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The Linguistics of Sign Languages
How different are sign languages across the world? Are individual signs and signed sentences constructed in the same way across these languages? What are the rules for having a conversation in a sign language? How do children and adults learn a sign language? How are sign languages processed in the brain? These questions and many more are addressed in this introductory book on sign linguistics using examples from more than thirty different sign languages. Comparisons are also made with spoken languages. This book can be used as a self-study book or as a text book for students of sign linguistics. Each chapter concludes with a summary, some test-yourself questions and assignments, as well as a list of recommended texts for further reading. The book is accompanied by a containing assignments, video clips and links to web resources.
393 pages, Paperback
Published June 23, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 18, 2019
Nice book to learn about (mostly) the linguistic similarities between signed and spoken languages. The writing is easy to follow and there are many accompanying images to illustrate the signs mentioned in the text. I really enjoyed the chapters on psycholinguistics and language acquisition. My only problem was that there were a lot of pages/chapters focussing on the more 'technical' side of linguistics, like syntax and phonology, which isn't my particular area of interest. These chapters also contained a lot of linguistic terms, which often didn't get much explanation, and as I don't have a linguistic background I sometimes lost motivation to read on (but you could follow the material without understanding every term). I do think knowledge of at least one sign language is an enrichment because while reading this you'll be able to compare the findings to your own knowledge.
December 30, 2017
This is a great introduction to linguistics as well as sign language linguistics. If you have studied linguistics but not sign languages, then you will be able to skim this book for interesting gems on sign languages. If you have never studied linguistics, then this is a good introduction.
Some fun things I wrote down:
* Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon -> tip-of-the-finger phenomenon
* There are five or so super simple handshapes called unmarked that are learned first universally because they require no special skill. Children learn to move their trunk first, then the arms, then hands, then fingers, and children's signing reflects this (like speaking children who can't say their r's yet).
* SL signers usually have an extra bad accent for iconic signs because they feel like they already know how to make the sign using the gestures they are accustomed to.
* The middle and ring fingers don't have extensor muscles, only tensor, so to extend just them you actually have to use the extensors of the other fingers and simultaneous use the tensors for the others. This makes signs like the JSL "medicine" with just the ring finger extended extremely rare.
* Two-handed signs have to either be symmetric or one of the hands has to be a "weak" hand, which means it can only take on certain handshapes and cannot move on its own.
Overall I enjoyed the book, but I wish it had contained a single chapter introducing linguistics in general (with references for more details) and that the rest of the book had assumed a linguistics background. I also wish they had included a single section about how sign languages are real languages (not just gesture systems) and then dropped that point for the rest of the book. To a certain extent, the title of the book already assumes that the reader believes that sign languages are real languages, and by the end of the book it really felt like they were beating a dead horse. It also would have been useful to have used more citations in the main text (the citations were all saved for separate "references" sections).
I also wish there had been a longer treatment on writing systems and on computer processing, which are underdeveloped areas that could still benefit greatly from continued research.
Some fun things I wrote down:
* Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon -> tip-of-the-finger phenomenon
* There are five or so super simple handshapes called unmarked that are learned first universally because they require no special skill. Children learn to move their trunk first, then the arms, then hands, then fingers, and children's signing reflects this (like speaking children who can't say their r's yet).
* SL signers usually have an extra bad accent for iconic signs because they feel like they already know how to make the sign using the gestures they are accustomed to.
* The middle and ring fingers don't have extensor muscles, only tensor, so to extend just them you actually have to use the extensors of the other fingers and simultaneous use the tensors for the others. This makes signs like the JSL "medicine" with just the ring finger extended extremely rare.
* Two-handed signs have to either be symmetric or one of the hands has to be a "weak" hand, which means it can only take on certain handshapes and cannot move on its own.
Overall I enjoyed the book, but I wish it had contained a single chapter introducing linguistics in general (with references for more details) and that the rest of the book had assumed a linguistics background. I also wish they had included a single section about how sign languages are real languages (not just gesture systems) and then dropped that point for the rest of the book. To a certain extent, the title of the book already assumes that the reader believes that sign languages are real languages, and by the end of the book it really felt like they were beating a dead horse. It also would have been useful to have used more citations in the main text (the citations were all saved for separate "references" sections).
I also wish there had been a longer treatment on writing systems and on computer processing, which are underdeveloped areas that could still benefit greatly from continued research.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews