Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 1076composed of a limited set of sublexical units (‘aspects’ according to Stokoe 1960;‘parameters’ according to Klima and Bellugi 1979). Whereas the early studiesemphasized that the visual/ gestural modality allows for extensive simultaneous as wellas sequential production of sublexical elements, more recent research, usingautosegmental or hierarchical syllable frameworks, has emphasized the sequentialarrangement at the phonological level. (Liddell and Johnson 1989; Sandler 1990; Wilbur1990; Coulter 1993). Several different notation systems have been developed forsublexical components (Stokoe et al. 1965; Prillwitz and Zienert 1990; McIntire et al.1987).An unusual characteristic of this visual language is the grammatical use of the threedimensionalspace around the signer (see Engberg-Pedersen 1993; Lucas 1990). Signalsgiven by the facial expression, head, trunk, and eye gaze have also been found to functionlinguistically (Baker-Shenk 1983; Liddell 1980; Bergman 1984). The mouthing of wordlikeelements from the spoken language has been reported to be an important loanelement in several European sign languages (see Schermer 1990; Ebbinghaus andHessmann 1990).All sign languages studied to date have been found to have a rich morphology.Different groups of verbs can mark subject-object agreement, locative relations, path andmanner of motion, and several kinds of temporal aspect (Padden 1988a; Klima & Bellugi1979; Bergman & Dahl 1990; Supalla 1982; Newport 1988). Engberg-Pedersen (1993)describes verbs in Danish Sign Language in terms of being more or less ‘polymorphemic’and temporal relations expressed by means of several different kinds of ‘time lines.’Derivational processes for adjectives, verbs, and nouns have been studied (Klima andBellugi 1979; Bellugi and Newkirk 1981). Syntactical issues have been addressed forAmerican Sign Language (Liddell 1980; Padden 1988a; Fischer and Siple 1990; Lucas1990) and other sign languages (Brennan and Turner 1994). Several forms of ‘contactsigning’ (Lucas and Valli 1989) are used in communicative situations involving deaf orhearing persons bilingual in both a signed and an oral language (Ahlgren and Hyltenstam1994). Signs used simultaneously with spoken language in educational situations are notconsidered a form of deaf sign language but rather a pedagogical system for making theoral language more ‘visible’ to deaf children (Wilbur 1979). Non-verbal communicationof signers has been studied by Reilly et al. (1990; 1992).Deaf children exposed to the language from infancy acquire sign language at a rateand through a process similar to their hearing peers’ acquisition of spoken language(Volterra and Erting 1990; Newport and Meier 1985). Sign language is considered bydeaf persons to be a core characteristic of Deaf culture (Padden and Humphries 1988).American Sign Lan guage has been accepted as fulfilling the foreign-languagerequirement in many US universities (Wilcox 1992). An extensive internationalbibliography of research on sign language can be found in Joachim and Prillwitz (1993).ReferencesAhlgren, I. and K.Hyltenstam (eds) 1994. Bilingualism in deaf education. Hamburg.Baker-Shenk, C.L. 1983. A microanalysis of the nonmanual components of questions in AmericanSign Language. Unpublished dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.