bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Middle English Version of Saint Ursula's Prayer Instruction in Nijmegen, Universiteitsbibliotheek, HS 194
Authors: Chardonnens László Sándor , Drieshen Clarck
Published: October 2013

Dating back to the late antique period, the martyrdom of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins became a focus of devotion in the late medieval and early modern period in continental Europe and the British Isles. Jacobus de Voragine discussed St. Ursula's martyrdom in detail in the Legenda Aurea , which included a prayer instruction that St. Ursula revealed to a dying monk in return for his faithful devotion to her. Taking their cue from St. Ursula's revelation in the Legenda Aurea , late medieval narratives such as the Shropshire Miracle expanded the prayer instruction revealed by St. Ursula and contextualized it in the historical setting of the life of the fifteenth-century English hermit John of Warwick. The Shropshire Miracle, in turn, was embedded in lives of St. Ursula, which were exported from England to Germany, and subsequently imported back into England. The key feature of these late medieval and early modern sources is the prayer instruction revealed by St. Ursula, a form of reciprocated devotion which cemented the reputation of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins on the one hand, and on the other hand ensured protection in this life and access to heaven for the petitioner. While Ursuline prayer instructions survive in large numbers in Latin, the number of instructions in English is limited. The fifteenth-century English manuscript Nijmegen, Universiteitsbibliotheek, HS 194 contains a uniquely attested and re-contextualized version of St. Ursula's prayer instruction that is here situated within the medieval and early modern development of the cult of St. Ursula and printed for the first time.
"Look on Me": Theater, Gender, and Poetic Identity Formation in Milton's Maske
Authors: Prawdzik Brendan
Published: October 2013

Scholarly approaches to Milton's interest in drama have missed how theater represents for Milton the ethical challenge of negotiating poetic identity with a reading and viewing public. This article locates Milton's Lady within complementary discursive contexts that efface female agency through either virulent anti-feminism associated with theater or dualistic idealizations that elevate the soul while denigrating the agential body. The Maske 's staging of an emergent woman imperiled by the visual and discursive field is in part a test case for a public poetry. By way of the "Maske of Cupid" in Faerie Queene 3, Milton constructs Sabrina's paradoxical function as "uncontrouled worth" enabling the paralyzed Lady by offering a spectacle of an inviolably chaste body that can enter social circulation and work to reform it while evading its distorting power. Nonetheless, Sabrina's ghostly ephemerality and the evident constraints on the Lady's agency suggest why public drama for Milton henceforth would be indefinitely deferred but never staged.
Proverbs and Structure in Maxims I.A
Authors: Deskis Susan E.
Published: October 2013

This article addresses both the sources and the structure of the Old English poem Maxims I.A . The proverbial status of a statement in the poem can be determined not only by analyzing its syntactic form, but by locating proverbial analogues to it. Eleven of the sententiae of Maxims I.A can thus be shown to be drawn from a cultural pool of existing proverbs in Latin and the vernacular. Many of the non-proverbial sentences in Maxims I.A are nonetheless gnomic in form. These gnomes tend to appear in clusters, by which the instructional discourse type of the poem is reinforced. They also provide transitions between proverbial and non-proverbial discourse in the poem. This transitional function plays an important role in the compositional process for the gnomic poet.
Andrew Marvell's Ovidian Consolations
Authors: Laam Kevin
Published: October 2013

Although Andrew Marvell's debt to Ovid has been widely acknowledged, the Amores has gone virtually unnoticed in discussions of Marvell's Ovidianism. This article examines the influence of Ovid's funeral elegies ( Amores 2.6 and 3.9) on Marvell's three funeral elegies: "An Elegy Upon the Death of My Lord Francis Villiers," "Upon the Death of Lord Hastings," and "A Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord Protector." Specifically, it examines how Marvell enlists Ovidian irony and wit to comment on the consolatory pretensions of elegy and, more broadly, on the events and politics of the English Civil War and Commonwealth. In the Amores Ovid actively exposes the formal artifice through which tropes of consolation are constructed. Marvell's elegies follow much the same pattern. He is patently concerned with elegy's unique capacity to draw comfort from the experience of mourning and loss, but like Ovid, he also understands that the figurative compensations and traumatic fixations that derive from this experience are not easy to separate.
Gestures, Signs, and Speech in the Evaluation of Programs for Hearing Impaired Children
Authors: Moores Donald F. , McIntyre Cynthia K. , Weiss Karen
Published: October 2013

Because they contain important information of broad and immediate interest, the Editor has requested and the authors have agreed to publish here two chapters and part of a third from their 169 page Report: EVALUTION OF PROGRAMS FOR HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN, Moores, McIntyre, Weiss. September 1972. Research Report #39. Project No. 332189. Research, Development and Demonstration Center in Education of Handicapped Children, Minneapolis, Minnesota. DHEW/OE, Bureau of Education for the Handicapped.
Phonological Deletion in American Sign Language
Authors: Battison Robbin
Published: October 2013

The American Sign Language of the deaf (ASL) has a level of structure which is analogous to phonology. The natural basis for both lexical description and analysis of variation is the articulatory dynamics of the hands and body.
Wit and Poetry in American Sign Language
Authors: Klima Edward S. , Bellugi Ursula
Published: October 2013

One measure of the psychological reality of more abstract linguistic categories, for native users of a language, is the extent to which those categories are manipulated in such “secondary” uses of language as poetry and wit. The authors are particularly interested in how wit and poetic form in sign language are determined by thevisual-gestural mode. A dichotomy will be developed between those properties of the heightened use of sign language which are involved more essentially with the structure created by aspects of movement in general and those that are involved more purely with the grammatical code itself.’
Order Constraints in American Sign Language: The Effects of Structure on Judgments of Meaningfulness and on Immediate Recall of Anomalous Sign Sequences
Authors: Hoemann Harry W. , Florian Vicki A.
Published: October 2013

Forty anomalous sign sequences were ranked as to their meaningfulness by three judges working independently, and the same forty sequences were presented to seventeen deaf subjects via videotape in a task measuring immediate recall. Half of the sequences preserved the structure of original model ASL sequences and half of the sequences were the result of a random reordering of the original sign sequence. Twenty of the sentences were five signs long and twenty were six signs long. Random resequencing of the signs affected judgments of meaningfulness in both five- and six-sign sequences, and resequencing of the six-sign sequences affected both meaningfulness and immediate recall. It was concluded that order constraints are present in American Sign Language and that the sequence of signs may affect both semantic features and psychological processing of signed messages.
From Performative Act to Performative Utterance: An Ethological Perspective
Authors: Bullowa Margaret
Published: October 2013

This paper deals with the early stages in human communicative development which are preparatory to accommodating its linguistic component. The focus is on human behavioral development from simple expression of physiological needs to social communication. Vocal language involves bodily functions linked to cognitive capacities through skilled use of the respiratory system. Vocal tract activity is linked to movement of other body parts in ways that contribute to communication. Gruber’s concept of “performative utterance” in child language (1967) was based on audio-visual recordings of one child. Earlier data from this child, of behavior leading to the performative utterances of the Gruber corpus, as well as data from another child, have been searched for the performative action that is described in this paper. Performatives at these early ages express desire and intention. For the two children studied and in the situations observed and recorded, important conditions for the emergence of language in the ontogeny of communication appear to be (1) interaction with caretaking adults, (2) shared focal attention, and (3) specificity of reference.
Spontaneous Verbal Language for Autistic Children through Signed Speech
Authors: Schaeffer Benson , Kollinzas George , Musil Arlene , McDowell Peter
Published: October 2013

Signed speech refers to the simultaneous production of signs and speech. When autistic children are taught to sign and speak at the same time, i.e. to use signed speech, the spontaneity that manual language promotes transfers to speech. After the children have employed signed speech for many months, the signs can be faded out. The children employ the verbal language that remains in a creative and generative fashion–to make demands, describe the world, and to direct or comment on their own behavior. The three originally nonverbal autistic boys we instructed progressed from spontaneous sign language, to spontaneous signed speech, to spontaneous verbal language.
Two to One It Happens: Dynamic Phonology in Two Sign Languages
Authors: Woodward James , De Santis Susan
Published: October 2013

The historically attested change of two-handed signs on the face to one-handed variants, which occurs in two historically related sign languages, French Sign Language (FSL) and American Sign Language (ASL), is used to test variation theory. The results of the study support viewing languages in a dynamic framework: The change from two-handed to one-handed signs patterns implicationally (in similar orders for French and American signers). FSL, however, is undergoing the change significantly more slowly than ASL. Older signers of both languages retain more of the older two-handed forms than do younger signers. Within the ASL area, Black Southern signers preserve more of the two-handed signs than do other U. S. signers.
A Simulation Methodology for Proxemic Research
Authors: McCroskey James C. , Young Thomas James , Richmond Virginia P.
Published: October 2013

In this paper we report the findings of an investigation designed to test whether a projection technique could approximate proxemic preferences by individuals found in previous research using actual observations. We also examined apprehension about oral communication, a personality-type variable, to see if it would affect the spacing preference of the subjects. Our findings indicate that the projection technique developed was able to yield preference data similar to those found in direct observation of spacing. Apprehension about oral communication appears to affect the spacing preferences for males but not for females.
Language Policy and Deaf Ethnicity in the United States
Authors: Erting Carol
Published: October 2013

Deaf ethnicity, as the social phenomenon of deafness, is presented as the proper context in which to consider language learning, language teaching, and language planning in the education of the deaf. Social parameters of deafness in the United States, the interaction of the deaf ethnic group with the hearing society it is contained within, and direct observation of a bilingual (ASL and English) preschool class of deaf children are used to delineate this sociolinguistic-ethnolinguistic situation, and to draw the implications of this situation for deciding language policy in educational settings.
Singing Apprehension and Talking Apprehension: The Development of Two Constructs
Authors: Andersen Peter A. , Andersen Janis F. , Garrison John P.
Published: October 2013

Singing apprehension is examined as a nonverbal counterpart of talking apprehension. Three research questions and hypotheses were tested in two separate replications. Subjects were 190 undergraduates in the first and 551 primary and secondary teachers in the second. Results indicated that apprehension about singing can be reliably and validly measured and is unrelated to apprehension about talking. A significant negative relationship between singing lessons and singing apprehension was hypothesized and confirmed. Men were found to have higher levels of singing apprehension; women were found to have higher levels of talking apprehension. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of role conditioning and neurophysiological sex differences. Suggestions for treating and reducing singing apprehension are also discussed.
Performative Acts Defined by Synchrony among Intonational, Verbal, & Nonverbal Systems in a One and One-Half Year old Child
Authors: Duchan Judith , Oliva Joseph , Lindner Rosalyn
Published: October 2013

Analysis was made of the correspondence between intonation and the larger and smaller movements accompanying the two-syllable and longer utterances of an 18 month old child. In the microanalysis of the movements discrete movements were found to occur during the production of each syllable. These syllable level synchronies are discussed in light of a central pacer hypothesis. Macroanalysis (across successive syllables) showed the focus of the intonation pattern to correspond with the achievement of the movements’ intention (as show, give, point, etc.) in 70% of the utterances. This synchrony between peaks of intonation and movement patterns is used to argue for a performative basis for early two-word productions.
The Effects of Tactile History on Attitudes toward and Frequency of Touching Behavior
Authors: Gladney Karen , Barker Larry
Published: October 2013

This study measures (1) the relationship between an individual's tactile history and attitude toward touch in public, and (2) the relationship between an individual's tactile history and the frequency of that person's touching behavior exhibited in public. The results indicate that attitudes toward touch are to a high degree predicted by past familial touch experience, but that an individual's tactile history has no statistically significant effect on the frequency of touching behavior exhibited in public.
A British Sign Language Research Project
Authors: Brennan Mary , Colville Martin
Published: October 2013

This paper describes the current situation in Scotland with regard to sign language and more generally, manual communication; focuses on one area, the expression of time relations; explains the methods to be used; proposes a rationale for transcription of a videotaped corpus; and indicates what kinds of linguistic analyses will be made in a project supported in part by the National Inter-College Committee on Educational Research and the Scottish Education Department.
The Acquisition of Classifiers in American Sign Language
Authors: Kantor Rebecca
Published: October 2013

The purpose of this study was to obtain data on the developmental stages that deaf children pass through in acquiring the adult form of pronominal classifiers in American Sign Language, by obtaining data on production, comprehension, and imitation from nine children aged three to eleven years. All nine children are congenitally, profoundly deaf and have deaf parents. In all cases classifiers were mastered much later than would be predicted from a timetable for signs with similar structure. Evidence was found for a developmental sequence and for acquisition strategies similar to those that have been identified for hearing children learning a spoken language; e.g. handshapes that could be produced correctly in non-classifier signs were replaced by motorically easier handshapes in classifier signs made by children in this study. It is suggested that this is the result of complexities associated with classifier usage.
Perceptual Confusions of the Manual Alphabet by Naive, Trained, and Familiar Users
Authors: Hawes M. Dixie , Danhauer Jeffery L.
Published: October 2013

Confusions among dactylemes (handshapes) of the American manual alphabet (MA) were investigated for perceptual features. Three groups of five subjects were either (1) untrained, (2) trained, or (3) experienced in knowledge of the MA. Each of the 26 dactylemes was randomly presented 26 times between two neutral handshapes. The confusions of the resulting 656 stimuli were converted to a 26×26 full symmetric matrix for each subject. Two, three, four, and five dimensional INDSCAL solutions were examined to uncover the perceptual dimensions used by the subjects in their ratings of the stimuli. Feature interpretations included fist , full hand , ulnar , index + middle finger , and reversal . Findings suggest that all subjects employed perceptual features in their identification of dactylemes. Confusions occurred more often among dactylemes having similar perceptual features.
Acquisition of ASL and Spoken English by a Hearing Child of a Deaf Mother and a Hearing Father: Phase II, Early Combinatorial Patterns
Authors: Prinz Philip M. , Prinz Elisabeth A.
Published: October 2013

In this second phase of a longitudinal study of the simultaneous linguistic development in ASL and spoken English by a hearing girl whose mother is profoundly deaf and father hearing, the focus is on the “transitional” stage of language development between the one-word stage and the combinatorial stage. The results demonstrate (1) the existence of early combinations of manual and oral babbling strings; (2) the ability to convey communicative intent by combining oral and manual signifiers; (3) a preliminary code-switching ability across modalities; and (4) the development of two separate lexical systems but one syntactic system incorporating rules from both languages.
Brain Laterality in Signed and Spoken Language: A Synthetic Theory of Language Use
Authors: Armstrong David F. , Katz Solomon H.
Published: October 2013

First, the hypothesis is examined that right hemispheric cognitive processes underlie human language in a fundamental way, and specifically, that the right hemisphere is implicated in the semantic processes underlying the establishment of meaning and in processing of linguistic “gestalts” generally. In this respect, several lines of evidence are examined, including the performance of aphasics, commisurotomy patients, native deaf signers, and users of Japanese and Chinese ideographs. A right hemispheric basis for various aspects of language use having been established, a second hypothesis is examined: that differences in societal complexity are related to differences in relative dependence upon cognitive processes controlled by the right and the left cerebral hemispheres. More specifically, we examine the hypothesis that growth in societal complexity has been accompanied by increased dependence upon left hemisphere processes. We present quantitative evidence from studies of differences in language structure to support the hypothesis. More broadly, what we are attempting here is to construct a synthetic theory of language use that incorporates information from the neurological and the social sciences.
Early Communication Acquisition by Autistic Children: Signing & Mouthing versus Signing & Speaking
Authors: Konstantareas M. Mary , Leibovitz Sandi F.
Published: October 2013

Speech training has been successful in helping the relatively high-functioning autistic child to communicate. For the low-functioning, frequently mute subgroup this training appears limited in effectiveness. Simultaneous procedures (speech and signing) are currently showing promising results, no doubt because of these children’s auditory processing deficits. The effectiveness of a visual only approach (mouthing and signing) is here compared with a simultaneous visual and auditory approach (speaking and signing). Results suggest that a simultaneous approach may be superior, at least in early training. In addition, receptive abilities were found to precede expressive. Difficult to enact signs were less easily acquired than those easier to enact. Implications of these fingings for therapeutic intervention with low-functioning autustic children are discussed
Ratings of Sign Translucency & Gloss Concreteness of Two Grammatical Classes of Signs
Authors: Luftig Richard L. , Lloyd Lyle L. , Page Judith L.
Published: October 2013

Three hundred eighty sign/glosses of two grammatical word classes were rated for sign translucency and were compared to referent ratings made earlier on concreteness. The ratings revealed that verbs were rated significantly more translucent than nouns but less concrete than nouns. In terms of differences in concreteness and translucency within sign/glosses, verbs tended to be rated similarly for both variables, while individual nouns were rated higher in concreteness. Analysis of the rating categories for nouns and verbs indicated that the lower the rated translucency level of nouns and verbs, the greater the probability of differences between translucency and concreteness ratings. For levels of concreteness, differences in ratings between concreteness and translucency were greater for high concrete and low concrete words than for words of intermediate concreteness. Implications for teaching of signing to language-impaired individuals are discussed.
Looking Beyond Signed English to Describe the Language of Two Deaf Children
Authors: Suty Karen A. , Friel-Patti Sandy
Published: October 2013

Available research suggesting severe delays in the language acquisition of deaf children has not often considered that the delay may be specific to the English language and not representative of the child's actual linguistic competence. Though systems of manually coded English intend to represent English visually, English is an auditory-vocal language. Deaf children exposed to English through spatial-gestural signals may employ the modality in a different manner than that presupposed by makers of the manual codes. This case study of two deaf children presents preliminary support for such a supposition. The children were administered a standardized test of English competence and were asked to tell a story from pictures. For comparison a hearing child of the same age was asked to perform the latter task also. The form and nature of the deaf children's language in story telling was compared to those of the hearing child's and to their own responses in the test of English competence. Evidence was found that the deaf children modified the nature of some of the manual signs for English morphemes in a systematic way, suggesting a linguistic competence that is more commensurate with their cognitive age.
Effects of Manual Sign Use on the Expressive Language of Four Hearing Kindergarten Children
Authors: deViveiros Christy E. , McLaughlin T. F.
Published: October 2013

Four hearing kindergarten children were taught manual signs translating adjectives and adverbs to see if their use of descriptive words with common nouns could thus be increased. The effects of the sign use program were examined in multiple baseline pre/post-test design with repeated measures. The results indicated that the frequency of their use of English adjectives and adverbs increased after the manual sign teaching. Adults familiar with the children indicated an increase in the children's language development at the conclusion of the study. Practical application of the technique used for enhancing language development is described.
Typing on the Phone: How the Deaf Accomplish TTY Conversations
Authors: Nash Jeffrey E. , Nash Anedith
Published: October 2013

Transcriptions from teletypewriter conversations are described and analyzed as supplemental to the pre-existing social organization of the deaf community. The features of TTY conversations include patterned “errors,” openings and closings, and compensatory devices (for the limitations imposed by the system). Within these features such phenomena as typing-through, short-cutting, and using pidgin (or Sign-influenced) English are identified. A remarkable range of meaningful and genuinely personal exchanges is accomplished by TTY users. Several relationships among the characteristics of TTY users and the features of their conversations are depicted and related to symbolic interactionist literature.
Train-Gone-Sorry: The Etiquette of Social Conversations in American Sign Language
Authors: Hall Stephanie
Published: October 2013

Deaf Americans using American Sign Language (ASL) often experience conflict with hearing Americans because of differing conventions of polite conversation. The ethnography of communication (Hymes 1964) is used here to discover the conventions of politeness in a Deaf social club, where polite language is related to contrasting attitudes toward ASL and signing that imitates English syntax. Polite conversation is outlined in detail, including saying hello, turning one's back, ensuring comprehension, taking a person's hands, sharing information, and saying goodbye. The pattern of the conversations is examined to demonstrate how it differs from the conversational patterns of English speaking, hearing Americans. Conversations in ASL begin informally, get to the point quickly, then conclude formally and slowly. Conversely, conversations among hearing Americans are apt to begin formally and slowly and conclude informally and quickly. From these results two of the underlying social attitudes that give rise to the conventions of politeness in ASL are inferred: one should facilitate communication and one should promote unity among the Deaf.
Adaptation of the Language Proficiency Interview (LPI) for Assessing Sign Communicative Competence
Authors: Newell William , Caccamise Frank , Boardman Keitha , Holcomb Barbara Ray
Published: October 2013

The LPI, a test for assessing communicative competence in a foreign or second language has been adapted for use as a Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI). 1 Discussion covers (a) an SCPI Rating Scale, (b) linguistic and cultural factors important for sign communicative competence, and (c) skills in communicating simultaneously in signing and speaking.
Sign Language Conversational Interaction Between Chimpanzees
Authors: Fouts Roger S. , Fouts Deborah H. , Schoenfeld Donna
Published: October 2013

Signing between chimpanzees was systematically sampled. Four of the five chimpanzees in this group had had 4–7 years of complete immersion in American Sign Language (ASL) when they were being home reared (Gardner & Gardner 1971:125–127). It was found that the chimpanzees signed to each other, integrating their signing interaction into their nonverbal communication. Eighty-eight per cent of all signs reported fell into the social categories of reassurance, social interaction, and play.
Sign Boundaries in American Sign Language
Authors: Green Kerry
Published: October 2013

Two experiments addressed these questions: Do deaf signers agree on the location of sign boundaries in American Sign Language? and Where in time are the boundaries located? First 35 ASL sign sequences were edited out of sentence contexts and slowed to 1/10 normal speed. Six deaf observers judged the beginning and ending of a test sign in each videotaped sequence. The observers agreed on the location of sign boundaries and relied on changes in facial expression, hand configuration, or manual movement differences as visual cues for the boundaries. Second, hearing subjects judged the same videotape sequences. Comparing results indicated that the deaf subjects were using linguistic knowledge of ASL and not a general perceptual strategy when making judgments of the location of sign boundaries.
Second System Code Shifting in a Hearing Two-Year Old
Authors: Luetke-Stahlman Barbara
Published: October 2013

Breeze, a hearing child, 28 months old, of hearing parents, who had some acquaintance with signing but did not sign at home, was taped in play and lunch sessions with a 46 month old hearing child and her deaf mother, both of whom signed. I examined the tapes to find whether the communicative behavior would show code shifting, other second-language learning behaviors, or both in Breeze's utterances. I found that a change in communication did occur within a relatively short time and that this code shifting was influenced more by motivational variables and Breeze’s own flexibility with language than by the linguistic features of sign.
The Acquisition of Content from a Signed Lecture
Authors: Kluwin Thomas N.
Published: October 2013

Little attention has been paid to the processing of expository prose such as teachers’ lectures in sign language. Recent work in psycholinguistics leads to the hypothesis that the degree of structure retained by deaf viewers will not be linearly related to the volume and complexity of the material retained by the viewer. Sixteen deaf adolescents were shown a ten minute videotaped lecture and interviewed about its contents. Results indicate that the group which retained the most knowledge of the structure of the material was best able to recall the content of the lecture. The moderate and low groups on structure recall were considerably less able to retain the content.
Sign Language in the Production & Appreciation of Humor by Deaf Children
Authors: Sanders Danielle M.
Published: October 2013

This study analyzed and described humor produced by deaf children and humor they appreciated. It examined the relationship between humor and the hearing status of parents, which in turn appeared to influence the subjects’ signing ability. Of particular interest was the difference found between children of deaf parents and of deaf parents in verbal understanding and expression.
The Spreading Hand Autosegment of American Sign Language
Authors: Sandler Wendy
Published: October 2013

The Hand Tier (HT) model presented here can account for sign language sign structure by showing hand configuration associating with location and movement on the segmental tier. This model preserves the structural and functional importance of location, movement, and hand configuration, and reveals special properties of the hand tier, which spreads across signs according to its own timetable. Structural relationships among signs in the lexicon, as well as productive phonological and morphological rules, provide evidence that this model can account for surface data in a way that reveals key information about the core of ASL structure.
Linguistic Analysis of Changes in Interpreting: 1973–1985
Authors: Rudser Steven Fritsch
Published: October 2013

Here are assessed the outputs of two sign language interpreters. Both were recorded interpreting and transliterating two spoken English texts in 1973, as part of an investigation of interpreter competence. They were then recorded interpreting the same material again in 1985. Comparison is made between the earlier and later each interpretations of each interpreter, and their interpretations are analyzed for the degree to which they use American Sign Language.
The Effects of Lag Time on Interpreter Errors
Authors: Cokely Dennis
Published: October 2013

A popular but naive notion that sign language interpreters should strive for perfect temporal synchrony with the source message has persisted for a long time. This study provides evidence that imposing such a constraint or expectation upon interpreters results in inaccurate interpretation and an increase in interpreter errors or miscues. An analysis and count of miscues in actual interpreter performances has been compared with interpreters’ lag time (i.e. the time between delivery of the original message and delivery of the interpreted message). The result shows an inverse relationship between the amount of lag time and the number of interpreter errors. This relationship has serious implications for interpreter educational programs, interpreter assessment programs, and programs intended to make consumers aware of interpreting’s limitations.
The Effect of Visual Metaphor Cueing on Recall of Phonologically Similar Signs
Authors: Fuller Donald R. , Wilbur Ronnie B.
Published: October 2013

Sign-naive adults recall newly learned manual signs better if they are grouped by semantic similarity than if by phonological similarity (Mills & Weldon 1983). A paired-associates experiment was devised in which cues to the visual metaphor behind the signs were presented to see if subjects would then recall phonologically grouped signs better. In three test trials 36 hearing subjects recalled semantically grouped signs significantly better than phonologically grouped signs, whether cues were given for the latter or not. Although there was no significant difference, there was a slight improvement in recall for the visually cued over the uncued phonologically grouped signs.
Using Mnemonic Explanations to Improve Sign Lexicon Learning With Children & Young Adults
Authors: Stedt Joe D. , Salvia John , Nelson Keith E.
Published: October 2013

One hundred two naive subjects in three age groups were trained and tested on recalling the meanings (English glosses) of 32 ASL nouns and 32 ASL verbs arranged in 32 sentences. Half the signs were highly translucent; i.e. connection between the sign’s meaning and appearance was easily perceptible. Half the sentences were presented with a mnemonic explanation; e.g. “The sign for cow shows the cow horn.” Test responses were spoken translations of the sentences seen. Subjects did significantly better on signs of high translucency and signs learned with mnemonic explanations; but contrary to expectation, the fifth graders did better than both the second and the eleventh graders.
Hands and Faces: A Preliminary Inventory for Written ASL
Authors: McIntire Marina , Newkirk Don , Hutchins Sandra , Poizner Howard
Published: October 2013

American Sign Language (ASL) can be characterized as a face-to-face language; much like other face-to-face languages in Africa and the Americas, ASL has not had a written form. We discuss some characteristics of writing systems, the advantages of writing for a community, and the differences between linguistic transcription and writing for daily use. The remainder of the paper focuses on two aspects of ASL-- handshapes and nonmanual behaviors--that need to be accounted for in any writing system. We discuss the process of selection and classification of items to be represented in a writing system for ASL.
Testing New Signs for Teaching Biology
Authors: Rasmus Brian A. , Allen Donald M.
Published: October 2013

Signs emphasizing meaning and concept were designed for various technical terms used in teaching biology. Videotape presentations of these signs were reviewed independently by three deaf ASL linguists; their responses guided the development of the final form used for each sign. The new signs were then evaluated in comparison with fingerspelling of the technical terms during presentation of four topic areas to deaf biology students. Pre-tests, post-tests, and retention tests were used to examine whether the use of new signs for technical terms aids in learning and recalling scientific concepts. Videotapes of classroom sessions were reviewed to assess student response to the new signs, questionnaires being used to collect opinions on the use of the new signs. Though preliminary, the results suggest that technical signs faithful to the grammar of ASL should improve the deaf student’s ability to participate in discussions of scientific subjects.
Early Letter Recognition, Letter Naming, and Reading Skills in a Signing and Speaking Child
Authors: Bonvillian John D. , Cate Samuel N. , Weber William R. , Folven Raymond J.
Published: October 2013

This study consists of a longitudinal investigation of a young child’s acquisition of language and language-related skills in two modalities. The child, the hearing daughter of a deaf father and hearing mother, showed accelerated language development in both sign and speech. Moreover, she learned how to form the letters of the manual alphabet and to recognize and name alphabetic characters at a very young age. By her second birthday this child demonstrated the ability to identify all the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lower case form, as well as to print several letters unassisted. A few months later she was able to spell and recognize a number of words. Administration of several reading readiness tests at this time revealed quite advanced development for her age.
Classroom Use of Artificial Sign Systems by Teachers
Authors: Woodward James , Allen Thomas
Published: October 2013

In 1985 the Center for Assessment and Demographic Studies at Gallaudet sent a questionnaire asking about classroom communication practices to teachers of more than 4,500 hearing-impaired students, selected at random from a data base of more than 50,000. An earlier paper (SLS 54) focused on teachers who claimed to use American Sign Language as their preferred medium of classroom instruction. Here we focus on the teachers who reported that they use an artificial sign system for representing English. Thirty-nine percent of all teachers surveyed and 59.1% of signing teachers reported that they used an artificial sign system in the classroom. However, a series of questions asking about specific communication behavior demonstrated that only 8.1% of all teachers, and 12.3% of signing teachers may actually be using one of these systems. (Certain information on data collection and analysis has been repeated here for readers who may not have access to the earlier report.)
Nonmanual Behaviors in L 1 & L 2 Learners of American Sign Language
Authors: McIntire Marina L. , Reilly Judy Snitzer
Published: October 2013

When researchers investigate “transfer” in second language acquisition, they are often referring to the role that first language (L 1 ) structures play in second language (L 2 ) acquisition. Here we expand the discussion and look at transfer from another point of view, focusing on possible transfer of affective and communicative behaviors by both L 1 and L 2 learners, especially in facial behaviors. In ASL, facial expression functions in two distinct ways: to convey emotion as it does in spoken language, and to mark certain specific grammatical structures (e.g. topics, conditionals, relative clauses). Research on affective development suggests that specific facial expressions for emotion are universal, that children consistently use facial expression to convey emotional states by the end of their first year, and that deaf children begin to acquire the grammatical facial behaviors of ASL at about two years of age. The dual use in ASL of similar facial behaviors, to signal structure and emotion, presents a unique opportunity to explore the boundaries and interactions of two communicative systems: language and affect.
Beyond Grammar: Developing Stylistic Variation When the Input is Diverse
Authors: Mounty Judith L.
Published: October 2013

Using Andersen’s “nativization hypothesis” and the dictum that full competence demands mastery of stylistic variation as well as grammar, the author examines two features of ASL, productive verbs and (spatial) agreement, in the signing of two deaf children of hearing parents at two ages and with differing communicative partners. Compared with each other and with deaf pears who had Deaf parents in an earlier study, the subjects were markedly different in their developmental trends. At the time of the second assessment, their grammatical development converged, but they displayed differences in ability to suit their sign language to the kind of person (peer/adult; deaf/hearing) addressed. Family attitudes and signing practices are considered as causative.
Language Acquisition in Two Modalities: The Role of Nonlinguistic Cues in Linguistic Mastery
Authors: Jackson Catherine A.
Published: October 2013

Acquisition of both American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English by a hearing child of deaf parents was studied to determine whether two unique properties of the signed language would facilitate acquisition of grammar. Neither the transparency of reference in person deictics (signed personal pronouns) nor the isomorphism of signs with communicative gesture found in the nonmanual ASL marker “neg” facilitated acquisition, suggesting that children’s acquisition of grammar is relatively unaffected by the kinds of nonlinguistic cues studied here.
How Deaf Children in a Chinese School Get their Name Signs
Authors: Yau Shun-chiu , He Jingxian
Published: October 2013

The minimal age for enrollment in a school for the deaf in China is eight, but often deaf children do not attend until they are nine or older. They arrive with only a written name that they can neither write nor pronounce. At the school in Guangzhou (Canton), we found that the monitors in the dormitory assigned sign names to all but one of the incoming children during their first week. We trace the development of the name signs of each of the twentyone new resident pupils within the first month of their arrival at school, identify the initiators, discuss the nature of these name signs, and analyze their linguistic structure.
Basic Color Term Lexicalization across Sign Languages
Authors: Woodward James
Published: October 2013

Examination of the lexicalization of basic color terms in 10 different sign languages from 7 different sign language groups suggests that for naming colors sign languages follow universal patterns not dependent upon the channel of language expression and reception.
Duality of Patterning in Signed & Spoken Language: A Psychological Perspective
Authors: List Gudula
Published: October 2013

Duality of patterning is a linguistic principle used as a primary criterion for determining if a system is a language. It notes that the smallest meaning-carrying units are made up of meaningless smaller units. Considered psycholinguistically and neurologically, duality may be found in the processes that facilitate language acquisition, which requires at the same time a language environment accessible to the acquirer’s senses with dual feedback: kinesthetic, from the performing muscles, and auditory or visual, from the language-receiving sense.
Written & Unwritten Records from a Residential School for the Deaf in Rome
Authors: Pinna Paola , Rampelli Laura , Rossini Paolo , Volterra Virginia
Published: October 2013

The history of the first school for the Deaf, founded 1784 in Rome by Abbot Tommaso Silvestri, a disciple of Abbé de I’Épée, has been reconstructed from writings by the founder and his successors that still exist in the school’s library and archives, and through memories collected from deaf people who attended the school at different periods-in particular through the history of three generations of the same family all attending the school. “Official” written history and “collective memories” of older generations of deaf people are contrasted.
A Linguistic Analysis of the Negative Headshake in American Sign Language
Authors: Veinberg Silvana C. , Wilbur Ronnie B.
Published: October 2013

We explored negative headshakes (NH) used by two native signers of ASL, using videotaped conversation and sentences constructed to elicit negative signalling, and found that NH: (1) are used syntactically to indicate negation, (2) may be accompanied by other nonmanual behaviors (which without the NH may signal negation), (3) may accompany a negative lexical item (but no negative sign was found to require a headshake), (4) and synchronize generally with syntactic constituents.
Exploration of Factors Affecting Attitudes Towards Sign Language
Authors: Weisel Amatzia , Dromi Esther , Dor Sara
Published: October 2013

Forty-two hearing mothers of elementary school age deaf children who have additional handicapping conditions responded to a questionnaire we devised to measure cognitive, emotional, and behavioral attitudes toward sign language (ATSL). Their answers were correlated with measures of the child’s, mother’s, and family’s characteristics. The results showed that more positive ATSL were associated with higher socioeconomic status and with more realistic perceptions of the child’s condition. Mothers who perceived their child’s condition as more severe (regardless of its objective severity) but who were less pessimistic about the child’s future held better attitudes. Mothers who had a stronger sense of coherence expressed more positive cognitive attitudes. Mothers from families that were more generally expressive and active tended to hold more positive attitudes. These results support the notion that ATSL are related to the acceptance of the child’s hearing loss and its severity. Educational implications of the results are discussed.
Simultaneous Communication: A Description by Deaf Professionals Working in an Educational Setting
Authors: Newell William , Stinson Michael , Castle Diane , Mallery-Ruganis Dominique , Holcomb Barbara Ray
Published: October 2013

Simultaneous communication (SC) was analyzed from the perspective of 36 professionals who are deaf and working in a post-secondary program for deaf students. A focus group methodology was used to generate discussion regarding features of effective SC. Comments generated during discussions were grouped into the following categories: (a) expressive sign production features, (b) body language and facial expression, (c) oral/aural and simultaneous features, (d) relationship of English and ASL, (e) communication strategies, and (f) the affective domain. In the hands of an experienced practitioner, SC involves the effective combination of aspects of both ASL and English. Deaf professionals in this study indicated that SC, when utilized by an experienced communicator and when “grounded” in effective signing can be an effective medium for communication.
Categorical Coding of Manual & English Alphabet Characters by Beginning Students of American Sign Language
Authors: Hoemann Harry W. , Koenig Teresa J.
Published: October 2013

Beginning students from a class in ASL, who had only recently learned the manual alphabet, were presented a task in which proactive interference (PI) would build up rapidly on successive trials. On the subjects’ last trial the experimental stimuli were switched from Manual Alphabet to English Alphabet, or vice versa. The results support the view of Kolers that different languages have separate memory stores. This conclusion can be generalized even to a very recently acquired second language. A covert translating hypothesis, one that attempts to predict the direction of an asymmetrical release from PI, was not supported by the data.
Spatial Referencing and Cohesion in an American Sign Language Text
Authors: Winston Elizabeth A.
Published: October 2013

Spatial referencing in ASL functions at both the lexical and the discourse levels. In discourse, it can be used by a signer to produce cohesion in comparisons, performatives, and time mapping. This article examines the occurrence and function of spatial referencing in an ASL text as it produces cohesion.
Infant Discrimination of Gestural Classes: Perceptual Precursors of ASL Acquisition
Authors: Schley Sara
Published: October 2013

This research investigates the ability of 3.5-month-old hearing infants to discriminate between classes of gestures in American Sign Language (ASL). Perceptually, the classes differ in underlying movement dimensions, as reflected in adult similarity judgments (Poizner 1981 1983). Linguistically, the classes are used to mark different inflectional categories in ASL. Using a habituation-recovery paradigm, 36 infants were habituated to three tokens from one class. After reaching criterion, infants were presented with two new tokens: one a new member of the habituation set, the other a member of the previously unseen gestural class. Infants showed greater recovery to the new token from the unfamiliar class than they did to the new token from the familiar class. These results demonstrate that infant abilities to distinguish between classes of gestures parallel adult perceptual abilities as reflected in similarity ratings. They also indicate that, at four months, infants possess the prerequisite ability to classify gestures based on variations in movement in ways that correspond to inflectional distinctions in ASL.