This investigation explored recognition memory for sign language vocabulary in sign language students. Ten beginning and 10 advanced students were asked to judge their familiarity with 50 old and new vocabulary items presented in both written (sign gloss) and signed stimulus modes. (JL)

Proposes the use of semantic phonology, a simple method of sign phonology. Semantic phonology invites one to look at a sign--a word of a primary sign language--as a marriage of noun and verb. (GLR)

A mother of a hearing-impaired two year old offers examples of utilizing siblings (who have learned sign language) to foster the language development and socialization of the younger child. (DB)

Demographic study of the number of deaf users of Australian Sign Language (Auslan) identified over 15,000 deaf who used Auslan daily in interactions with deaf and hearing persons, and evidence of strong social and linguistic cohesion in the deaf community, but high levels of unemployment and underemployment. (16 references) (Author/CB)

Examines two sex-based variations in the Irish Sign Language of Dublin, Ireland, commonly referred to as "female" and "male" signs. The differences between women's knowledge of "male" signs and men's knowledge of female signs are a result of differences in cultural opportunities to acquire full facility with both…

This article analyzes arguments for a written form of American Sign Language (ASL) and suggests the need for empowerment of people who are deaf. It concludes that suggestions to "alphabeticize" ASL or to utilize English glosses would not be appropriate, and proposes that deaf people themselves develop a visual symbol system. (DB)

Two experiments are presented that investigate the processing of pronominal reference in American Sign Language. Experiment one indicated that pronoun activation was not immediate, and there was no strong evidence for the inhibition of nonreferents. Experiment two was designed to investigate whether the pronoun also activated a representation of…

Investigates whether the reasons for deaf children's poor achievement lie in their strategy development. Reports that structural aspects of sign language counting may influence deaf children's thinking in a way that does not lead to a developed conceptual knowledge base, but rather to refined procedural competence. (Contains 31 references.)…

This study investigated speaking rate and voice onset time (VOT) in speech produced during simultaneous communication (SC) by speakers with normal hearing. The somewhat enlarged voicing contrast during SC was consistent with previous findings regarding the influence of rate changes on the temporal fine structure of speech and voicing contrast…

Proposes that a mute verbal modeling system gets lodged in the brain, because the brain is human and modeling, representing, and communicating create connections in the brain. (Author/VWL)

Presents results of a quantitative analysis that evaluates the incidence of iconicity in a sign language, Italian Sign Language (LIS). Argues that the high incidence of iconicity is a response to a need for economy. To justify the coexistence of iconicity and arbitrariness in the LIS lexicon, suggests a revisiting of the notion of arbitrariness.…

Part of a large-scale study on variation in American Sign Language, this article examines variation in the form of the sign DEAF, which can be produced by moving the forefinger from ear to chin, from chin to ear, or by contacting the lower cheek. Multivariate analysis of more than 1600 tokens of DEAF extracted from sociolinguistic interviews shows…

Argues that a 1997 study of WH-movement in American Sign Language (ASL) proposing leftward syntactic movement uses incorrect interpretations of the data and can not account for the facts of the language. A previously-proposed position that ASL WH-phrases move rightward, and that universal grammar must allow the option of rightward movement, is…

Describes Sign in Education, a pilot program in the United Kingdom that integrated Deaf children and hearing children in a hearing classroom with a culturally Deaf teacher who taught the national curriculum in British Sign Language one afternoon a week. Explores the advantage to the Deaf community, as well as the majority culture of adopting such…

Shows that the architecture of a children's poetic text is based on systematic use of repetition and contrast at different levels of analysis, which allow the continuous flow of gesture to be segmented into structural units of different relative size. Suggests the study of poetry allows the isolation of universals of language. (Author/VWL)