New 4th Edition completely revised and updated with new DVD now available; ISBN 1-56368-283-4.

The discovery of the importance of sign language in the deaf community is very recent indeed. This book provides a study of the communication and culture of deaf people, and particularly of the deaf community in Britain. The authors' principal aim is to inform educators, psychologists, linguists and professionals working with deaf people about the rich language the deaf have developed for themselves - a language of movement and space, of the hands and of the eyes, of abstract communication as well as iconic story telling. The first chapters of the book discuss the history of sign language use, its social aspects and the issues surrounding the language acquisition of deaf children (BSL) follows, and the authors also consider how the signs come into existence, change over time and alter their meanings, and how BSL compares and contrasts with spoken languages and other signed languages. Subsequent chapters examine sign language learning from a psychological perspective and other cognitive issues. The book concludes with a consideration of the applications of sign language research, particularly in the contentious field of education. There is still much to be discovered about sign language and the deaf community, but the authors have succeeded in providing an extensive framework on which other researchers can build, from which professionals can develop a coherent practice for their work with deaf people, and from which hearing parents of deaf children can draw the confidence to understand their children's world.

This volume explores the grammatical and social contexts for borrowing from various spoken languages into their corresponding sign languages (e.g., from English into ASL). For graduate and professional-level (psycho)linguists and deaf studies specialists

A ground-breaking resource available either online or as a 10-volume print set bringing together historic and emerging areas of research within applied linguistics Combines individual entries ranging from 1,500 to 4,000 words, with longer, essaystyle contributions giving a detailed overview of key developments and ideas Includes over 1,100 entries written by an international team of scholars from over 40 countries Covers 27 key areas of the field, including Language Learning and Teaching, Bilingual and Multilingual Education, Assessment and Testing, Corpus Linguistics, Conversation Analysis, Discourse, Cognitive Second Language Acquisition, Language, Policy and Planning, Literacy, and Technology and Language Features over 200 entries on the philosophy and history of applied linguistics and biographies of key applied linguists Updates and new articles available twice a year, enabling the work to stay relevant and cutting-edge 10 Volumes www.encyclopediaofappliedlinguistics.com Updating

Explores current efforts to record, collect and archive endangered languages which are in danger of falling silent.

Sign languages are of great interest to linguists, because while they are the product of the same brain, their physical transmission differs greatly from that of spoken languages. In this pioneering and original study, Wendy Sandler and Diane Lillo-Martin compare sign languages with spoken languages, in order to seek the universal properties they share. Drawing on general linguistic theory, they describe and analyze sign language structure, showing linguistic universals in the phonology, morphology, and syntax of sign language, while also revealing non-universal aspects of its structure that must be attributed to its physical transmission system. No prior background in sign language linguistics is assumed, and numerous pictures are provided to make descriptions of signs and facial expressions accessible to readers. Engaging and informative, Sign Language and Linguistic Universals will be invaluable to linguists, psychologists, and all those interested in sign languages, linguistic theory and the universal properties of human languages.

Surveys key findings and ideas in sign language phonology, exploring the crucial areas in phonology to which sign language studies has contributed.