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Abstract. This paper presents AZVD, a proposed graphical form of Sign Language representation. It explains the method used to design it, and its goals of adoptability and synthesisability. The system is built on two prior foundations: a study of the regularities observed in spontaneous diagrams produced by signers, and the formal representation model AZee. Since AZVD can be scripted, whether through pen and paper or through recently developed editing software, and read non ambiguously to the point of being synthesisable by avatar, we submit it can serve as a proxy for writing, and give potential evolution points that would make it an even better substitute for the currently lacking Sign Language writing system.

References References in BIB How to cite How to cite in BIB

Challant, Camille, and Michael Filhol. 2022. “A First Corpus of AZee Discourse Expressions.” In Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC). Marseille, France.

———. 2024. “Extending AZee with Non-Manual Gesture Rules for French Sign Language.” In Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC). Torino, Italy.

Ebling, S., and J. Glauert. 2013. “Exploiting the Full Potential of JASigning to Build an Avatar Signing Train Announcements.” In Third International Symposium on Sign Language Translation and Avatar Technology. Chicago, IL, USA.

Elliott, Ralph, John R. W. Glauert, Richard Kennaway, Ian Marshall, and Éva Sáfár. 2008. “Linguistic Modelling and Language Processing Technologies for Avatar-Based Sign Language Presentation.” Universal Access in the Information Society (UAIS) 6 (4): 375–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-007-0102-z.

Filhol, Michael. 2020a. “A Human-Editable Sign Language Representation Inspired by Spontaneous Productions… and a Writing System?” Sign Language Studies 21 (1).

———. 2020b. “Elicitation and Corpus of Spontaneous Sign Language Discourse Representation Diagrams.” In Proceedings of the 9th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages.

Filhol, Michael, and Thomas von Ascheberg. 2024. “A software editor for the AZVD graphical Sign Language representation system.” In Workshop on the representation and processing Sign Language. Turin, Italy. https://hal.science/hal-04712674.

Filhol, Michael, Mohamed Nassime Hadjadj, and Annick Choisier. 2014. “Non-Manual Features: The Right to Indifference.” In Proceedings of the Workshop on Representation and Processing of Sign Languages. Reykjavik, Iceland.

Guitteny, P. 2007. “Langue Des Signes Et Schémas.” Traitement Automatique de La Langue (TAL) 48.

Hadjadj, Mohamed, Michael Filhol, and Annelies Braffort. 2018. “Modeling French Sign Language: A Proposal for a Semantically Compositional System.” In International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, edited by ELRA. Miyazaki, Japan: ELRA. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01848986.

Hanke, Thomas. 2004. “HamNoSys—Representing Sign Language Data in Language Resources and Language Processing Contexts.” In Proceedings of the Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages, edited by O. Streiter & C. Vettori, 1–6. European Language Resources Association (ELRA).

IVT. 1997. La Langue Des Signes, Dictionnaire Bilingue LSF–Français. Vol. 2, 3. Paris: IVT editions.

Mcdonald, John, and Michael Filhol. 2021. “Natural Synthesis of Productive Forms from Structured Descriptions of Sign Language.” Machine Translation, September. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10590-021-09272-2.

McDonald, John, Rosalee Wolfe, Jerry Schnepp, Julie Hochgesang, D. Jamrozik, M. Stumbo, L. Berke, M. Bialek, and F. Thomas. 2015. “An Automated Technique for Real-Time Production of Lifelike Animations of American Sign Language.” Universal Access in the Information Society, 1–16.

Prillwitz, S., R. Leven, H. Zienert, T. Hanke, and J. Henning. 1989. “HamNoSys Version 2.0, Hamburg Notation System for Sign Languages, an Introductory Guide.” International Studies on Sign Language Communication of the Deaf 5.

Stokoe, William. 1960. “Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication System of the American Deaf.” Edited by University of Buffalo. Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers 8.

Stokoe, William C., Dorothy C. Casterline, and Carl G. Croneberg. 1965. A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. Washington, DC: Gallaudet College Press.

Sutton, Valerie. 2014. Lessons in SignWriting. 4th ed. The SignWriting Press.

Wolfe, Rosalee, John McDonald, and Jerry Schnepp. 2011. “An Avatar to Depict Sign Language: Building from Reusable Hand Animation.” In Workshop on Sign Language Translation and Avatar Technology (SLTAT). Berlin, Germany.

@INPROCEEDINGS{challant2022-corpusAZee,
   AUTHOR = {Challant, Camille and Filhol, Michael},
   TITLE = {A First Corpus of AZee Discourse Expressions},
   BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)},
   ADDRESS = {Marseille, France},
   YEAR = {2022},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{challant2024-corpusAZee,
   AUTHOR = {Challant, Camille and Filhol, Michael},
   TITLE = {Extending AZee with Non-manual Gesture Rules for French Sign Language},
   BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC)},
   ADDRESS = {Torino, Italy},
   YEAR = {2024},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{ebl13,
   AUTHOR = {Ebling, S. and Glauert, J.},
   TITLE = {Exploiting the full potential of JASigning to build an avatar signing train announcements},
   BOOKTITLE = {Third International Symposium on Sign Language Translation and Avatar Technology},
   ADDRESS = {Chicago, IL, USA},
   YEAR = {2013},
}

@ARTICLE{ell08,
   AUTHOR = {Elliott, Ralph and Glauert, John R. W. and Kennaway, Richard and Marshall, Ian and S\'af\'ar, \'Eva},
   TITLE = {Linguistic modelling and language processing technologies for avatar-based Sign Language presentation},
   JOURNAL = {Universal access in the information society (UAIS)},
   YEAR = {2008},
   VOLUME = {6},
   NUMBER = {4},
   PAGES = {375--391},
}

@ARTICLE{SLS-2020-writing,
   AUTHOR = {Filhol, Michael},
   TITLE = {A human-editable Sign Language representation inspired by spontaneous productions{\ldots} and a writing system?},
   JOURNAL = {Sign Language Studies},
   YEAR = {2020},
   VOLUME = {21},
   NUMBER = {1},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{LREC-SL-2020-VD,
   AUTHOR = {Michael Filhol},
   TITLE = {Elicitation and Corpus of Spontaneous Sign Language Discourse Representation Diagrams},
   BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the 9th workshop on the representation and processing of sign languages},
   YEAR = {2020},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{LREC-SL-2024-AZVD-editor,
   AUTHOR = {Filhol, Michael and von Ascheberg, Thomas},
   TITLE = {{A software editor for the AZVD graphical Sign Language representation system}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Workshop on the representation and processing Sign Language}},
   ADDRESS = {Turin, Italy},
   YEAR = {2024},
   URL = {https://hal.science/hal-04712674},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{LREC-SL-2014-nonManuals,
   AUTHOR = {Filhol, Michael and Hadjadj, Mohamed Nassime and Choisier, Annick},
   TITLE = {Non-manual features: the right to indifference},
   BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the workshop on Representation and Processing of Sign Languages},
   ADDRESS = {Reykjavik, Iceland},
   YEAR = {2014},
}

@ARTICLE{gui07,
   AUTHOR = {Guitteny, P.},
   TITLE = {Langue des signes et sch\'emas},
   JOURNAL = {Traitement automatique de la langue (TAL)},
   YEAR = {2007},
   VOLUME = {48},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{mnh18,
   AUTHOR = {Hadjadj, Mohamed and Filhol, Michael and Braffort, Annelies},
   EDITOR = {ELRA},
   TITLE = {Modeling French Sign Language: a proposal for a semantically compositional system},
   BOOKTITLE = {International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation},
   ADDRESS = {Miyazaki, Japan},
   YEAR = {2018},
   URL = {https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01848986},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{Hanke04-HamNoSys,
   AUTHOR = {Hanke, Thomas},
   EDITOR = {O. Streiter \& C. Vettori},
   TITLE = {HamNoSys---representing Sign Language data in language resources and language processing contexts},
   BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages},
   PUBLISHER = {European Language Resources Association (ELRA)},
   YEAR = {2004},
   PAGES = {1--6},
}

@BOOK{IVT-dico-1997,
   AUTHOR = {{IVT}},
   TITLE = {La langue des signes, dictionnaire bilingue LSF--fran\c cais},
   PUBLISHER = {IVT editions},
   ADDRESS = {Paris},
   YEAR = {1997},
   VOLUME = {2, 3},
}

@ARTICLE{McDonald-Filhol-2021-MT,
   AUTHOR = {Mcdonald, John and Filhol, Michael},
   TITLE = {{Natural Synthesis of Productive Forms from Structured Descriptions of Sign Language}},
   JOURNAL = {{Machine Translation}},
   PUBLISHER = {{Springer Verlag}},
   YEAR = {2021},
   URL = {https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03721229},
}

@ARTICLE{Paula-lifelike,
   AUTHOR = {McDonald, John and Wolfe, Rosalee and Schnepp, Jerry and Hochgesang, Julie and Jamrozik, D. and Stumbo, M. and Berke, L. and Bialek, M. and Thomas, F.},
   TITLE = {An automated technique for real-time production of lifelike animations of American Sign Language},
   JOURNAL = {Universal Access in the Information Society},
   YEAR = {2015},
   PAGES = {1--16},
}

@ARTICLE{pri89,
   AUTHOR = {Prillwitz, S. and Leven, R. and Zienert, H. and Hanke, T. and Henning, J.},
   TITLE = {HamNoSys version 2.0, Hamburg notation system for sign languages, an introductory guide},
   JOURNAL = {International studies on Sign Language communication of the Deaf},
   PUBLISHER = {Signum press, Hamburg},
   YEAR = {1989},
   VOLUME = {5},
   NOTE = {Signum press, Hamburg.},
}

@ARTICLE{sto60,
   AUTHOR = {Stokoe, William},
   EDITOR = {University of Buffalo},
   TITLE = {Sign Language structure: an outline of the visual communication system of the American Deaf},
   JOURNAL = {Studies in linguistics, occasional papers},
   YEAR = {1960},
   VOLUME = {8},
}

@BOOK{stokoe65-dict,
   AUTHOR = {Stokoe, William C. and Casterline, Dorothy C. and Croneberg, Carl G.},
   TITLE = {A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles},
   PUBLISHER = {Gallaudet College Press},
   ADDRESS = {Washington, DC},
   YEAR = {1965},
}

@BOOK{sutton14-textBook,
   AUTHOR = {Sutton, Valerie},
   TITLE = {Lessons in SignWriting},
   EDITION = {4th},
   PUBLISHER = {The SignWriting Press},
   YEAR = {2014},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{Paula-SLTAT,
   AUTHOR = {Wolfe, Rosalee and McDonald, John and Schnepp, Jerry},
   TITLE = {An Avatar to Depict Sign Language: Building from Reusable Hand Animation},
   BOOKTITLE = {Workshop on Sign Language Translation and Avatar Technology (SLTAT)},
   ADDRESS = {Berlin, Germany},
   YEAR = {2011},
}

Michael Filhol (2024), “AZVD as a Sign Language writing system proxy, and the potential evolution,” in Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2024 (Yannis Haralambous, Ed.), Grapholinguistics and Its Applications, Vol. 12, Brest: Fluxus Editions, 689–708.


@INPROCEEDINGS{gla12-filh,
   AUTHOR = {Michael Filhol},
   EDITOR = {Haralambous, Yannis},
   TITLE = {{AZVD as a Sign Language writing system proxy, and the potential evolution}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2024}},
   SERIES = {{Grapholinguistics and Its Applications}},
   VOLUME = {12},
   PUBLISHER = {Fluxus Editions},
   ADDRESS = {Brest},
   YEAR = {2024},
   PAGES = {689--708},
   DOI = {https://doi.org/10.36824/2024-graf-filh},
}