Sign Languages: Structures and Contexts provides a succinct summary of major findings in the linguistic study of natural sign languages. Focusing on American Sign Language (ASL), this book:
- offers a comprehensive introduction to the basic grammatical components of phonology, morphology, and syntax with examples and illustrations;
- demonstrates how sign languages are acquired by Deaf children with varying degrees of input during early development, including no input where children create a language of their own;
- discusses the contexts of sign languages, including how different varieties are formed and used, attitudes towards sign languages, and how language planning affects language use;
- is accompanied by e-resources, which host links to video clips.
Offering an engaging and accessible introduction to sign languages, this book is essential reading for students studying this topic for the first time with little or no background in linguistics.
"By uniting the linguistic, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic sides of language study, the authors succeed in offering an impressively comprehensive - yet concise - overview of the study of sign languages, and American Sign Language in particular. Lucidly written, full of illustrative examples, and complemented by well-selected discussion questions, the?text is a perfect read for everyone interested in the basics of sign language linguistics."
Roland Pfau, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
