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Sign language

About: Sign language is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11644 publications have been published within this topic receiving 187322 citations. The topic is also known as: sign languages.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article argued that a preexisting gestural language system would have provided an easier pathway to vocal language than a direct outgrowth of the "emotional" use of vocalization characteristic of nonhuman primates.
Abstract: Wallace, Tylor, Wundt, Johannesson, and others have proposed that human language had its basis in hand and arm gestures. The Gardners' work with the chimpanzee Washoe, Premack's study of the chimpanzee Sarah, and continuing experiments along these lines indicate that neural restructuring would not have been necessary for the protohominid acquisition of a simple propositional gesture or sign language which did not involve cross-modal transfer at a high level from the visual to the auditory channel or vice versa. Evidence from primate studies, early tool-using, the continuing functions of gesture in human communication, lateral dominance in its relation to speech and tool manipulation, and other sources is presented to support a model of glottogenesis. It is argued that a preexisting gestural language system would have provided an easier pathway to vocal language than a direct outgrowth of the "emotional" use of vocalization characteristic of nonhuman primates.

709 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors outline the phonological structures and phrases in American Sign Language (ASL) and present a segmental phonetic description system for ASL phonetic segmentation.
Abstract: This paper has the ambitious goal of outlining the phonological structures and proc- esses we have analyzed in American Sign Language (ASL). In order to do this we have divided the paper into five parts. In section 1 we detail the types of sequential phenomena found in the production of individual signs, allowing us to argue that ASL signs are composed of sequences of phonological segments, just as are words in spoken languages. Section 2 provides the details of a segmental phonetic tran- scription system. Using the descriptions made available by the transcription system, Section 3 briefly discusses both paradigmatic and syntagmatic contrast in ASL signs. Section 4 deals with the various types of phonological processes at work in the language, processes remarkable in their similarity to phonological processes found in spoken languages. We conclude the paper with an overview of the major typed of phonological effects of ASL's rich system of morphological processes. We realize that the majority of readers will come to this paper with neither sign language proficiency nor a knowledge of sign language structure. As a result, many will encounter reference to ASL signs without knowing their form. Although we have been unable to illustrate all the examples, we hope we have provided sufficient illustra- tions to make the paper more accessible.

703 citations

Book
01 May 1996
TL;DR: A Journey into the Deaf-World as mentioned in this paper is a compelling story of this much misunderstood minority as it struggles for self-determination in American Sign Language, a language minority that has a history, a flourishing culture, and a political agenda.
Abstract: A new language minority has come to the fore in America and around the world. It is the tight-knit society -- some million strong in the United States -- that calls itself, in American Sign Language, the Deaf-World. It has a history, a flourishing culture, and a political agenda. A Journey into the Deaf-World is the compelling story of this much misunderstood minority as it struggles for self-determination. Journey address questions such as these: What is Deaf culture all about?; How are Deaf children raised and educated and how should they be?; What do signed language and Deaf culture have to offer the Deaf child -- and hearing people?; What can we learn from Deaf societies in other lands?; How does technology help -- and hinder -- Deaf people?; How to Deaf people integrate into the larger society?.

665 citations

Book
13 Mar 2003
TL;DR: American Sign Language as a language, Grammar, gesture, and meaning, and an index of illustrated signs.
Abstract: In sign languages of the deaf some signs can meaningfully point toward things or can be meaningfully placed in the space ahead of the signer. This obligatory part of fluent grammatical signing has no parallel in vocally produced languages. This book focuses on American Sign Language to examine the grammatical and conceptual purposes served by these directional signs. It guides the reader through ASL grammar, the different categories of directional signs, the types of spatial representations signs are directed toward, how such spatial conceptions can be represented in mental space theory, and the conceptual purposes served by these signs. The book demonstrates a remarkable integration of grammar and gesture in the service of constructing meaning. These results also suggest that our concept of 'language' has been much too narrow and that a more comprehensive look at vocally produced languages will reveal the same integration of gestural, gradient, and symbolic elements.

647 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20251
2023625
20221,437
2021660
2020833
2019730