FLexSign: A lexical database in French Sign Language (LSF).

Abstract

In psycholinguistics, studies are conducted to understand language processing mechanisms, whether in comprehension or in production, and independently of the language modality. To do so, researchers need accurate psycholinguistic information about the linguistic material they use. One main obstacle to this process is the lack of information available in sign language. While some lexical databases exist in multiple sign languages, to the best of our knowledge, psycholinguistic data for French Sign Language (LSF) signs are not yet available. The present study presents FLexSign, the first interactive lexical database for LSF, inspired by ASL-Lex (Caselli et al., 2017). The database includes familiarity, concreteness, and iconicity data for 546 signs of LSF. These three factors are known to influence the speed or the accuracy of lexical processing. Familiarity and concreteness are known to generate a robust facilitative effect on sign processing, while iconicity plays a complex but crucial role in the creation and organization of sign language lexicons. Therefore, having accurate information on the iconicity of LSF signs would help to better understand the role of this notion in lexical processing. To develop the database, 33 participants were recruited and asked to complete an online questionnaire. The FLexSign database will be of great use to sign language researchers, providing linguistic information that was previously unavailable and offering many opportunities at both the experimental and clinical levels. The database is also open to future contributions.