Researchers examining the structure of questions in signed languages, often using elicited data from informants, have proposed that there are specific manual and nonmanual actions produced by signers to indicate different question types (e.g., Zeshan 2004), for example, raised eyebrows for polar questions. In the current study, we add to this body…

A notable difference between signed and spoken languages is the use of nonmanual linguistic signals that co-occur with the production of signs. These nonmanual signals involve primarily the face and upper torso and are an important feature of American Sign Language (ASL). They include grammatical markers that indicate syntactic categories such as…

Discusses Providence Island Sign Language (PSL), an autochthonous and relatively immature language of about 20 speakers. It is a nascent and evolving language whose description can produce rich results for linguistic theory. Such a description will also be an explanation of the phylogeny of a linguistic system. (Author/PJM)

Investigates sign learning as a function of sign translucency (ease of relating a sign to its referents) and referential concreteness. Naive sign learners attempted to learn a list of sign-referent pairs. Signs high in translucency and referents high in concreteness facilitated learning; low levels of each variable inhibited learning. (Author/PJM)

Presents sign language as a central fact in the life of deaf individuals and groups and therefore as a focus for educational efforts. Looks at the different ways languages are presented to the eye instead of the ear, examines bilingualism and its special life in the life and education of deaf persons, and shows teachers ways to ask and answer…

Explores and describes from a crosslinguistic perspective, some of the major structural irregularities that characterize poetry in Italian Sign Language and distinguish poetic from nonpoetic texts. Reviews findings of previous studies of signed language poetry, and points out issues that need to be clarified to provide a more accurate description…

Discusses the paradigms in American Sign Language (ASL) resulting from a process called "numeral incorporation" and others in which numeral handshapes alternate to express different numerical values. Concludes that not only are the signs in the "decade" paradigm fixed units in ASL grammar, but so are all the other examples of numeral…

In this article the linguistic features of three Italian Sign Language (Lingua Italiana dei Segni, or LIS) registers are analyzed focusing on iconic phenomena. Previous treatments of iconicity and motivation in spoken and signed language are discussed. Iconicity is defined as a regular mapping between expressive form and meaning that can be active…

Replies to issues raised by Bouchard and Dubuisson (B&D) (1995) about American Sign Language (ASL), refuting B&D's assertion that visual-gestural languages are not bound by any universal constraints on word order and reaffirming that ASL is a highly configurational language with a basic underlying syntactic structure as well as an…

The Lexicon of British Sign Language (BSL), including, and perhaps especially, the productive lexicon, is highly motivated. Many sign linguists in the last few decades have played down the role of iconicity and other types of motivation in signed language. They have suggested that because sign forms and structures conform to rules of linguistic…

Examines recently coined American Sign Language signs to show how the ASL lexicon is expanded. Included are elicited signs for relatively new objects or ideas, signs referring to metalinguistics concepts in ASL, signs used as jargon or specialized vocabulary, and signs "invented" by young deaf children. (Author/PJM)

Analysis of the communicative skills of a nine-year-old deaf boy with minimal schooling showed pantomiming and gestures to be his major mode of communication. Certain semantic patterns prevailed. Use of left or right hand also had semantic correlates. Formal and idiosynacratic signs were discovered in the boy's vocabulary. (Author/PJM)

This article focuses on word order - the order of constituents in the sentence - as one way in which languages establish the relationship between a verb and its arguments. The spoken languages of the world have been classified into three, major word-order types: SVO, VSO, and SOV. Greenberg' work (1963) on language typology has been a stimulus to…

The acquisition of the formational aspects of American Sign Language signs was examined in nine young children of deaf parents. Videotape records of early sign language development were made during monthly home visits. The study focused on the acquisition of three principal formational components of any American Sign Language sign: location,…

Discusses arguments that support the position regarding the distribution of non-grammatical markings of negation and of "wh"-scope and emphasizes the importance of looking for deep unifying principles in cross-modal studies of American Sign Language in order to further understanding of Universal Grammar. (33 references) (Author/CK)