Sign language encodes event structure through neuromotor dynamics: motion, muscle, and meaning

This study provides neuromotor evidence for the embodied kinematic encoding of grammatical event structure in sign language, using time-locked motion capture and surface electromyography (EMG) recordings from fluent Deaf ÖGS signers.

Drawing on the Event Visibility Hypothesis, we examine how Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS) systematically distinguishes telic and atelic verbs through both visible kinematic parameters, as well as underlying muscle activation patterns.

We show that telic signs (those denoting bounded, goal-directed events) have shorter duration, later deceleration, lower movement variability, and distinct spectral activation in forearm and upper-arm muscles, as compared to atelic verb signs. Telic signs showed greater EMG co-contraction but lower cross-correlation than atelic verb signs, reflecting temporally precise antagonistic muscle coordination, and suggesting that grammatical contrasts in sign language are produced based on finely tuned motor control schemas.

These results directly address current challenges in embodiment research by demonstrating replicable, interpretable neuromotor correlates of linguistic structure in a visual-manual modality. By capturing how grammatical distinctions are produced by manual articulators, we contribute high-resolution empirical data and analysis methods toward understanding embodied language and linguistic motor control. In addition, our results support the linguistic interpretation that telic verb signs are morphologically marked in a way that atelic verb signs are not.