Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities

Sociolinguistic Variation in ASL: The Case of DEAF

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pp. 3-25

Since William C. Stokoe's pioneering work in the 1960s, it has been recognized that natural sign languages are autonomous linguistic systems, structurally independent of the spoken languages with which they may coexist in any given community...

Description and Status of Initialized Signs in Quebec Sign Language

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pp. 29-61

The first idea for this work was triggered by the observation that there exists a relationship between the handshape of some signs in Quebec Sign Language (henceforth LSQ) and the first letter of the equivalent written French word. This phenomenon, also observable in other sign languages, is called initialization. It quickly...

Fingerspelling Interaction: A Set of Deaf Parents and Their Deaf Daughter

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pp. 62-73

Since 1985, the Culture and Communication Studies Program (CCSP), a unit within the Gallaudet Research Institute, has collected ethnographic data on Deaf children of Deaf parents by videotaping these families at home and appending fieldnotes. Spontaneous interaction between children and their parents and other relatives is taped...

A Sociolinguistic Description of Sign Language Use in a Navajo Family

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pp. 77-106

In what is perhaps the most well known quote in the field of sign language studies, George Veditz (1913) stated that "as long as we have deaf people we will have sign language." The fact that deaf people have a strong inclination for developing and acquiring sign language can be traced through history and is common throughout the world....

Politics and Language: American Sign Language and English in Deaf Education

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pp. 109-163

Language and power are essential ingredients of the politics of everyday life. This paper examines the role of American Sign Language (ASL), pedagogical practices, and bureaucratic institutions in the education of deaf children and young adults within the framework of "language planning" (Eastman 1983; Nover and Ruiz 1992; Ruiz 1994; Tollefson 1991)....

Language and Learning in A Deaf Education Classroom: Practice and Paradox

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pp. 164-220

The relationship between language and learning is interwoven in any classroom, but for deaf students it has most often functioned to impede academic success, not secure it. This ethnographic microanalysis focuses on the language practices of one hearing teacher and the educational and linguistic context within which they take place...

Communication and Language Use in Spanish-Speaking Families with Deaf Children

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pp. 232-263

Constructed Dialogue and Constructed Action in American Sign Language

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pp. 255-271

Fifty years ago, the sign language used by Deaf people in the United States was thought to be little more than a primitive form of gesturing used by a group of people who had no real language. However, William Stokoe (1960) began a systematic investigation of these signs based on linguistic principles and discovered, on the basis of the linguistic description of spoken languages, that these signs...

Turn-Taking and Eye Gaze in Sign Conversations Between Deaf Filipinos

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pp. 272-306

Recent studies of discourse analysis by Thibeault (1993) and Martinez (1993) on a sign conversation between two deaf Filipinos reported some interesting findings. Thibeault's (1993) data revealed a high number of turns with overlap. He described...

Empowerment from Within: The Deaf Social Movement Providing a Framework for a Multicultural Society

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pp. 307-329

Although the study of social movements by rhetorical scholars is still a relatively new area of study, the tendency has been to treat social movements as marginalized groups trying to establish access to the dominant society. Such an approach is basically an integrationist theory of appeal. Social movements...