Roland Pfau

Markus Steinbach

Josep Quer

Carlo Cecchetto

Caterina Donati

Carlo Geraci

Meltem Kelepir

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. Current grammatical knowledge about particular sign languages is fragmentary and of varying reliability, and it appears scattered in scientific publications where the description is often intertwined with the analysis. In general, comprehensive grammars are a rarity. The SignGram Blueprint is an innovative tool for the grammar writer: a full-fledged guide to describing all components of the grammars of sign languages in a thorough and systematic way, and with the highest scientific standards. The work builds on the existing knowledge in Descriptive Linguistics, but also on the insights from Theoretical Linguistics. It consists of two main parts running in parallel: the Checklist with all the grammatical features and phenomena the grammar writer can address, and the accompanying Manual with the relevant background information (definitions, methodological caveats, representative examples, tests, pointers to elicitation materials and bibliographical references). The areas covered are Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Syntax and Meaning. The Manual is endowed with hyperlinks that connect information across the work and with a pop-up glossary. The SignGram Blueprint will be a landmark for the description of sign language grammars in terms of quality and quantity.

A Guide to Sign Language Grammar Writing

SignGram Blueprint

"It is common for grammars to include an introductory chapter that offers a general introduction to the language under investigation as well as its users. We encourage the grammar writer to include this type of information for the sign language to be described. If a certain variant of the sign language is described, this should be made clear at the outset. The structure of this part is fairly flexible. As can be seen from the table of contents, we suggest including information about (i) the history of the sign language, (ii) characteristics of the Deaf community, (iii) the status of the sign language, and (iv) previous linguistic work on the sign language. The last section in particular will have an impact on the content of subsequent parts, as we encourage the grammar writer to include findings from previous studies in the grammatical description of the sign language. Clearly, alternative structures are possible. The overview of previous linguistic work, for instance, could be provided under the "History" header, and Deaf culture and/or Deaf education could be discussed under dedicated first-level headers - to give just two examples. Also, depending on the available information, sub-headers could be added. Note that we adopt the convention of writing Deaf with a capital D when it refers to issues related to a community that is characterized by the use of a sign language. In contrast, deaf with a small d refers to the medical condition of not being able to hear. It is up to the grammar writer to decide whether to stick to this convention in the grammar"--

Caterina Donati

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