This study takes advantage of a novel methodology--the use of a single culturally-meaningful text written in English and presented to different audiences in ASL--to examine the ways in which Deaf native signers utilize contextualization strategies in order to match the perceived linguistic and informational needs of an audience. We demonstrate,…

Presents study analyzing gestural communication of hearing children between one and two years of age, comparing it with the communication of a deaf child of deaf parents exposed to sign language since birth. Results suggest that the capacity to combine symbols, referential words, or signs simultaneously depends on exposure to a linguistic input. (…

Examines how Pierre Desloges--a deaf person who was interested in the aptness of "natural signs" to express complex concepts and who highlighted the community aspect of communication--described and categorized signs used by the Deaf community in Paris in 1779. Presents additional sources of information on communication of deaf people.…

Focuses on communications between deaf persons over telephone lines via teletypewriters (TTY). Uses sociolinguistic methods to analyze the linguistic characteristics of telecommunications conversations to identify the basic, underlying dimensions of TTY conversations. (Author/VWL)

Discuses different approaches into what language (including nonverbal communication) is, and stresses that there is no great gulf between spoken language and nonverbal communication. Redirects attention to where one ought to look for language. (Author/VWL)

Examines strategies for reading comprehension used by two deaf college students as they discussed assigned readings with their teacher and classmates. It is suggested that competence in reading is more closely related to text-based competencies than to the kind of face-to-face language the reader brings to the text. (12 references) (GLR)

Examines the predisposition of Aboriginals to use sign language in place of speech and presents observations of the use of signs in everyday interaction along with a discussion on how this tendency to communicate gesturally may relate to the use of other forms of communication. (six references) (GLR)

This article reviews the possibilities that a comparative, functionally oriented view of communication evolution offers to a linguist interested in the evolution of human languages and suggests a wide variety of areas which might be further investigated with profit. (CFM)

Spatial language in English and American Sign Language (ASL) was compared by asking 10 native signers and 10 English speakers to solve a set of spatial puzzles. The study highlights the ramifications of a linguistic system in which space itself is used to convey spatial information compared to one that conveys the same information via an auditory…

Reviews Thomas A. Sebeok's "Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics." This book teaches the reader to use terms like "sign,""icon,""index," and "symbol" with greater precision and effect. Sebeok's work spans more than three decades and strongly contributes to a number of related disciplines, especially…

Discusses the ways in which the lexical items, grammatical code, and the uses of the vernacular sign language, Providence Sign Language (PSL), are interdependent and based on content rather than on an arbitrary, internally defined system. (PMJ)

Focuses on original poetic composition in American Sign Language (ASL). The development of a documented body of poetry in ASL and of a framework for poetic usage has demonstrated that the limitations of gestural sign systems are inherent in the cultural development of the deaf and has affirmed the legitimacy of the deaf community and its language.…

This study focused on the intergenerational modes used in 15 family triads: hearing child, deaf parent, hearing grandparent. Results raise questions about the effect of mismatched language modes on intergenerational relationships in deaf-parented families. (19 references) (VWL)

Discusses factors that have delayed the development of basic research on both sign language and the deaf community in South Africa and presents findings of a study conducted to determine effective sign language communication between deaf and hearing signers in South Africa, the SimCom project. (14 references) (GLR)

Reviews Barbara J. King's detailed observations of free-ranging baboons in Amboseli, Kenya; these observations contain a mass of recent research and report studies of divergent theories in primatology and paleontology. King's studies supply direct evidence about primate behavior that conveys information and show how natural information transfer is…