Sign Languages

by Brentari, Diane

• ISBN13: 9780521883702
• ISBN10: 0521883709
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-31
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. viii
List of tables	p. xiii
List of contributors	p. xv
List of sign language abbreviations	p. xix
Notational conventions	p. xxi
Introduction	p. 1
History and Transmission	p. 17
Transmission of sign languages in Northern Europe	p. 19
Transmission of sign languages in Latin America	p. 46
Transmission of sign languages in the Nordic countries	p. 74
Transmission of sign languages in Mediterranean Europe	p. 95
Transmission of sign languages in Africa	p. 113
Transmission of Polish sign systems	p. 131
Shared Crosslinguistic Characteristics	p. 149
Notation systems	p. 151
Verb agreement in sign language morphology	p. 173
Functional markers in sign languages	p. 197
Clause structure	p. 225
Factors that form classifier signs	p. 252
Handshape contrasts in sign language phonology	p. 284
Syllable structure in sign language phonology	p. 312
Grammaticalization in sign languages	p. 332
The semantics-phonology interface	p. 355
Nonmanuals: their grammatical and prosodic roles	p. 381
Variation and Change	p. 403
Sign languages in West Africa	p. 405
Sign languages in the Arab world	p. 433
Variation in American Sign Language	p. 451
Sociolinguistic variation in British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages	p. 476
Variation in East Asian sign language structures	p. 499
Crosslinguistic variation in prosodic cues	p. 519
Deixis in an emerging sign language	p. 543
The grammar of space in two new sign languages	p. 570
Notes	p. 593
References	p. 618
Index	p. 670
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