Datasets:

LINGUISTEUNICE
/

gsl-multimodal-annotation

sign_id stringlengths 7 7	gloss stringlengths 2 15	source_video stringlengths 11 18	dominant_hand stringclasses 2 values	handshape stringlengths 20 100	location stringlengths 5 56	movement stringlengths 24 73	facial_expression stringlengths 7 48	mouth_pattern stringclasses 10 values	head_movement stringclasses 7 values	non_manual_obligatory stringlengths 8 93	annotation_source stringclasses 4 values	annotator_notes stringlengths 134 331
GSL_001	WHERE	WHERE (Zenodo)	Right only	1-hand — index finger extended pointing	Neutral space to the side of body	Repeated lateral wagging right to left	Eyebrows raised throughout entire hand movement	Signer mouths 'where'	—	Yes — eyebrow raise is grammatical WH-marker	Direct video observation	Eyebrow raise sustained across full sign duration confirming grammatical scope. Mouthing of spoken word co-occurs — unclear whether obligatory or signer-specific contact phenomenon with English. Video angle makes it difficult to distinguish eyebrow raise from wide-eye opening precisely.
GSL_002	WATER	WATER (Zenodo)	Right only	Three fingers extended loosely hanging — not cleanly folded; thumb position unclear from video angle	Mouth — hand makes contact or near-contact	Repeated forward and back movement toward mouth	Neutral	O-shape synchronised with hand at mouth position	—	Unclear — O-shape may be co-articulatory effect of hand approaching mouth	Direct video observation	Handshape differs from citation W-hand — fingers hang loosely rather than cleanly tucked. Thumb not visible clearly from video angle. Mouth O-shape appears specifically at moment of hand-mouth proximity not throughout — raises question of phonological mouth pattern vs co-articulatory effect. Single camera angle limits ...
GSL_003	WORK	WORK (Zenodo)	Both hands	Both S-hands closed fists — knuckles of dominant right hand face forward	Neutral space — right knuckles contact back of left hand	Dominant hand hits back of non-dominant hand three times repeated tapping	Neutral to focused	Signer mouths 'work' — three mouth movements synchronised with hits	Head nod three times synchronised with each hit	Unclear — head nod and mouthing may be prosodic/emphasis rather than grammatically obligatory	Direct video observation	Head nod synchronised beat-for-beat with hand movement — three nods three hits. Raises question of whether head movement is prosodic beat marker rather than lexical/grammatical NMM. Mouthing pattern consistent across WHERE WATER WORK — suggests signer-specific habit or English contact influence.
GSL_004	MOTHER	MOTHER (Zenodo)	Both hands	Open-5 hand both — all fingers extended spread	Chest / sternum	Static bilateral hold both hands contact chest	Neutral to warm	Mouth pattern 'mum'	—	Possible — body contact location may be phonologically contrastive	Literature + GSL lexicon	Kinship signs in GSL frequently use body-contact location as a phonological feature. Mouthing of 'mum' consistent with contact phenomenon observed across dataset.
GSL_005	FATHER	FATHER (Zenodo)	Both hands	Open-5 hand — all fingers extended	Forehead / temple	Static hold or single tap at forehead	Neutral	Mouth pattern 'dad'	—	Possible	Annotator knowledge + GNAD dictionary	Location at forehead contrasts with MOTHER at chest — minimal pair candidate on location parameter. Annotated from author's own GSL knowledge cross-referenced against GNAD dictionary.
GSL_006	EAT	EAT (Zenodo)	Right only	Flat-O / bunched hand — fingertips meet thumb	Mouth	Repeated path toward mouth depicting eating action	Neutral to chewing	Chewing mouth movement — obligatory	—	Yes — mouth pattern is semantically integral to sign	Literature + GSL lexicon	Mouth pattern for EAT is widely documented as obligatory across sign languages with ASL influence. Iconic: hand shape and movement depict food entering mouth.
GSL_007	SLEEP	SLEEP (Zenodo)	Both hands	Open-B both hands — flat fingers together	Face / cheek area	Hands converge toward face head tilts laterally	Eyes closed or lowered — semantically obligatory	—	Lateral head tilt	Yes — eyes closed is semantically obligatory	Literature + GSL lexicon	Facial expression (eyes closed) is semantically obligatory — signing SLEEP with open eyes would be marked or ungrammatical. Head tilt co-occurs consistently in documented productions.
GSL_008	HAPPY	HAPPY (Zenodo)	Both hands	Open-B / 5-hand both — fingers extended spread	Chest	Upward circular movement on chest	Smile raised cheeks — semantically obligatory	—	—	Yes — smile is semantically contrastive with SAD	Annotator knowledge + GNAD dictionary	Facial expression semantically obligatory and contrastive with SAD which uses downturned mouth. Annotated from author's own GSL knowledge.
GSL_009	SAD	SAD (Zenodo)	Both hands	Open-5 hand both — all fingers extended spread	Face / cheeks	Downward bilateral movement along cheeks	Downturned mouth furrowed brow	—	Slight downward head tilt	Yes — facial expression semantically contrastive with HAPPY	Literature + GSL lexicon	Downward movement of hands mirrors downward facial expression — strong iconic mapping between manual and non-manual features. Contrastive pair with HAPPY.
GSL_010	SCHOOL	SCHOOL (Zenodo)	Both hands	Open-B both hands — flat fingers together	Neutral space	Repeated clap-like movement	Neutral	—	—	No — no obligatory NMM documented	Literature + GSL lexicon	Low iconicity sign. No obligatory non-manual marker. Arbitrary form consistent with institutional/cultural signs that lack direct iconic motivation.
GSL_011	BOOK	BOOK (Zenodo)	Both hands	Open-B both hands flat palms facing up	Neutral space	Single opening movement — directly depicts open book	Neutral	—	—	No — no obligatory NMM documented	Literature + GSL lexicon	Highly iconic — hand movement directly depicts the referent object opening. One of clearest classifier-like depictive signs in dataset.
GSL_012	WALK	WALK (Zenodo)	Right only	V-hand — index and middle fingers extended	Neutral space	Alternating finger movement depicting leg motion	Neutral	—	—	No — no obligatory NMM documented	Literature + GSL lexicon	Classifier-like depictive sign — V-hand represents legs walking. High iconicity. Common across sign languages with varying handshapes.
GSL_013	WHAT	WHAT (Zenodo)	Right only	Open-5 or bent-B — fingers spread or loosely bent	Neutral space	Repeated small lateral movement	Raised eyebrows — WH-question grammatical marker	—	Slight forward head tilt	Yes — raised eyebrows grammatically obligatory for WH-questions	Literature + GSL lexicon	Shares grammatical NMM (raised eyebrows) with WHERE — different manual features but same grammatical class. This cross-sign NMM grouping is demonstrated in SPARQL Q3 of the companion RDF dataset.
GSL_014	NO	NO (Zenodo)	Right only	Index and middle fingers extended — scissors shape	Neutral space	Lateral wagging then snap closed	Slightly tense / firm	—	Head shake — grammatical negation marker	Yes — head shake is grammatical negation marker	Literature + GSL lexicon	Head shake is grammatically obligatory negation marker — contrastive with YES which uses head nod. Manual + non-manual features both carry grammatical information independently.
GSL_015	YES	YES (Zenodo)	Right only	S-hand — closed fist	Neutral space	Nodding / bobbing movement	Neutral to positive	—	Head nod — grammatical affirmation marker	Yes — head nod is grammatically obligatory	Literature + GSL lexicon	Head nod contrastive with head shake on NO. Interesting case where head movement mirrors manual movement — both nod/bob. Question of whether manual movement is motivated by or independent of head NMM.
GSL_016	GHANA	GHANA (Zenodo)	Right only	G-hand — initialized sign index finger and thumb extended	Neutral space	Single arc path movement	Neutral	—	—	No — no obligatory NMM documented	Literature + GSL lexicon	Initialized sign — handshape derived from first letter of English gloss 'G'. Low iconicity. Common in GSL for country and proper noun signs.
GSL_017	MONEY	MONEY (Zenodo)	Right only	Flat-O / bunched hand — fingertips touching thumb	Neutral space palm-up base	Fingertips rub against palm repeatedly	Neutral	—	—	No — no obligatory NMM documented	Literature + GSL lexicon	High iconicity — rubbing gesture directly depicts handling money. Gestural origin — similar gesture used in many hearing cultures. Cross-cultural iconic motivation.
GSL_018	THANK YOU	THANK YOU (Zenodo)	Right only	Open-B / flat hand — all fingers extended together	Mouth / chin area	Single outward path arc from chin toward interlocutor	Smile / gratitude expression	Lips slightly open — 'thank' mouth movement	—	Yes — smile/gratitude expression semantically obligatory	Literature + GSL lexicon	Social/pragmatic sign. Facial expression (smile) is semantically obligatory — signing THANK YOU with neutral face would be pragmatically marked. Outward path movement iconically depicts giving thanks toward recipient.
GSL_019	EAT (variant)	EAT (Zenodo)	Right only	Flat-O hand — variant with fingers more spread	Mouth	Repeated path toward mouth — faster tempo variant	Neutral to animated	Exaggerated chewing — larger mouth movement	—	Yes — mouth pattern obligatory across variants	Literature + GSL lexicon	Documented to explore intra-sign variation — same gloss may show handshape and NMM variation across signers or contexts. Faster tempo associated with more animated facial expression.
GSL_020	WATER (variant)	WATER (Zenodo)	Right only	W-hand citation form — three fingers cleanly extended thumb tucked	Mouth / chin	Taps chin twice — cleaner repeated movement than observed production	Neutral	Pursed lips — drinking mouth shape	—	Unclear — mouth pattern varies between citation and natural production	Literature + citation form documentation	Citation form compared against natural production observed in GSL_002. Handshape difference between citation W-hand and observed loose-finger production illustrates phonetic variation in natural signing. Annotation source: ASL-influenced citation form documentation cross-referenced with Zenodo video.

GSL Multimodal Annotation Dataset

Multimodal annotation of 20 signs from Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL), capturing manual and non-manual phonological features across 14 columns including handshape, location, movement, facial expression, mouth pattern, and head movement.

Dataset description

This dataset accompanies a pilot Linked Data representation of GSL (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20961293). It documents the annotation decisions, uncertainties, and limitations encountered when annotating sign language video data — including the camera angle problem, mouthing ambiguity, and the distinction between prosodic and grammatical non-manual markers.

3 signs (WHERE, WATER, WORK) were annotated from direct video observation. 17 signs were annotated from published GSL and sign language literature. The annotation_source column clearly identifies which rows are which.

Columns

Column	Description
sign_id	Unique identifier e.g. GSL_001
gloss	Sign label in capitals
source_video	Zenodo folder name
dominant_hand	Right / Left / Both
handshape	Description of hand configuration
location	Articulatory location
movement	Manual movement description
facial_expression	Facial expression annotation
mouth_pattern	Mouth movement description
head_movement	Head movement annotation
non_manual_obligatory	Yes / No / Unclear
annotation_source	Direct observation or literature
annotator_notes	Uncertainty and limitations per sign

Source data

Fragkiadakis, Nyst & Nyarko (2021). Ghanaian Sign Language Lexicon. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4533753

Companion RDF dataset

GitHub: https://github.com/LINGUISTEUNICE/gsl-linked-data Zenodo DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20961293

Citation

[EUNICE ESI ESSUMAN] (2026). GSL Multimodal Annotation Dataset. Hugging Face. https://huggingface.co/datasets/LINGUISTEUNICE/gsl-multimodal-annotation

Languages

Ghanaian Sign Language (gsL)

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