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How do sign language interpreters transform acoustic (sound-based) songs into a visual form that is richly meaningful for d/Deaf audiences? Just as an acoustic song is more than rhythm and poetic lyrics, an embodied song involves more than a signed translation of the words.

In this recently accepted article, embodiment researcher Vicky Fisher draws together a range of theories from within a grounded cognition framework including semiotics, analogy mapping and cross-modal correspondences. She applies these to embodiment strategies used by prominent d/Deaf and hearing Dutch practitioners, including Tom Uittenbogert from Radboud University, to unpack the relationship between acoustic songs, their embodied representations, and their broader conceptual and affective meanings. The author proposes that meaning primarily arises through shared patterns of internal relations across a range of amodal and cross-modal features with an emphasis on dynamic qualities. The paper presents an exploratory survey which elaborates on the nature of cross-modal and embodied meaning creation and serves as a stepping-stone for future research.

Curious to learn more? You can read the abstract and paper here.