Research Catalog

Title

Sign languages / edited by Diane Brentari.

Publication

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, c2010.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Brentari, Diane

Description

xxi, 691 p. : ill.; 25 cm.

Summary

• This series offers general accounts of the major language families of the world, with volumes organized either on a purely genetic basis or on a geographical basis, whichever yields the most convenient and intelligible grouping in each case. Each volume compares and contrasts the typological features of the languages it deals with. It also treats the relevant genetic relationships, historical development, and sociolinguistic issues arising from their role and use in the world today. The books are intended for linguists from undergraduate level upwards, but no special knowledge of the languages under consideration is assumed. Volumes such as those on Australia and the Amazon Basin are also of wider relevance, as the future of the languages and their speakers raises important social and political issues.
• What are the unique characteristics of sign languages that make them so fascinating? What have recent researchers discovered about them, and what do these findings tell us about human language more generally? This thematic and geographic overview examines more than forty sign languages from around the world. It begins by investigating how sign languages have survived and been transmitted for generations, and then goes on to analyze the common characteristics shared by most sign languages: for example, how the use of the visual (rather than the auditory) system affects grammatical structures. The final section describes the phenomena of language variation and change. Drawing on a wide range of examples, the book explores sign languages both old and young, from British, Italian, Asian and American to Israeli, Al-Sayyid Bedouin, African and Nicaraguan. Written in a clear, readable style, it is the essential reference for students and scholars working in sign language studies and Deaf studies, as well as an indispensable guide for researchers in general linguistics.
• " ... An extremely helpful snapshot of where sign language research finds itself and should prove to be a route map for future research into as yet uncharted territory."
• Debra Aarons, School of Language Studies and Linguistics, University of New South Wales, Australia.
• " Diane Brentari has gathered an immense wealth of linguistic and anthropological information on signed languages around the world. It represents the most up-to-date knowledge we have in this important, growing field. Each chapter is well worth reading on its own, but altogether the work is a superb, insightful picture of the complexities of signed languages and the breadth of current signed language research."
• Terry Janzen, University of Manitoba --Book Jacket.

Series Statement

Cambridge language surveys

Uniform Title

Cambridge language surveys

Subjects

• Surveys (form)
• Sign Language
• Sign language

Genre/Form

Surveys (form)

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 618-669) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction / Diane Brentari -- Transmission of sign languages in Northern Europe / Penny Boyes Braem and Christian Rathmann -- Transmission of sign languages in Latin America / Claire Ramsey and David Quinto-Pozos -- Transmission of sign languages in the Nordic countries / Brita Bergman and Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen -- Transmission of sign languages in Mediterranean Europe / Josep Quer, Laura Mazzoni and Galini Sapountzaki -- Transmission of sign languages in Africa / Dorothy Lule and Lars Wallin -- Transmission of Polish sign systems / Piotr Wojda -- Notation systems / Harry van der Hulst and Rachel Channon -- Verb agreement in sign morphology / Gaurav Mathur and Christian Rathmann -- Functional markers in sign languages / Sandro Zucchi, ... [et al.] -- Clause structure / Ronice Müller de Quadros and Diane Lillo-Martin -- Factors that form classifier signs / Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen -- Handshape contrasts in sign language phonology / Diane Brentari and Petra Eccarius -- Syllable structure in sigh language phonology / Tommi Jantunen and Ritva Takkinen -- Grammaticalization in sign languages / Sherman Wilcox, Paolo Rossini and Elena Antinoro Pizzuto -- The semantics-phonology interface / Ronnie B. Wilbur -- Nonmanuals : their grammatical and prosodic roles / Roland Pfau and Josep Quer -- Sign languages in West Africa / Victoria Nyst -- Sign languages in the Arab world / Kinda Al-Fityani and Carol Padden -- Variation in American Sign Language / Ceil Lucas and Robert Bayley -- Sociolinguistic variation in British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Languages / Adam Schembri, ... [et al.] -- Variation in East Asian sign language structures / Susan Fischer and Qunhu Gong -- Crosslinguistic variation in prosodic cues / Gladys Tang, ... [et al.] -- Deixis in an emerging sign language / Marie Coppola and Anne Senghas -- The grammar of space in two new sign languages / Carol Padden, ... [et al.].

ISBN

• 9780521883702 (hbk.)
• 0521883709 (hbk.)

OCLC

• 428024472
• SCSB-10556150

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library