Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Browse subjects
  3. Language and Linguistics
  4. Sign language
  5. Content listing

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

22 results in Sign language

Page 1 of 2

Beyond Grammar and the Lexicon
  • Indicating and Depicting in Sign Language Discourse
  • Scott K. Liddell
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    March 2026
    Print publication:
    31 March 2026
  • Indicating and depicting are widely understood to be fundamental, meaningful components of everyday spoken language discourse: a speaker's arms and hands are free to indicate and depict because they do not articulate words. In contrast, a signer's arms and hands do articulate signs. For this reason, linguists studying sign languages have overwhelmingly concluded that signers do not indicate and depict as a part of signed articulations. This book demonstrates that signers do, however, indicate - by incorporating non-lexical gestures into their articulations of individual signs. Fully illustrated throughout, it also shows that signers create depictions in numerous ways through conceptualizations, in which the hands, other parts of the body, and parts of the space ahead of the signer depict things. By establishing that indicating and depicting are also fundamental, meaningful aspects of sign language discourse, this book is essential reading for researchers and students of sign linguistics and gesture studies.

Sign Language Linguistics
  • Exploring BSL and ASL
  • Adam Schembri, Jordan Fenlon, Kearsy Cormier, Trevor Johnston
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    March 2026
    Print publication:
    31 March 2026
  • The first textbook to bring together the linguistics of both BSL and ASL, this accessible book provides a uniquely international and comparative introduction to the structure and use of signed languages. Presupposing no prior knowledge, it covers all levels of linguistic structure: phonetics/phonology, morphology, the lexicon, syntax, semantics and discourse. Photographic illustrations of BSL and ASL signs feature throughout every chapter, and are linked to over 150 online videos, making this a clear and immersive resource for anyone interested in sign language linguistics. End of chapter exercises, questions for discussion and annotated further reading suggestions allow students to fully engage with the material they have read, and to extend their learning independently.

Improving Your British Sign Language
  • A Guide to Proficient Use
  • Luigi Lerose
  • Published online:
    02 January 2025
    Print publication:
    16 January 2025
  • This practical, illustrated guide is designed for students who want to improve their use of British Sign Language (BSL), helping them to manage some of the more challenging aspects of BSL learning in an accessible way. Written by a highly experienced sign language speaker, it contains around 750 photos of signs, including examples of common mistakes alongside the corresponding correct signs. Each chapter is accompanied by video demonstrations of all the signs it exemplifies, showing BSL in action. The book is based on the latest research on BSL within theoretical linguistics, since understanding the latest advances in this fast-moving field is known to help improve the skills of non-native speakers. It is intended primarily for self-study, allowing students to work at their own pace on articulation accuracy, recognise the kinds of errors they are likely to make, and gain a better understanding of the visual nature of BSL.

Sign Language Phonology
  • Diane Brentari
  • Published online:
    04 November 2019
    Print publication:
    21 November 2019
  • A concise overview of key findings and ideas in sign language phonology and its contributions to related fields, including historical linguistics, morphology, prosody, language acquisition and language creation. Working on sign languages not only provides important new insights on familiar issues, but also poses a whole new set of questions about phonology, because of the use of the visual communication modality. This book lays out the properties needed to recognize a phonological system regardless of its modality. Written by a leading expert in sign language research, the book describes the current state of the field and addresses a range of issues that students and researchers will encounter in their work, as well as highlighting the significant impact that the study of sign languages has had on the field of phonology as a whole. It includes lists of further reading materials, and a full glossary, as well as helpful illustrations that demonstrate the important aspects of sign language structure, even to the most unfamiliar of readers. A text that will be useful to both specialists and general linguists, this book provides the first comprehension overview of the field.

The Impulse to Gesture
  • Where Language, Minds, and Bodies Intersect
  • Simon Harrison
  • Published online:
    07 August 2018
    Print publication:
    23 August 2018
  • Gestures are central to the way people use language when they interact. This book places our impulse to gesture at the very heart of linguistic structure: grammar. Based on the phenomenon of negation - a linguistic universal with clear grammatical and gestural manifestations - Simon Harrison argues that linguistic concepts are fundamentally multi modal and shows how they lead to recurrent bindings between grammar and gesture when people speak. Studying how speakers express negation multi modally in a range of social and professional contexts, Harrison explores how and when people gesture, what people achieve linguistically and discursively with their gestures, and why we find similar uses of gesture in different languages (including spoken and signed language). Establishing the inseparability of grammar and gesture, this book is an important reference for any researcher interested in the relation between language, gesture, and cognition.

Gesture
  • Visible Action as Utterance
  • Adam Kendon
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    23 September 2004
  • Gesture, or visible bodily action that is seen as intimately involved in the activity of speaking, has long fascinated scholars and laymen alike. Written by a leading authority on the subject, this 2004 study provides a comprehensive treatment of gesture and its use in interaction, drawing on the analysis of everyday conversations to demonstrate its varied role in the construction of utterances. Adam Kendon accompanies his analyses with an extended discussion of the history of the study of gesture - a topic not dealt with in any previous publication - as well as exploring the relationship between gesture and sign language, and how the use of gesture varies according to cultural and language differences. Set to become the definitive account of the topic, Gesture will be invaluable to all those interested in human communication. Its publication marks a major development, both in semiotics and in the emerging field of gesture studies.

Sociolinguistics and Deaf Communities
  • Edited by Adam C. Schembri, Ceil Lucas
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    12 February 2015
  • How do people use sign languages in different situations around the world? How are sign languages distributed globally? What happens when they come in contact with spoken and written languages? These and other questions are explored in this new introduction to the sociolinguistics of sign languages and deaf communities. An international team brings insights and data from a wide range of sign languages, from the USA, Canada, England, Spain, Brazil and Australia. Topics covered include multilingualism in the global deaf community, sociolinguistic variation and change in sign languages, bilingualism and language contact between signed and spoken languages, attitudes towards sign languages, sign language planning and policy, and sign language discourse. Sociolinguistics and Deaf Communities will be welcomed by students of sign language and interpreting, teachers of sign language, and students and academics working in linguistics.

The Signs of a Savant
  • Language Against the Odds
  • Neil Smith, Ianthi Tsimpli, Gary Morgan, Bencie Woll
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    02 December 2010
  • Every once in a while nature gives us insight into the human condition by providing us with a unique case whose special properties illuminate the species as a whole. Christopher is such an example. Despite disabilities which mean that everyday tasks are burdensome chores, Christopher is a linguistic wonder who can read, write, speak, understand and translate more than twenty languages. On some tests he shows a severely low IQ, hinting at ineducability, yet his English language ability indicates an IQ in excess of 120 (a level more than sufficient to enter university). Christopher is a savant, someone with an island of startling talent in a sea of inability. This book documents his learning of British Sign Language, casting light on the modularity of cognition, the modality neutrality of the language faculty, the structure of memory, the grammar of signed language and the nature of the human mind.

The Linguistics of British Sign Language
  • An Introduction
  • Rachel Sutton-Spence, Bencie Woll
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    18 March 1999
  • This is the first detailed explanation of the way British Sign Language works and is the product of many years' experience of research and teaching sign linguistics to deaf and hearing people. It assumes no previous knowledge of linguistics or sign language, and is not structured around traditional headings such as phonology, morphology and syntax. Instead it is set out in such a way as to help learners and their teachers understand the linguistic principles behind the language. There are sections on BSL grammar and also on the use of BSL, including social acceptability in signing, variation, and poetry and humour in BSL. Technical terms and linguistic jargon are kept to a minimum, and the text contains many examples from English, BSL, and other spoken and sign languages. The book is amply illustrated and contains exercises, as well as a reading list for further study.An accompanying 90-minute DVD is available from Talk With Sign Books. To find out more, visit http://www.talkwithsign.com/linguistics-british-sign-language-p-741.html.

Sign Languages
  • Edited by Diane Brentari
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    27 May 2010
  • What are the unique characteristics of sign languages that make them so fascinating? What have recent researchers discovered about them, and what do these findings tell us about human language more generally? This thematic and geographic overview examines more than forty sign languages from around the world. It begins by investigating how sign languages have survived and been transmitted for generations, and then goes on to analyse the common characteristics shared by most sign languages: for example, how the use of the visual system affects grammatical structures. The final section describes the phenomena of language variation and change. Drawing on a wide range of examples, the book explores sign languages both old and young, from British, Italian, Asian and American to Israeli, Al-Sayyid Bedouin, African and Nicaraguan. Written in a clear, readable style, it is the essential reference for students and scholars working in sign language studies and deaf studies.

Gesture and the Nature of Language
  • David F. Armstrong, William C. Stokoe, Sherman E. Wilcox
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    16 March 1995
  • This book proposes a radical alternative to dominant views of the evolution of language, and in particular the origins of syntax. The authors argue that manual and vocal communication developed in parallel, and that the basic elements of syntax are intrinsic to gesture. They draw on evidence from areas such as primatology, anthropology, and linguistics, to present a groundbreaking account of the notion that language emerged through visible bodily action. They go on to examine the implications of their findings for linguistic theory and theories of the biological evolution of the capacity for language. Written in a clear and accessible style, Gesture and the Nature of Language will be indispensable reading for all those interested in the origins of language.

Sign Language and Linguistic Universals
  • Wendy Sandler, Diane Lillo-Martin
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    02 February 2006
  • Sign languages are of great interest to linguists, because while they are the product of the same brain, their physical transmission differs greatly from that of spoken languages. In this 2006 study, Wendy Sandler and Diane Lillo-Martin compare sign languages with spoken languages, in order to seek the universal properties they share. Drawing on general linguistic theory, they describe and analyze sign language structure, showing linguistic universals in the phonology, morphology, and syntax of sign language, while also revealing non-universal aspects of its structure that must be attributed to its physical transmission system. No prior background in sign language linguistics is assumed, and numerous pictures are provided to make descriptions of signs and facial expressions accessible to readers. Engaging and informative, Sign Language and Linguistic Universals will be invaluable to linguists, psychologists, and all those interested in sign languages, linguistic theory and the universal properties of human languages.

Historical Linguistics
  • Theodora Bynon
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    15 September 1977
  • Historical Linguistics is concerned with the process of language change through time. It investigates how and why the language of individuals, a social group or a whole 'speech community' develops in respect of its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Dr Bynon regards language as essentially a dynamic phenomenon, whose character can be at best only partly understood by a static, and necessarily idealized, synchronic approach. In Part I she establishes the theoretical framework by providing a systematic survey of the three main models of language development - the neogrammarian, structuralist, and transformational generative. Examples drawn substantially from English and German, but also from classical languages, French, Welsh and a variety of others, are used to explain and compare these approaches. In Part II she turns to sociolinguistics and shows how changes within a language over a period of time, and changes brought about by contact between languages, are both indicators and agents of more general cultural developments. Accounts of bilingualism and of pidgin and Creole languages are included as well as wider-ranging examples of different kinds of borrowing such as loan words, loan translations and extensions of meaning. The student is provided with a practical and critical guide both to what has been done and what can be done to discover and verify these linguistic relationships. Designed primarily as a textbook for linguistics and philology students, this book will also be of interest to those studying English language, classics and modern languages.

Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language
  • Scott K. Liddell
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    13 March 2003
  • In sign languages of the deaf some signs can meaningfully point toward things or can be meaningfully placed in the space ahead of the signer. This obligatory part of fluent grammatical signing has no parallel in vocally produced languages. This book focuses on American Sign Language to examine the grammatical and conceptual purposes served by these directional signs. It guides the reader through ASL grammar, the different categories of directional signs, the types of spatial representations signs are directed toward, how such spatial conceptions can be represented in mental space theory, and the conceptual purposes served by these signs. The book demonstrates a remarkable integration of grammar and gesture in the service of constructing meaning. These results also suggest that our concept of 'language' has been much too narrow and that a more comprehensive look at vocally produced languages will reveal the same integration of gestural, gradient, and symbolic elements.

Historical Linguistics and Language Change
  • Roger Lass
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    03 April 1997
  • Language change happens in the spatio-temporal world. Historical linguistics is the craft linguists exercise upon its results, in order to tell coherent stories about it. In a series of linked essays Roger Lass offers a critical survey of the foundations of the art of historical linguistics, and its interaction with its subject matter, language change. He takes as his background some of the major philosophical issues which arise from these considerations, such as ontology, realism and conventionalism, and explanation. Along the way he poses such questions as: where does our data come from; how trustworthy is it; what is the empirical basis for the reconstructive techniques we standardly take as yielding facts; and how much does the historian create data rather than receiving it? The paradoxical conclusion is that our historiographical methods are often better than the data they have to work with.

Deaf Young People and their Families
  • Developing Understanding
  • Susan Gregory, Juliet Bishop, Lesley Sheldon
  • Published online:
    26 March 2010
    Print publication:
    30 June 1995
  • This is a longitudinal follow up to the study reported in The Deaf Child and his Family, now re-published as Deaf Children and their Families. Some 18 years on, 75% of the original families have been traced and this new volume provides an account of the subsequent interviews with both the parents and the deaf young people themselves. Participants reflect not only on the consequences of deafness within their own lives, but on the changing context for deaf people. It includes a comparison of the views of parents with those of their sons and daughters and an examination of factors in early life which may relate to later development. In its provision of a unique insight into the deaf young person's perspective on life, it will be a valuable resource for all those concerned with deafness and special education, including families, deaf people, professionals and academics.

Gesture, Segment, Prosody
  • Edited by Gerard J. Docherty, D. Robert Ladd
  • Published online:
    18 December 2009
    Print publication:
    14 May 1992
  • Laboratory Phonology uses speech data to research questions about the abstract categorical structures of phonology. This collection of papers broadly addresses three such questions: what structures underlie the temporal coordination of articulatory gestures? What is the proper role of segments and features in phonological description? And what structures - hierarchical or otherwise - relate morphosyntax to prosody? In order to encourage the interdisciplinary understanding required for progress in this field, each of the three groups of papers is preceded by a tutorial paper (commissioned for this volume) on theories and findings presupposed by some or all of the papers in the group. In addition, most of the papers are followed by commentaries, written by noted researchers in phonetics and phonology, which serve to bring important theoretical and methodological issues into perspective. Most of the material collected here is based on papers presented at the Second Conference on Laboratory Phonology in Edinburgh, 1989. The volume is therefore a sequel to Kingston and Beckman's Papers in Laboratory Phonology I, also published by Cambridge University Press.

Australian Sign Language (Auslan)
  • An introduction to sign language linguistics
  • Trevor Johnston, Adam Schembri
  • Published online:
    02 December 2009
    Print publication:
    18 January 2007
  • This is first comprehensive introduction to the linguistics of Auslan, the sign language of Australia. Assuming no prior background in language study, it explores each key aspect of the structure of Auslan, providing an accessible overview of its grammar (how sentences are structured), phonology (the building blocks of signs), morphology (the structure of signs), lexicon (vocabulary), semantics (how meaning is created), and discourse (how Auslan is used in context). The authors also discuss a range of myths and misunderstandings about sign languages, provide an insight into the history and development of Auslan, and show how Auslan is related to other sign languages, such as those used in Britain, the USA and New Zealand. Complete with clear illustrations of the signs in use and useful further reading lists, this is an ideal resource for anyone interested in Auslan, as well as those seeking a clear, general introduction to sign language linguistics.

The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages
  • Edited by Ceil Lucas
  • Published online:
    24 November 2009
    Print publication:
    06 September 2001
  • This is an accessible introduction to the major areas of sociolinguistics as they relate to sign languages and deaf communities. Clearly organised, it brings together a team of leading experts in sign linguistics to survey the field, and covers a wide range of topics including variation, multilingualism, bilingualism, language attitudes, discourse analysis, language policy and planning. The book examines how sign languages are distributed around the world; what occurs when they come in contact with spoken and written languages; and how signers use them in a variety of situations. Each chapter introduces the key issues in each area of inquiry and provides a comprehensive review of the literature. The book also includes suggestions for further reading and helpful exercises. The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages will be welcomed by students in deaf studies, linguistics and interpreter training, as well as spoken language researchers, and researchers and teachers of sign language.

Deaf Children and their Families
  • Susan Gregory
  • Foreword by John Newson, Elizabeth Newson
  • Published online:
    24 November 2009
    Print publication:
    30 June 1995
  • This is the republication of a study originally entitled The Deaf Child and his Family which was a landmark in the study of early deafness. Dr Gregory's work, based on interviews with 122 mothers of deaf children under the age of six years, parallels that already done with hearing children and investigates with the same methodology the ways in which deaf children develop, change and are changed by their home and their wider environment. The book describes the everyday life of young deaf children and their families, looks at the deaf child's activities and their daily routine and considers the support and advice given to the parents during the child's early years. This republication, and the addition of a new introduction, coincides with the publication of Dr Gregory's follow-up longitudinal study of the same cohort of families in Deaf Young People and their Families.

Page 1 of 2