Presents data from South African Sign Language (SASL) to exemplify the fact that sign languages are able to represent action or events from more than one perspective at the same time. Describes the different ways in which these multiple perspectives may be created and looks specifically at the role of classifier predicates in the creation of…

Examines the variety of sign language used in Southern and central Pakistan and Northwestern India, including its grammatical profile, word classes, the relationship between word class and functional slot, the marking of basic syntactic relations, shifters, number systems, types of possession, negation, questions, subordinate clauses, and…

Reports results of a preliminary study of sign frequency in American Sign language(ASL). Identifies some surprising trends in the organization of the ASL lexicon that merit further investigation. (Author/VWL)

Summarizes remarks made to open the Gallaudet University conference on Dictionaries and the Standardization of languages. It concerns the making of what is arguably the world's greatest dictionary, "The Oxford English Dictionary." (VWL)

Maintains that certain kinds of structured background information should be treated as essential components or accompaniments of word definitions. Discusses frame semantics, and presents a vision of the ideal dictionary, which is now becoming possible because of advances in computerized access to complex sources of information. (VWL)

Reports on the progress of a project to produce a dictionary of the Jicarilla Apache language. Jicarilla, an Eastern Apachean language is spoken on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in Northern New Mexico. The project has revealed much about the role of literacy in language standardization and in speaker empowerment. Suggests that many parallels…

Explores the relationship between lexicography and variation in both spoken languages and sign languages. Examines the function of dictionaries and discusses the nature of linguistic variation, using an example of lexical variation in American Sign Language. (Author/VWL)

Explores the outcome of a publicly-funded research project titled "Redesign of the British Sign Language (BSL) Notation System with a New Font for Use in ICT." The aim of the project was to redesign the British Sign Language variant of Stokoe notation for practical use in information technology systems and software, such as lexical databases, word…

Reports on the the Multimedia Dictionary of American Sign language, which was was conceived in he late 1980s as a melding of the pioneering work in American Sign language lexicography that had been carried out decades earlier and the newly emerging computer technologies that were integrating use of graphical user-interface designs, rapidly…

Discusses the Brazilian Sign language digital encyclopedia, which contains a databank of 5,600 signs glossed in Portuguese and English, along with descriptions and illustrations of their signed form. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the issue of the use of signed language dictionaries in the standardization of signed languages with reference to the Australian Sign language (Auslan) dictionaries. Details the structure of the Auslan dictionaries and argues that bilingual, bidirectional dictionaries of this type must be produced if communities are to encourage language…

Describes the process of the standardization of the basic lexicon of the sign lexicon of the Netherlands (SLN) and the different types of dictionaries that were produced. (Author/VWL)

Provides an overview of the development of the "Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language." Discusses obstacles faced in making the dictionary. (Author/VWL)

Addresses issues related to genetic counseling and deafness. (Author/VWL)

This historical account of the development of the manual alphabet in American Sign Language traces fingerspelling back to the monks of the seventh century, who devised a system for representing speech without needing to speak. (Author/VWL)