp. 43–55). Jyväskylä, Finland: University of Jyväskylä.
. (forthcoming). Manual backchannel signals in signers’ conversations in Swedish Sign Language: A pilot study. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics.
Mesch, J., & Wallin, L. (2012). From meaning to signs and back: Lexicography and the Swedish Sign Language Corpus. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, E. Fotinea, T. Hanke, J. Kristoffersen, & J. Mesch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Interactions between Corpus and Lexicon [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 123–126). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Mesch, J., Nilsson, A-L., Wallin, L. & Bergman, B. (2012a). Swedish Sign Language Corpus project 2009–2011. Version 1 [Dataset]. Sign Language Section, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Sweden. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed October 2014).
Mesch, J., Nilsson, A-L., Wallin, L., & Bäckström, J. (2010). Using corpus data for teaching purposes. Invited presentation at
Sign Linguistics Corpora Network Workshop 4: Exploitation, December 3, 2010, Berlin
.
Mesch, J., Rohdell, M., & Wallin, L. (2012b). Swedish Sign Language Corpus. Version 1 [Annotated files]. Sign Language Section, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Sweden. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed October 2014).
. (2014). Swedish Sign Language Corpus.Version 2 [Annotated files]. Sign Language Section, Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Sweden. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed October 2014).
Mesch, J., Wallin, L., & Björkstrand, T. (2012c). Sign language resources in Sweden: Dictionary and corpus. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, E. Fotinea, T. Hanke, J. Kristoffersen, & J. Mesch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Interactions between Corpus and Lexicon [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 127–130). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Nilsson, A-L. (2007). The non-dominant hand in a Swedish Sign Language discourse. In O. Crasborn, L. Leeson, & M. Vermeerbergen (Eds.), Simultaneity in Signed Languages: Form and Function (pp. 163–185). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
Nilsson, A-L., & Rohdell, M. (2011). What should I write?: Some do’s and don’ts when translating corpus material for the web [Poster].
2011 European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters Conference, 17–18 September 2011, Vietri sul Mare, Italy
.
Nonhebel, A., Crasborn, O., & van der Kooij, E. (2004). Sign language transcription conventions for the ECHO project. Version 9, 20 January 2004. Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed May 2014).
Pollitt, K., Beck, J., Dunipace, H., Lee, S., McShane, C., Roberts, E., Rowan, S., Robert, S., Schembri, A., & Turner, G.H. (2012). ‘Well, it’s green here, but I’ve seen green and green, and my mother’s was always green’: Initial issues and insights from translating the BSL Corpus. In C. Stone (Ed.), Proceedings of ASLI Conference 2011 (pp. 29–43). Coleford, UK: Forest Books.
Schönström, K., & Mesch, J. (2014). Use of nonmanuals by adult L2 signers in Swedish Sign Language: Annotating the nonmanuals. In O. Crasborn, E. Efthimiou, E. Fotinea, T. Hanke, J. Hochgesang, J. Kristoffersen, & J. Mesch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Beyond the Manual Channel [Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)] (pp. 153–156). Paris, France: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
Simons, G.F. (2008). The rise of documentary linguistics and a new kind of corpus. Paper presented at the 5th National Natural Language Research Symposium, De La Salle University, Manily, 25 November 2008. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed February 2014).
Stokoe, W.C. (2005). Sign language structure: An outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 10(1), 3–37.
Svenskt teckenspråkslexikon [Swedish Sign Language Dictionary] (2008). Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed October 2014).
Thofelt, U. (2011). Något om den konstruerade dialogen i svenskt teckenspråk. (Unpublished bachelor dissertation). Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, Sweden.
Wallin, L. (1996). Polysynthetic Signs in Swedish Sign Language. Stockholm, Sweden: Stockholm University.
Wallin, L., & Mesch, J. (2014). Annoteringskonventioner för teckenspråkstexter. [Annotation guidelines for Swedish Sign Language discourse]. Version 5. Stockholm, Sweden: Department of Linguistics, Sign Language Section, Stockholm University. Retrieved from [URL] (last accessed September 2014).
Cited by (22)
Cited by 22 other publications
Stamp, Rose
2025. Sign language corpora designed for sociolinguistic research. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
Witte, Erik, Thomas Björkstrand, Krister Schönström, Henrik Danielsson & Emil Holmer
Yin, Kayo, Katherine Atwell, Julie A. Hochgesang & Malihe Alikhani
Kezar, Lee, Jesse Thomason, Naomi Caselli, Zed Sehyr & Elana Pontecorvo
Warnicke, Camilla & Mathias Broth
2023. Embodying dual actions as interpreting practice. Translation and Interpreting Studies 18:2 ► pp. 191 ff.
Woods, Luke T. & Zeeshan A. Rana
Bragg, Danielle, Abraham Glasser, Fyodor Minakov, Naomi Caselli & William Thies
Kimmelman, Vadim, Anna Komarova, Lyudmila Luchkova, Valeria Vinogradova & Oksana Alekseeva
Schönström, Krister & Johanna Mesch
2022. Second language acquisition of depicting signs. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 13:2 ► pp. 199 ff.
Makaroğlu, Bahtiyar
Mesch, Johanna & Krister Schönström
2021. Use and acquisition of mouth actions in L2 sign language learners. Sign Language & Linguistics 24:1 ► pp. 36 ff.
Mesch, Johanna & Krister Schönström
Warnicke, Camilla & Charlotta Plejert
Caligiore, Gaia, Cristina Bosco & Alessandro Mazzei
Simper-Allen, Pia & Johanna Mesch
Wehrmeyer, Ella
2019. A corpus for signed language interpreting research. Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting 21:1 ► pp. 62 ff.
Wehrmeyer, Ella
2020. Shifts in signed media interpreting. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 25:3 ► pp. 270 ff.
Wehrmeyer, Ella
2023. Sign language corpus linguistics. In Advances in Sign Language Corpus Linguistics [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 108], ► pp. 1 ff.
McKee, Rachel & Mireille Vale
Börstell, Carl, Thomas Hörberg & Robert Östling
2016. Distribution and duration of signs and parts of speech in Swedish Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics 19:2 ► pp. 143 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.