Signed languages

Las lenguas de señas, como la Lengua de Señas Mexicana (LSM), utilizan el espacio físico en el que el señante articula las señas para representar dimensiones lingüísticas como la locación y el tiempo. Se ha documentado cómo las señas temporales que permiten ubicar a los eventos expresados en las oraciones con respecto al aquí y ahora de la enunciación lo hacen moviéndose en distintas direcciones: hacia adelante en el futuro, hacia atrás en el pasado y cerca del cuerpo para el presente o los momentos inmediatos. Para explicar este comportamiento se ha propuesto la noción de líneas temporales, según esta propuesta una línea abstracta existe desde atrás y hacia el frente del cuerpo del señante, esta línea tiene una asociación directa con la expresión del tiempo, tal que el movimiento de la mano a lo largo de esta expresa relaciones deícticas y de distancia temporal. El objetivo de este trabajo es mostrar que la metáfora de la " línea temporal " no es adecuada para describir el comportamiento de las señas con significados temporales, en particular, aquellas que representan estas relaciones temporales en el espacio. El problema es que, en lugar de moverse en una línea, las señas se comportan estableciendo puntos de referencia en el cuerpo del señante, en el espacio o en la mano que queda fija mientras la otra se mueve. Aparte no hay una correspondencia uno-a-uno entre la distancia de alejamiento con respecto a este punto de referencia y la interpretación de la distancia temporal. Por ejemplo, el futuro lejano puede expresarse sin " alejar " tanto la mano del punto de referencia, en comparación con el futuro simple, incluso, puede tratarse de la misma distancia. La propuesta es, en cambio, repensar esta idea de " iconicidad espacio-temporal " como parte de la estructura articulatoria de las señas, es decir, como un recurso de representación gestual convencionalizado y no como la expresión de un escenario visual fijo en el espacio. Se trata de un morfema temporal común a todas las señas temporales deícticas y relativas en la lengua.

This chapter focuses on the perspectives of Vietnamese Deaf community leaders whose reflections on language and tourism offer insights for practical planning and theorizing in relation to sovereignty, transnational Deaf relationships, and inter- national trade and development. Going forward I discuss my background, research participants, and research methods. In the second section I discuss the rise of the disability marketplace specifically in connection to “hearing impaired” tourism. The third section puts the forces organizing Deaf people’s participation in tourism into a broader context of educational and linguistic marginalization. The fourth section then examines commentary by Deaf community leaders in connection to their indexing of cultural and linguistic impacts of ASL-based tourism for VSL communities. Highlighting perceived relationships between VSLs and a “foreign” signed language (ASL), the claims instantiated in signer commentaries suggest a “distinct angle of telling” (Simpson 1993) that include both (1) the potential for linguistic endangerment caused by the spread of ASL and (2) the potential for beneficial partnerships with Deaf persons and organizations that use ASL. Ultimately, the chapter argues that it is in the context of structural conditions limiting Deaf people’s access to VSLs that ASL-based tourism poses a threat to the status of VSLs. However, the Vietnamese Deaf persons participating in this research offer an additional possibility: where accountability to individual and group-collective preferences for Deaf sameness are mutually upheld across linguistic traditions, then domestic and global forms of Deaf sameness are enjoyed and desired.

This article presents new data bearing on the analysis of the ASL pronominal system. One reasonable view would be that the language has no pronouns at all; it does not need them since all pronominal functions can be accomplished simply by pointing, except as supplemented in particular cases by conventions, such as the understanding that signers can express the equivalent of English we by pointing to two locations on their own chest instead of by pointing first to themselves and then at other persons, or vice versa (although pointing to each person in turn is employed as well). However, although several competing analyses of the ASL pronominal system have been proposed, most sign linguists seem to have accepted the analysis proposed by , which holds that the language distinguishes only two persons: first and other. This view has in fact been incorporated into the notation systems of two influential books on the grammar of ASL: Neidle et al. (2000) and . In essence, it claims that ASL has first-person pronouns-morphemes like those in spoken languages, which are linked to their meaning by arbitrary conventionbut it relies on pointing to express second-and third-person meanings.

This article presents findings from the first major corpus--based study to investigate lexical variation and change in British Sign Language (BSL) number signs. As part of the BSL Corpus Project, number sign variants were elicited from 249 deaf signers from eight sites across the UK.

Claims about signed languages present a unique resource for examining socio- political formation and change. Examining three claims drawn from original ethnographic data on Hồ Chí Minh City Sign Language, analysis centers on the ways language practices and language ideologies reflect, respond to, and impact sociopolitical formation in Việt Nam, particularly in connection to state restructuring of deaf education during the political reform period (1986 to present). Signer narratives evaluate such circumstances in relation to notions of citizenship, national development, and social participation to posit signed language as the basis for Deaf people’s contributions to national devel- opment and broader social change. Articulations between signed language and sociopolitical formation have been largely ignored within mainstream social science disciplines and global disability-oriented development, hindering theor- etical and practical projects. This article aims to expand the theoretical scope of language-centered inquiry by demonstrating how ethnographic research on signed languages contributes to examination of sociopolitical formation. (Signed language, Việt Nam, deaf education, sociopolitical, citizenship)*

Based on a corpus of narratives elicited from the Pear film, depicting constructions with entity classifiers have been analyzed in order to describe how the arguments of predication are introduced in discourse, how Figure and Ground are selected as well as their order of appearance. Also studied was the contribution of manual and nonmanual components to the conceptual elaboration of events, through the interaction between depicting constructions and the so-called constructed action.

Resumen:
A partir de un corpus de narraciones elicitadas en LSE sobre el Pear film, se analizan las construcciones descriptivas con clasificadores de entidad con el propósito de describir cómo se introducen en el discurso los argumentos de la predicación, cómo se seleccionan la Figura y la
Base y su orden de aparición. También se estudia la contribución de componentes manuales y no manuales en la elaboración conceptual de los eventos, mediante la interacción entre las construcciones descriptivas y lo que se conoce como acción construida.

American Sign Language (ASL) makes extensive use of pointing signs, but there has been only limited documentation of how pointing signs are used for demonstrative functions. We elicited demonstratives from four adult Deaf signers of ASL in a puzzle completion task. Our preliminary analysis of the demonstratives produced by these signers supports three important conclusions in need of further investigation. First, despite descriptions of four demonstrative signs in the literature (Baker-Shenk & Cokely, 1980), participants expressed demonstrative function 95% of the time through pointing signs. Second, proximal and distal demonstrative referents were not distinguished categorically on the basis of different demonstrative signs, nor on the basis of pointing handshape or trajectory. Third, non-manual features including eye gaze and facial markers were essential to assigning meaning to demonstratives. Our results identify new avenues for investigation of demonstratives in ASL.

A community that embraces the inclusiveness of its diverse populations is apt to meet its development goals. Inclusive governance demands active engagement of all citizens in political activity, law, and policy. In particular, the United Nations' (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities' (CRPD) Article 29 calls on States Parties to ensure persons with disabilities can eeectively and fully participate in political and public life. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 15% of Africa's population has a disability. Consequently, as Africa continues to work toward meeting the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Developmental Goals (SGDs), the demand for informative publications that involve people with disabilities and their organizations, such as Cooper and Rashid's (2015) book, can certainly strengthen these eeorts. The limited availability of literature related to Deaf people in Africa and the lack of inclusion of Deaf people as participating citizens within that literature are barriers to their active engagement in political activities. Cooper and Rashid's book is a timely publication that adds to valuable discourse on the inclusion of people with disabilities, speciically those who are Deaf, in the social, political, and economic life in Africa. The contributors within this text examine research and work that depict the experiences and perspectives of Deaf sign language users in various countries across the African continent. Language is a central factor for understanding and including Deaf people in daily African life. Importantly, the contributors in this book recognize the uniqueness of each sign language community across the continent, as opposed to a homogeneous representation of all Sub-Saharan Signed Language (SSSL) communities. The rst section of this book provides background information on speciic sign language communities. For example, Moges' work focuses on Eretria and describes the decision-making process for Eritrean Sign language through development of a dictionary. Three institutions involved are a Deaf organization (Eri-NAD), schools for the Deaf, and government representation through the ministry of education; however, Eri-NAD participates in the lower stages of development and has no authority to publish or distribute the dictionary. Interestingly, the nal decisions in this process are made by hearing people working in the schools and government oocials. This is just one example of how negotiation involved members of SSSL community. Similar examples of negotiations are discussed in Hochgesang's work on Kenya and Lutalo-Kiingi and De Clerk's work on Uganda and Cameroon. These overviews provide the reader with a visual picture of the current groundwork and daily negotiations related to conngurations of citizenship, politics, and diierences across regions in Africa for those who are Deaf. The second section of the book explores politics and rights of the members of the SSSL communities. In doing so, the contributors are commended for ooering detailed insights and access to various issues occurring in African regions, such as HIV/AIDS and gender inequality, from a perspective that has not received adequate attention. Aina presents overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers when addressing HIV/AIDS issues among Deaf Africans. He discusses how major projects funded both locally and   