An annotation scheme for the linguistic study of mouth actions in sign languages

This paper describes the annotation scheme that has been used for research on mouth actions in the Corpus NGT. An orthographic representation of the visible part of the mouthing is supplemented by the citation form of the word, a categorisation of the type of the mouth action, the number of syllables in the mouth action, (non)alignment of a corresponding sign, and a layer representing some special functions. The scheme has been used for a series of studies on Sign Language of the Netherlands. The structure and vocabularies for the annotation scheme are described, as well as the experiences in its use so far. Annotations will be published in the second release of the Corpus NGT annotations in late 2014.