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6 - Sign languages

from Part I - Foundations of sociolinguistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Robert Bayley  and
Ceil Lucas
Edited by
Rajend Mesthrie
Rajend Mesthrie
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
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Summary

The sociolinguistics of sign languages includes the study of regional and social variation, bi- and multilingualism and language contact phenomena, language attitudes, discourse analysis, and language policy and planning. Sign languages exhibit both regional and social variation. Phonological variation can be seen in the production of the component parts of signs such as handshape, location, palm orientation, number of articulators, non-manual signals, and segmental structure. Deaf communities contain examples of many types of bilingualism. The most crucial language attitudes are those that pertain to the very status of sign languages as viable linguistic systems. The discourse of natural sign languages is structured and subject to sociolinguistic description, and there are as many discourse genres in sign languages: conversations, narratives, lectures, sermons. The legal recognition of sign languages has increased in many countries and the use of sign languages has expanded in many domains.
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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Sociolinguistics , pp. 83 - 102
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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