Sign Language of the Deaf: Psychological, Linguistic, and Sociological Perspectives provides information pertinent to the psychological, educational, social, and linguistic aspects of sign language. This book presents the development in the study of sign language. Organized into four parts encompassing 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the fascinating account of sign language acquisition by small children. This text then explores the grammar of sign language and discusses the linguistic status of natural and contrived sign languages. Other chapters consider the many peculiarities of the lexicon and grammar of sign language, and its differences in such respects from oral language. This book discusses as well sign language from the angle of psycholinguistics. The final chapter deals with the educational implications of the use of sign language. This book is a valuable resource for linguists and psycholinguists. Readers who are interested in sign language will also find this book useful.
In Sign Language Interpreting (SLI) there is a great need for a volume devoted to classic and seminal articles and essays dedicated to this specific domain of language interpreting. Students, educators, and practitioners will benefit from having access to a collection of historical and influential articles that contributed to the progress of the global SLI profession. In SLI there is a long history of outstanding research and scholarship, much of which is now out of print, or was published in obscure journals, or featured in publications that are no longer in print. These readings are significant to the progression of SLI as an academic discipline and a profession. As the years have gone by, many of these readings have been lost to students, educators, and practitioners because they are difficult to locate or unavailable, or because this audience simply does not know they exist. This volume brings together the seminal texts in our field that document the philosophical, evidence-based and analytical progression of SLI work.
The Routledge Companion to Semiotics provides the ideal introduction to semiotics, containing engaging essays from an impressive range of international leaders in the field.Topics covered include:the history, development, and uses of semiotics key theorists, including Saussure, Peirce and Sebeokcrucial and contemporary topics such as biosemiotics, sociosemiotics and semioethics the semiotics of media and culture, nature and cognition. Featuring an extended glossary of key terms and th.
1. THE SEMIOTIC CHARACTER OF ABORIGINAL SIGN LANGUAGES In our culture, language, especially in its spoken manifestation, is the much vaunted hallmark of humanity, the diagnostic trait of man that has made possible the creation of a civilization unknown to any other terrestrial organism. Through our inheritance of a /aculte du langage, culture is in a sense bred inta man. And yet, language is viewed as a force wh ich can destroy us through its potential for objectification and classification. According to popular mythology, the naming of the animals of Eden, while giving Adam and Eve a certain power over nature, also destroyed the prelinguistic harmony between them and the rest of the natural world and contributed to their eventual expulsion from paradise. Later, the post-Babel development of diverse language families isolated man from man as weIl as from nature (Steiner 1975). Language, in other words, as the central force animating human culture, is both our salvation and damnation. Our constant war with words (Shands 1971) is waged on both internal and external battlegrounds. This culturally determined ambivalence toward language is particularly appar ent when we encounter humans or hominoid animals who, for one reason or another, must rely upon gestural forms of communication.
"This is the most systematic discussion of semiotics yet published." —Choice "A bravura performance." —Thomas Sebeok "Nöth's handbook is an outstanding encyclopedia that provides first-rate information on many facets of sign-related studies, research results, and applications." —Social Sciences in General
The videocassettes illustrate dialogues for the text it accompanies, and also provides ASL stories, poems and dramatic prose for classroom use. Each dialogue is presented three times to allow the student to "converse with" each signer. Also demonstrates the grammar and structure of sign language. The teacher's text on grammar and culture focuses on the use of three basic types of sentences, four verb inflections, locative relationships and pronouns, etc. by using sign language. The teacher's text on curriculum and methods gives guidelines on teaching American Sign Language and Structured activities for classroom use.
"... fifteen texts which are essential reading for anyone interested in semiotics... This collection will surely become a standard text for those who teach semiotics, aesthetics or philosophy of language." -- International Philosophical Quarterly This volume presents the classic statements in semiotics and touches on a vast set of problems and themes -- philosophical, aesthetic, literary, cultural, biological, and anthropological.
In a book with far-reaching implications, Edward S. Klima and Ursula Bellugi present a full exploration of a language in another mode--a language of the hands and of the eyes. They discuss the origin and development of American Sign Language, the internal structure of its basic units, the grammatical processes it employs, and its heightened use in poetry and wit. The authors draw on research, much of it by and with deaf people, to answer the crucial question of what is fundamental to language as language and what is determined by the mode (vocal or gestural) in which a language is produced.
Although semiotics has, in one guise or another, ftourished uninterruptedly since pre Socratic times in the West, and important semiotic themes have emerged and devel oped independently in both the Brahmanie and Buddhistic traditions, semiotics as an organized undertaking began to 100m only in the 1960s. Workshops materialized, with a perhaps surprising spontaneity, over much ofEurope-Eastern and Western and in North America. Thereafter, others quickly surfaced almost everywhere over the litera te globe. Different places strategically allied themselves with different lega eies, but all had a common thrust: to aim at a general theory of signs, by way of a description of different sign systems, their comparative analysis, and their classifi cation. More or less permanent confederations were forged with the most diverse academic disciplines, and amazingly varied frameworks were devised-suited to the needs of the times and the sites-to carry the work of consolidation forward. Bit by bit, mutually supportive international networks were put together. Today, it can truly be asserted that semiotics has become a global enterprise. This, of course, is far from saying that the map is uniform or even that world-wide homogeneity is in the least desirable. While our conjoint ultimate goal remains steadily in focus, the multiplicity of avenues available for its realization is inherent in the advent ure of the search itself.
