General Issues

Before you start filling in your personal data, we want to address the following general issues that are important with regard to answering the questionnaire

• (1) The linguistic background of sign language researchers and sign language experts

  We are aware of the fact that sign language researchers and sign language experts can have different levels of linguistic expertise and different theoretical perspectives; for example, ranging between formal and functional approaches. Since our aim is to describe linguistic structures of the sign languages around the world on a descriptive basis, we intend to ask the questions as theoretically neutral as possible, within the range of basic linguistic assumptions and terminology. For a clarification of the terminology we use and how we understand it, we provide a glossary of terms. Words (or phrases) that are further explained in the glossary are marked in grey and by a dotted underline. Moving the mouse over such a word, a question mark appears. A click on the underlined term opens the corresponding glossary entry on the right-hand side of the questionnaire. For example: adjective

• (2) The objectivity and truthfulness of answering the questions

  One main aim of this questionnaire is to include as many sign languages as possible. Therefore, well-investigated as well as less-investigated sign languages will be included in the ATLAS. This means, however, that some questions cannot be answered for your sign language, because the information is yet missing. Also, some questions might not be answered on a reliable basis, because a widespread data analysis is not yet available. Here, we encourage the content-provider to (a) inspect her/his judgment or intuition carefully before answering the questions; and (b) – if an answer is not possible – press the “no answer” button in the lower left corner.

  !! It is highly important that you click something on each slide: either an answer, or the "no answer" button!!
  In some cases, we specifically ask for a personal estimation. These are questions, where an answer based on scientific investigations is either not available (e.g. because representative corpus data are not available) or very unlikely. In these cases, we explicitly ask whether your judgment is based on a scientific investigation or on a personal estimation. The group of questions that have been mainly answered based on personal estimations will be explicitly marked in the ATLAS.

• (3) Authorship agreement

  We contacted you and asked you to be a content-provider for one (or more) of the four questionnaires, because you are an expert for your sign language in this field. This means that no other person fills in this specific questionnaire for your sign language. Thus, by accepting the consent form (coming up next), you will be fully responsible for the truthfulness of the answers given by you and your team.

  We highly encourage you to ask a colleague to cooperate with you in filling in this questionnaire. Please just share the account (and password) for that. Both you and your colleague (ideally, at least one deaf content-provider) will then be responsible for the content of the questionnaire and you both will be mentioned as authors for your sign language. Thus, you and your colleague will have authorship rights and responsibilities for the specific questionnaire you filled in. These include the following:

  • As authors, you are responsible for the truthfulness and reliability of your answers.
  • Your answers should be based on any type of documented data (that is: video recordings, published book or journal-articles, currently ongoing research).
  • Your answers can also be based on personal estimations and undocumented discussions with informants. If so, please mark this explicitly by clicking the “personal estimation” button next to the question.
  • As authors, you substantially contribute to filling in this questionnaire by: either filling in the questionnaire yourself, or coordinating your team in order to fill in the questionnaire and revising it critically.
  • Other people helping you in filling in the questionnaire can be named in the Acknowledgments.
• (4) Rights on pictures and videos

  In some questions, we ask you to upload an example picture or video of the respective phenomenon in your SL. If you have a picture or video of the phenomenon under discussion, please upload it with the respective button. The program supports the following file formats:

  -    for pictures: jpg, png, pdf / for videos: mov, mp4 / Please name your file like this: "SL_SIGN", e.g.: DGS_GROUP.jpg

  With regard to picture and video rights: Please make sure that you have the official rights for the respective pictures and videos.

  By uploading a picture and/or video, you automatically transfer the rights of the picture/video to the SIGN-Hub project (number 693349). Hence, the SIGN-Hub project then has the following rights:

  • publish the picture/video as hard copy and in electronic or digital format;
  • publish the picture/video on the internet, as a downloadable or non-downloadable file;
  • broadcasting the picture/video by any channel, public display or presentation, communicating through press information services, or inclusion in widely accessible databases or indexes;
  • editing or redrafting the picture/video for communication and publicizing activities (including shortening, summarizing, inserting other elements (such as meta-data, legends, other graphic, visual, audio or text elements), extracting parts (e.g. audio or video files), dividing into parts, use in a compilation);
  • storing and archiving the picture/video in paper, electronic or other form.
• (5) General procedure

  After filling in the consent form and the meta data of you and your colleague, you can start to fill in the questionnaire. In case you can answer a question, please do so and press the ‘next’ button, in order to get to the next question. In case you cannot answer the question, please press the ‘no answer’-box, and then press the ‘next’-button.

  If you want to revise an answer, you can go back to the respective section via the Table of Content (as explained above) and change your answer.

  It is possible to exit the Questionnaire and come back to it at a later time. To do so, please press the blue “SAVE & EXIT”-button on the lower right corner. The answers will be saved automatically. If you login at a later time, you can click on the respective questionnaire and on “view” and you will find the questionnaire with the answers you have given previously.

  We attempt a time frame of 4-5 weeks for filling in the complete questionnaire. Hence, you don’t have to do it in one run.
  On the last page you find a “FINISH”-button. Please make sure that you finish the questionnaire only after you have filled in all sections (either by answering the question or by clicking the “no answer” box). After the data collecting period of approx. 6 weeks, it is not possible to change your answers.