Glossary (Version 8.4)

See Frames of reference.

The basic form of a sign, without modifications, as found in a dictionary.

A basic chunk of propositional meaning, referring to a happening or a state. Information in Auslan clauses may be either “told” or “shown” (using CA or depicting signs) or a mix of both.

A small electronic device that can be surgically inserted into the inner ear to provide sound signals to the brain.

Child of Deaf Adults; the term that typically refers to hearing children of deaf parents, who often use a signed language as their first language in their family of origin.

The use of a range of language features to link parts of a signed text together, making it easy to follow and to understand referents in the text.

Features of language used to make texts cohesive, such as connectives, ellipses and the use of space in a text.

A mutual and reciprocal exchange of meaning.

An acquired capability to understand and interact in context using the target language (TL). Defined by the use of appropriate phonological, lexical, grammatical, sociolinguistic and intercultural elements.

A form of adjective used to compare one thing with another, such as tall versus more tall.

An active process of making/constructing/deciphering the meaning of language input through listening, reading, viewing, touching (as in braille or tactile signing) and through combinations of these modes. It involves elements of decoding, working out meaning, evaluating and imagining. The process draws upon the learner’s existing knowledge and understanding, text–processing strategies and capabilities; for example, making inferences or applying knowledge of text types and social and cultural resources.

A type of word or sign that joins signs, phrases or clauses together such as but or or.

A means of linking a group of signs to whatever comes before, such as s-o or the gesture g:well.

Constructed action (CA), also called role-shift, is a discourse strategy used in signed languages when signers use their own face and body to represent actions, signs, thoughts or feelings of a referent in a text. The referent can be themselves at another time, a different character, or something thought of as an animate entity.

A sign or sequence of signs that has developed and become established over time to have an agreed meaning; for example, lexicalised depicting signs such as meet or line-up.

A collection of texts that have been annotated to be machine-readable and can be analysed; for example, Auslan, BSL and NGT corpora that have been collected and are available online.

Develop and/or produce signed, spoken, written or multimodal texts in live, print or digital forms.

Sources of information used to facilitate comprehension of language that may be visual, grammatical, gestural or contextual.