Comparing Sign Languages can tell us whether different languages have commonalities (language universals)
Tables under show three songs (by Bieber, Beyonce, and Rihanna), interpreted in two sign languages (ASL and Libras) and the relative frequencies of the location and orientation combinations for each video and each sign language. We can observe that
- Libras
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- has less abdomen activity than the ASL (indicated in light blue)
- has more neck and ears activity than the ASL (dark blue and green respectively)
- Both sign languages have more pointing up direction of the hands as opposed to other possible directions
