ABSTRACT
In this paper, we examine the linguistic phenomenon known as 'depiction', which relates to the ability to visually represent semantic components (Dudis, 2004). While some elements of this have been described for Irish Sign Language, with particular attention to the 'productive lexicon' (Leeson and Grehan, 2004;Leeson and Saeed, 2012;Matthews, 1996;O'Baoill and Matthews, 2000), here, we take the analysis further, drawing on what we have learned from cognitive linguistics over the past decade. Drawing on several recently developed domain-specific glossaries (e.g., Science Technology Engineering Math1 (STEM), Covid-192, political domain, Sexual, Domestic and Gender Based Violence (SDGBV)-related vocabulary) we present ongoing analysis indicating that a deliberate focus on iconicity, in particular, elements of depiction, appears to be a primary driver. We also outline some potential implications from Deaf-led glossary development work in the context of Machine Translation goals, for example, for work in progress on the Horizon 2020 funded SignON project. © European Language Resources Association (ELRA), licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0.