The Study of Signed Languages: Essays in Honor of William C. Stokoe

Preface: William C. Stokoe and the Study of Signed Languages

3 Modality Effects and Conflicting Agendas 53 Scott K. Liddell PART 2: Language Origins Introduction 85 David F. Armstrong 4 Does Sign Language Solve the 89 Chomsky Problem? Frank R. Wilson 5 Continuity, Ethology, and Stokoe: How to 100 Build a Better Language Model Roger S. Fouts and Gabriel S. Waters 6 William C. Stokoe and the Gestural 118 Theory of Language Origins Sherman E. Wilcox PART 3: Diverse Populations Introduction 133 Michael A. Karchmer 7 The Impact of Variation Research on 137 Deaf Communities Ceil Lucas, Robert Bayley, Mary Rose, and Alyssa Wulf 8 The Impact of Sign Language Research on 161 Black Deaf Communities in America Glenn B. Anderson vi Contents 9 Bilingualism and the Impact of Sign Language 172 Research on Deaf Education Britta Hansen 10 Sign Communication Training and Motor 190 Functioning in Children with Autistic Disorder and in Other Populations John D. Bonvillian 11 Gesture and the Nature of Language in Infancy: 213 The Role of Gesture as a Transitional Device En Route to Two-Word Speech Olga Capirci, M. Cristina Caselli, Jana M. Iverson, Elena Pizzuto, and Virginia Volterra Concluding Thoughts The Future of American Sign Language 247 Carol A. Padden and Jennifer Rayman Index 263 Contents vii C O N T R I B U T O R S viii Glenn B.Anderson Department of Rehabilitation Education and Research University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas Robert Bayley Bilingual-Bicultural Studies University of Texas, San Antonio San Antonio, Texas Douglas C. Baynton Department of History University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa John D. Bonvillian Department of Psychology University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia Olga Capirci Institute of Psychology National Research Council (CNR) Rome, Italy M. Cristina Caselli Institute of Psychology National Research Council (CNR) Rome, Italy Roger S. Fouts Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute Central Washington University Ellensburg, Washington Britta Hansen Center for Sign Language and Sign Supported Communication Copenhagen, Denmark Jana M. Iverson Department of Psychology University of Missouri—Columbia Columbia, Missouri I. King Jordan Office of the President Gallaudet University Washington, D.C. Adam Kendon Visiting Scholar Institute for Research in Cognitive Science University of Pennsylvania Scott K. Liddell Department of Linguistics and Interpretation Gallaudet University Washington, D.C. Ceil Lucas Department of Linguistics and Interpretation Gallaudet University Washington, D.C. Carol A. Padden Department of Communication University of California, San Diego San Diego, California Elena Pizzuto Institute of Psychology National Research Council (CNR) Rome, Italy Jennifer Rayman Department of Education and Social Sciences University of Central Lancashire Preston, United Kingdom Contributors ix Mary Rose Department of Linguistics Stanford University Stanford, California VirginiaVolterra Institute of Psychology National Research Council (CNR) Rome, Italy Gabriel S.Waters Department of Linguistics University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico Sherman E.Wilcox Department of Linguistics University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico Frank R.Wilson, M.D. Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, California Alyssa Wulf Department of Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California P R E F A C E William C. Stokoe and the Study of Signed Languages David F. Armstrong and Michael A. Karchmer The right man in the right place at the right time. This volume celebrates the work of William C. Stokoe, one of the most influential language scholars of the twentieth century. To understand his impact on both the educational fortunes of deaf people and on the science of language, it is necessary to consider briefly the status of these two related fields in the early 1950s. The almost universal educational goal for deaf people at this time was acquisition of spoken language and the ability to discern speech on the lips—other educational goals, including the acquisition of general knowledge, were arguably secondary to the development of “oral” skills. It was perhaps not coincidental that linguistic science had no interest in the gestural language of deaf people—language was synonymous with speech. This point is well captured in the title of one of the most in- fluential books on linguistics of the first half of the twentieth century, Edward Sapir’s Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. Sapir, writing in the 1920s, dismissed sign languages as substitution codes for spoken languages—speech was dominant (Sapir 1921: 21). The xi views...