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3 Name Signs and Identity in New Zealand Sign Language Rachel Locker McKee and David McKee Personal names in any culture are a potential gold mine of information about social relationships, identity, history, and linguistic processes. In Deaf communities around the world, members are commonly referred to by sign names given to them by other Deaf people at various stages of life, which are different from the legal (spoken language) names given by parents at birth. The study of name signs provides a window on the relationship between sign language, social interaction, and identity, in this case within the New Zealand Deaf community. Because they are bestowed by other Deaf peers through a period of close acquaintance, name signs both signal and construct a person’s identity as a recognized member of a Deaf community, which is often regarded by members as an extended “family” (Monaghan 1996, 463). The acquisition of a name sign may mark a person’s entry to a signing community, and its use reinforces the bond of shared group history and “alternative” language use (in relation to mainstream society). Thus, using name signs is a linguistically efficient means of personal reference and is culturally important for interactions in a signing community because social networks tend to hinge on connections with other Deaf people rather than one’s family of origin (unless the family is also Deaf). Personal identity in the Deaf community is strongly shaped by (and reflected in) language use and by one’s relationships with peers —information that is encapsulated in a small way in name signs. Because people in the NZ Deaf community often have several name signs (which are used either at different periods of their life or alternately within different social groups or audiences), their use is somewhat context dependent. The form of name signs and the particular social values and practices associated with them vary considerably among different signed languages and Deaf cultures around the world. The analysis of name signs contributes to a linguistic understanding of lexical creation and sources in a signed 4 : r a c h e l l o c k e r m c k e e & d a v i d m c k e e 1. A signing community consists of Deaf people who use sign language as their preferred language of face-to-face communication. Most members have been deaf from infancy or early in their life and identify socially and culturally with other Deaf people. Non-Deaf (hearing) people, such as parents or children of Deaf people, interpreters, teachers, or social workers, may participate in signing communities and have name signs. This study, however, focuses on name signs of Deaf people themselves because their community is the primary reference group for the system of name signs. 2. The capitalization of Deaf has become a convention within both the Deaf studies literature and the Deaf community for referring to people who not only have a hearing loss but also identify themselves socially, linguistically, and culturally with other Deaf people who use sign language. This spelling is in contrast to deaf, which denotes hearing loss but not necessarily cultural or linguistic identity as part of a signing community. Most people who identify as Deaf have been audiologically deaf since early childhood or birth and have had significant social contact throughout their life with others like themselves. language. This chapter reports on a study that identifies types of name sign structures and derivations and describes their distribution in New Zealand Sign Language (a language used by a community of approximately 7,000 people). The chapter also discusses findings about the acquisition and use of name signs (such as differences between age groups and the use of alternate names) in terms of what these reveal about social norms and values in NZ Deaf culture. WHAT ARE NAME SIGNS? Name signs are a distinct category of signs in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), which are created as personal names for referring to others , usually members of a signing community.1 Name signs seem to develop wherever a group of Deaf people have extended contact with each other and use sign language as their vernacular language. They are created for individuals within each generation or social grouping of Deaf people.2 Most typically, name signs originate in deaf school settings where Deaf children form an autonomous social world beyond the gaze of teachers, which is governed by children’s social norms and differentiated from the “authorities...

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