Sign Languages of the World
Sign Languages of the World

Author: Julie Bakken Jepsen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-10-16

Total Pages: 1086

ISBN-13: 150150102X

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Although a number of edited collections deal with either the languages of the world or the languages of particular regions or genetic families, only a few cover sign languages or even include a substantial amount of information on them. This handbook provides information on some 38 sign languages, including basic facts about each of the languages, structural aspects, history and culture of the Deaf communities, and history of research. This information will be of interest not just to general audiences, including those who are deaf, but also to linguists and students of linguistics. By providing information on sign languages in a manner accessible to a less specialist audience, this volume fills an important gap in the literature.

Sign Languages
Sign Languages

Author: Joseph Hill

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-12-12

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 0429665148

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Sign Languages: Structures and Contexts provides a succinct summary of major findings in the linguistic study of natural sign languages. Focusing on American Sign Language (ASL), this book: offers a comprehensive introduction to the basic grammatical components of phonology, morphology, and syntax with examples and illustrations; demonstrates how sign languages are acquired by Deaf children with varying degrees of input during early development, including no input where children create a language of their own; discusses the contexts of sign languages, including how different varieties are formed and used, attitudes towards sign languages, and how language planning affects language use; is accompanied by e-resources, which host links to video clips. Offering an engaging and accessible introduction to sign languages, this book is essential reading for students studying this topic for the first time with little or no background in linguistics.

The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages
The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages

Author: Maartje De Meulder

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2019-06-17

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 1788924029

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This book presents the first ever comprehensive overview of national laws recognising sign languages, the impacts they have and the advocacy campaigns which led to their creation. It comprises 18 studies from communities across Europe, the US, South America, Asia and New Zealand. They set sign language legislation within the national context of language policies in each country and show patterns of intersection between language ideologies, public policy and deaf communities’ discourses. The chapters are grounded in a collaborative writing approach between deaf and hearing scholars and activists involved in legislative campaigns. Each one describes a deaf community’s expectations and hopes for legal recognition and the type of sign language legislation achieved. The chapters also discuss the strategies used in achieving the passage of the legislation, as well as an account of barriers confronted and surmounted (or not) in the legislative process. The book will be of interest to language activists in the fields of sign language and other minority languages, policymakers and researchers in deaf studies, sign linguistics, sociolinguistics, human rights law and applied linguistics.

The Everything Sign Language Book
The Everything Sign Language Book

Author: Irene Duke

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2009-03-17

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1605507520

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Discover the intricacies of American Sign Language with this comprehensive, essential guide to learning the basics of sign language. The appeal of American Sign Language (ASL) has extended beyond the Deaf community into the mainstream—it’s even popular as a class in high school and college. You are guided through the basics of ASL with clear instruction and more than 300 illustrations. With a minimum of time and effort, you will learn to sign: the ASL alphabet; questions and common expressions; numbers, money, and time. With info on signing etiquette, communicating with people in the Deaf community, and using ASL to aid child development, this book makes signing fun for the entire family.

Sign Language Ideologies in Practice
Sign Language Ideologies in Practice

Author: Annelies Kusters

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-08-10

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 1501510096

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This book focuses on how sign language ideologies influence, manifest in, and are challenged by communicative practices. Sign languages are minority languages using the visual-gestural and tactile modalities, whose affordances are very different from those of spoken languages using the auditory-oral modality.

Sign Language
Sign Language

Author: Jim G. Kyle

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1988-02-26

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780521357173

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The discovery of the importance of sign language in the deaf community is very recent indeed. This book provides a study of the communication and culture of deaf people, and particularly of the deaf community in Britain. The authors' principal aim is to inform educators, psychologists, linguists and professionals working with deaf people about the rich language the deaf have developed for themselves - a language of movement and space, of the hands and of the eyes, of abstract communication as well as iconic story telling. The first chapters of the book discuss the history of sign language use, its social aspects and the issues surrounding the language acquisition of deaf children (BSL) follows, and the authors also consider how the signs come into existence, change over time and alter their meanings, and how BSL compares and contrasts with spoken languages and other signed languages. Subsequent chapters examine sign language learning from a psychological perspective and other cognitive issues. The book concludes with a consideration of the applications of sign language research, particularly in the contentious field of education. There is still much to be discovered about sign language and the deaf community, but the authors have succeeded in providing an extensive framework on which other researchers can build, from which professionals can develop a coherent practice for their work with deaf people, and from which hearing parents of deaf children can draw the confidence to understand their children's world.

Sign Languages in Village Communities
Sign Languages in Village Communities

Author: Ulrike Zeshan

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-10-30

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 1614511497

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The book is a unique collection of research on sign languages that have emerged in rural communities with a high incidence of, often hereditary, deafness. These sign languages represent the latest addition to the comparative investigation of languages in the gestural modality, and the book is the first compilation of a substantial number of different "village sign languages".Written by leading experts in the field, the volume uniquely combines anthropological and linguistic insights, looking at both the social dynamics and the linguistic structures in these village communities. The book includes primary data from eleven different signing communities across the world, including results from Jamaica, India, Turkey, Thailand, and Bali. All known village sign languages are endangered, usually because of pressure from larger urban sign languages, and some have died out already. Ironically, it is often the success of the larger sign language communities in urban centres, their recognition and subsequent spread, which leads to the endangerment of these small minority sign languages. The book addresses this specific type of language endangerment, documentation strategies, and other ethical issues pertaining to these sign languages on the basis of first-hand experiences by Deaf fieldworkers.

Emerging Sign Languages of the Americas
Emerging Sign Languages of the Americas

Author: Olivier Le Guen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-11-23

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1501504843

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This volume is the first to bring together researchers studying a range of different types of emerging sign languages in the Americas, and their relationship to the gestures produced in the surrounding communities of hearing individuals. Contents Acknowledgements Olivier Le Guen, Marie Coppola and Josefina Safar Introduction: How Emerging Sign Languages in the Americas contributes to the study of linguistics and (emerging) sign languages Part I: Emerging sign languages of the Americas. Descriptions and analysis John Haviland Signs, interaction, coordination, and gaze: interactive foundations of “Z”—an emerging (sign) language from Chiapas, Mexico Laura Horton Representational strategies in shared homesign systems from Nebaj, Guatemala Josefina Safar and Rodrigo Petatillo Chan Strategies of noun-verb distinction in Yucatec Maya Sign Languages Emmanuella Martinod, Brigitte Garcia and Ivani Fusellier A typological perspective on the meaningful handshapes in the emerging sign languages on Marajó Island (Brazil) Ben Braithwaite Emerging sign languages in the Caribbean Olivier Le Guen, Rebeca Petatillo and Rita (Rossy) Kinil Canché Yucatec Maya multimodal interaction as the basis for Yucatec Maya Sign Language Marie Coppola Gestures, homesign, sign language: Cultural and social factors driving lexical conventionalization Part II: Sociolinguistic sketches John B. Haviland Zinacantec family homesign (or “Z”) Laura Horton A sociolinguistic sketch of deaf individuals and families from Nebaj, Guatemala Josefina Safar and Olivier Le Guen Yucatec Maya Sign Language(s): A sociolinguistic overview Emmanuella Martinod, Brigitte Garcia and Ivani Fusellier Sign Languages on Marajó Island (Brazil) Ben Braithwaite Sociolinguistic sketch of Providence Island Sign Language Kristian Ali and Ben Braithwaite Bay Islands Sign Language: A Sociolinguistic Sketch Marie Coppola Sociolinguistic sketch: Nicaraguan Sign Language and Homesign Systems in Nicaragua

Sign Language and Linguistic Universals
Sign Language and Linguistic Universals

Author: Wendy Sandler

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-02-02

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 9780521483957

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Sign languages are of great interest to linguists, because while they are the product of the same brain, their physical transmission differs greatly from that of spoken languages. In this pioneering and original study, Wendy Sandler and Diane Lillo-Martin compare sign languages with spoken languages, in order to seek the universal properties they share. Drawing on general linguistic theory, they describe and analyze sign language structure, showing linguistic universals in the phonology, morphology, and syntax of sign language, while also revealing non-universal aspects of its structure that must be attributed to its physical transmission system. No prior background in sign language linguistics is assumed, and numerous pictures are provided to make descriptions of signs and facial expressions accessible to readers. Engaging and informative, Sign Language and Linguistic Universals will be invaluable to linguists, psychologists, and all those interested in sign languages, linguistic theory and the universal properties of human languages.

The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages
The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages

Author: Ceil Lucas

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2001-10-04

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 9780521794749

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This is an accessible introduction to the major areas of sociolinguistics as they relate to sign languages and deaf communities. Clearly organised, it brings together a team of leading experts in sign linguistics to survey the field, and covers a wide range of topics including variation, multilingualism, bilingualism, language attitudes, discourse analysis, language policy and planning. The book examines how sign languages are distributed around the world; what occurs when they come in contact with spoken and written languages; and how signers use them in a variety of situations. Each chapter introduces the key issues in each area of inquiry and provides a comprehensive review of the literature. The book also includes suggestions for further reading and helpful exercises. The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages will be welcomed by students in deaf studies, linguistics and interpreter training, as well as spoken language researchers, and researchers and teachers of sign language.