As sign language linguistics has become an important and prodigious field of research in the last few decades, it comes as no surprise that the repertoire of methodological approaches to the study of the communication of the Deaf has also expanded considerably. While earlier work on sign languages was often focused on providing arguments for them being full-fledged linguistic systems, current debates do no longer center on whether visual-spatial grammars are worth being researched, but on how this type of research should be conducted. This book contains a selection of papers that could be thought of as a good representative sample of current trends in formal approaches to the study of sign language syntax. It illustrates how generative research on the communication of the Deaf may contribute to our understanding of the syntax of natural languages in general and indicates to what extent it is possible to integrate advances in the analysis of visual-spatial grammar with current spoken language research. Originally published in Sign Language & Linguistics 16:2 (2013).

Treu tackles the architectural history and signage of Main Street and the strip—from painted boards nailed over crude storefronts to sleek cinemas topped with neon glitz. Honorable Mention, Architecture and Urban Planning, 2012 PROSE Awards Signs, Streets, and Storefronts addresses more than 200 years of signs and place-marking along America’s commercial corridors. From small-town squares to Broadway, State Street, and Wilshire Boulevard, Martin Treu follows design developments into the present and explores issues of historic preservation. Treu considers “common” architecture and its place-defining business signs as well as influential high-style design examples by taste-making leaders. Combining advertising and architectural history, the book presents a full picture of the commercial landscape, including design adaptations made for motorists and the migration from Main Street to suburbia. The dynamic between individual businesses and the common good has a major effect on the appearance of our country's Main Streets. Several forces are at work: technological advances, design imagination and the media, corporate propaganda, customer needs, and municipal mandates. Present-day controls have often led to a denuding of traditional commercial corridors. Such reform, Treu argues, has suppressed originality and radically cleared away years of accumulated history based on the taste of a single generation. A must-read for city planners, town councils, architects, sign designers, concerned citizens, and anyone who cares about the appearance and vitality of America’s commercial streets, this heavily illustrated book is equally appealing to armchair historians, small-town enthusiasts, and lovers of Americana.

Crystal Downing brings the postmodern theory of semiotics within reach for today's evangelists. Following the idea of the sign through Scripture, church history and the academy, Downing shows you how signs work and how sensitivity to their dynamics can make or break an attempt to communicate truth.