A Prosodic Model Of Sign Language Phonology

Superior to any other book on the subject that I have seen. I can see it being used as a class text or reference for current theory in sign language phonology.Carol A. Padden, Department of Communication, University of California

Surveys key findings and ideas in sign language phonology, exploring the crucial areas in phonology to which sign language studies has contributed.

What are the unique characteristics of sign languages that make them so fascinating? What have recent researchers discovered about them, and what do these findings tell us about human language more generally? This thematic and geographic overview examines more than forty sign languages from around the world. It begins by investigating how sign languages have survived and been transmitted for generations, and then goes on to analyse the common characteristics shared by most sign languages: for example, how the use of the visual system affects grammatical structures. The final section describes the phenomena of language variation and change. Drawing on a wide range of examples, the book explores sign languages both old and young, from British, Italian, Asian and American to Israeli, Al-Sayyid Bedouin, African and Nicaraguan. Written in a clear, readable style, it is the essential reference for students and scholars working in sign language studies and deaf studies.

Phonetics and Phonology, Volume 3: Current Issues in ASL Phonology deals with theoretical issues in the phonology of ASL (American Sign Language), the signed language of the American Deaf. These issues range from the overall architecture of phonological theory to particular proposals such as the nature of syllables and the reality of underlying "dynamic" or "contour" elements. The seemingly universal preference, CV (consonant-vowel) as opposed to VC (vowel-consonant) syllable structure, is also discussed. Comprised of 14 chapters, this volume begins with some general background on ASL and on the community in which it is used. It then looks at secondary licensing and the nature of constraints on the non-dominant hand in ASL; underspecification in ASL handshape contours; and the nature of ASL and the development of ASL linguistics. The applicability of the notion of "phonology" to a signed language and the sort of questions that can be explored about the parallelisms between signed and spoken linguistic systems are also considered. Later chapters focus on the linearization of phonological tiers in ASL; phonological segmentation in sign and speech; two models of segmentation in ASL; and sonority and syllable structure in ASL. The book also examines phrase-level prosody in ASL before concluding with an analysis of linguistic expression and its relation to modality. This monograph will appeal to phonologists who work on both signed and spoken languages, and to other cognitive scientists interested in the nature of abstract articulatory representations in human language.

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 present volume consists of nine articles dealing with the role of the constituent 'phonological word' (or 'prosodic word') in various typologically diverse languages. These languages and their respective families subsume Indo-European (Dutch, German, English, European Portuguese), Bantu (SiSwati, KiNande), Algonquian (Cree), Siouan (Dakota), and Salishan (Lushootseed). One contribution examines the phonological word in a sign language. The theoretical issues dealt with in the book include: evidence for the phonological word (e.g. rules, phonotactics, syllabification, stress patterns), the connection between morphosyntactic and prosodic structure (e.g. alignment phenomena in Optimality Theory), and the relationship between the phonological word and other prosodic constituents (e.g. the prosodic representation of clitics).The volume will be of interest to all linguists and advanced students of linguistics working on Prosodic Phonology, phonology–morphology and phonology–syntax interface and Optimality Theory.

Sign languages and spoken languages have an equal capacity to communicate our thoughts. Beyond this, however, while there are many similarities, there are also fascinating differences, caused primarily by the reaction of the human mind to different modalities, but also by some important social differences. The articulators are more visible and use larger muscles with consequent greater effort. It is difficult to visually attend to both a sign and an object at the same time. Iconicity is more systematic and more available in signs. The body, especially the face, plays a much larger role in sign. Sign languages are more frequently born anew as small groups of deaf people come together in villages or schools. Sign languages often borrow from the written form of the surrounding spoken language, producing fingerspelling alphabets, character signs, and related signs. This book examines the effects of these and other differences using observation, experimentation and theory. The languages examined include Asian, Middle Eastern, European and American sign languages, and language situations include home signers and small village signers, children, gesturers, adult signers, and non-native signers.