Mouth actions in sign languages have been controversially discussed but the sociolinguistic factors determining their form and functions remain uncertain. This first empirical analysis of mouth actions in Irish Sign Language focuses on correlations with gender, age, and word class. It contributes to the linguistic description of ISL, research into non-manuals in sign languages, and is relevant for the cross-modal study of word classes.

Mouth actions in sign languages have been controversially discussed but the sociolinguistic factors determining their form and functions remain uncertain. This first empirical analysis of mouth actions in Irish Sign Language focuses on correlations with gender, age, and word class. It contributes to the linguistic description of ISL, research into non-manuals in sign languages, and is relevant for the cross-modal study of word classes.

This book is one of the first references of linguistic research of sign languages in East Asia (including China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong). The book includes the basic descriptions of aspects of Chinese (Shanghai, Tianjin) sign language, Hong Kong Sign Language, Japanese Sign Language, Korean Sign Language, Taiwanese Sign Language, and Tibetan Sign Language. Table of contents Introduction Kazumi Matsuoka, Onno Crasborn and Marie Coppola Part 1: Manuals: Numerals, classifiers, modal verbs Historical relationships between numeral signs in Japanese Sign Language, South Korean Sign Language and Taiwan Sign Language Keiko Sagara Phonological processes in complex word formation in Shanghai Sign Language Shengyun Gu Classifiers and gender in Korean Sign Language Ki-Hyun Nam and Kang-Suk Byu Causative alternation in Tianjin Sign Language Jia He and Gladys Tan Epistemic modal verbs and negation in Japanese Sign Language Kazumi Matsuoka, Uiko Yano and Kazumi Maegawa Part 2: Non-manuals and space The Korean Sign Language (KSL) corpus and its first application on a study about mouth actions Sung-Eun Hong, Seong Ok Won, Hyunhwa Lee, Kang-Suk Byun and Eun-Young Lee Negative polar questions in Hong Kong Sign Language Felix Sze and Helen Le Analyzing head nod expressions by L2 learners of Japanese Sign Language: A comparison with native Japanese Sign Language signers Natsuko Shimotani Composite utterances in Taiwan Sign Language Shiou-fen Su Time and timelines in Tibetan Sign Language (TSL) interactions in Lhasa Theresia Hofer

This grammar of Kenyan Sign Language (KSL) phonology adds to a sparse literature on the units of categorical form in the world’s sign languages. At the same time, it brings descriptive and theoretical research on sign language phonology into better alignment by systematically evaluating current models of sign language phonology for each of the main parameters – handshape, location, and movement – against the KSL data. This grammar also makes a methodological contribution by using a unique dataset of KSL minimal pairs in the analysis, demonstrating that minimal pairs are not as infrequent in sign languages as previously thought. The main content of the book is found in five chapters on handshape, location, core articulatory movement, manner of movement, and other distinctive features (e.g., orientation, mouth actions). The book also contains two large appendices that document the phonological evidence for each of the 44 handshapes and 37 locations. This book will be a key reference for descriptive and typological studies of sign phonology, as well as a helpful resource for linguists interested in understanding the similarities and differences between current models of sign phonology and identifying promising avenues for future research.

This volume represents the first time that researchers on signed language and gesture have come together with a coherent focus under the framework of cognitive linguistics. The pioneering work of Sherman Wilcox is highlighted throughout, scaffolding much of the research of these contributors. The five sections of the volume reflect critical areas of Dr. Wilcoxs own research in cognitive linguistics: Guiding research principles in signed language, gesture, and cognitive linguistics, iconicity across signed and spoken linguistics, multimodality, blending, depiction and metaphor in signed languages, and specific grammatical constructions as form-meaning pairings. The authors of this volume exemplify and continue Dr. Wilcoxs work of bridging signed and spoken language disciplines by contributing chapters that represent a multiplicity of perspectives on signed, spoken, and gesture data. This volume presents a unified collection of cognitive linguistics research by leading authors that will be of interest to readers in the fields of signed and spoken language linguistics, gesture studies, and general linguistics.

Applying the framework of the Prosodic Model to naturalistic data, this book presents a systematic study of the phonological structure of Shanghai Sign Language (SHSL). It examines the handshape inventory of SHSL in terms of its underlying featural specifications, phonetic realization and phonological processes such as assimilation, epenthesis, deletion, coalescence, non-dominant hand spread and weak drop. The authors define the role of the prosodic hierarchy in SHSL and analyze the linguistic functions of non-manual markers. This systematic investigation not only contributes to our understanding of SHSL itself, but also informs typological research on sign languages in the world.