Hearing children from deaf families, Codas, represent a relatively invisible linguistic and cultural minority. Many hearing people are unaware of the fact that American Sign Language (ASL) is a separate language with its own grammatical structure unlike that of English. This misconception has led to an emphasis on oral education for deaf people in…

This follow-up study identifies the relationship between pairings of parental hearing status and the regularity of signing with the deaf or hard of hearing student at home and in the classroom. Additionally, given that the incidence of intergenerational deafness has a major genetic component, parental hearing status in relation to the child's…

Ordinary language behavior in ASL reveals parallel cognitive structures that are both similar to and different from spoken-language behavior. This article focuses on the metaphorical similarities between English and ASL that are found in the metaphors "Mind is a container," and "Ideas are objects." Also examined are differences in metaphor…

This document illustrates that mental functioning and communication in Catalan Sign Language (LSC) are conceptual through metaphorical projection of bodily experiences. The data in this document show how concepts are grasped, put on student's heads, exchanged, manipulated, and so on, constituting instantiations of the basic metaphors: ideas are…

Grounded blends may be literal or metaphorical, the latter allowing for an even richer variety of blend characteristics. This contribution of metaphor is achieved largely through the utilization of body partitioning. Body partitioning may result in: (1) the appearance of a single, coherent source-domain scene iconically represented; (2) a single…

In 1889, German biologist August Weissmann showed that mice whose tails are cut off do not produce short-tailed offspring. It was a step forward for science, but a step backward for civilization. Weissmann's discovery was good for science because, contrary to what many scientists had believed, acquired characteristics are not, of course,…

The Lexicon of British Sign Language (BSL), including, and perhaps especially, the productive lexicon, is highly motivated. Many sign linguists in the last few decades have played down the role of iconicity and other types of motivation in signed language. They have suggested that because sign forms and structures conform to rules of linguistic…

Many moments that humans see naturally suggest something other than themselves. This is a legacy from the remotest time. Among animals, movements of prey and predator give each an indication of what may happen next and a basis for choosing their own actions. As species evolved, the movements that could be made and the meanings that could be…

For the study reported in this article, Deaf couples were interviewed at two different times regarding their views on deaf education. Questions in the first interview focused on the parents' views of their preschool children's education as well as their opinion of their "own" school experiences. Questions also covered language use at school and…

This article describes the predicative verbal system of Catalan Sign Language (LSC) as it is used by Deaf people in the province of Barcelona. We also present a historical perspective of the research on this topic, which provides insight into the changes that have taken place over the last few decades in sign language linguistics. The principal…

The story of the Abbe de l'Epee's "methodical signs" is best known as a key moment in Deaf history. However, at the time of the French Revolution this story served a larger political function. The example of de l'Epee's deaf students, and their seemingly miraculous command of ideas learned through gestural signs, helped the French revolutionaries…

Variation in the parts of ASL signs (i.e., phonological variation) has been explained largely by reference to the influence of the preceding and the following segments. This article examines three linguistic variables in ASL: the sign deaf; the location of a class of signs represented by the verb know; and signs produced with a 1 handshape. For…

Even though ASL isn't as easy to learn as it may seem at first, more and more students are enrolling in ASL courses at both the secondary and university levels and choosing ASL as a primary area of study. For this reason the demand for ASL teachers is increasing, and the need for ASL teacher-preparation programs (ASL TPPs) has increased.…

This article investigates the ways in which an experienced deaf teacher is able to extend the discourse in his classroom and enable his students to participate. We saw that he employs several approaches, some but not all of which depend on his native competence in ASL. Further research with other native signing teachers could lead to the…

This article focuses on word order - the order of constituents in the sentence - as one way in which languages establish the relationship between a verb and its arguments. The spoken languages of the world have been classified into three, major word-order types: SVO, VSO, and SOV. Greenberg' work (1963) on language typology has been a stimulus to…