Nonsigners viewing sign language are sometimes able to guess the meaning of signs by relying on the overt connection between form and meaning, or iconicity (cf. Ortega, Özyürek, & Peeters, 2020; Strickland et al., 2015). One word class in sign languages that appears to be highly iconic is classifiers: verb-like signs that can refer to location…

Acquisition of natural language has been shown to fundamentally impact both one's ability to use the first language and the ability to learn subsequent languages later in life. Sign languages offer a unique perspective on this issue because Deaf signers receive access to signed input at varying ages. The majority acquires sign language in (early)…

This article presents an experimental investigation of kinematics of verb sign production in American Sign Language (ASL) using motion capture data. The results confirm that event structure differences in the meaning of the verbs are reflected in the kinematic formation: for example, in the telic verbs (throw, hit), the end-point of the event is…

There has been a scarcity of studies exploring the influence of students' American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency on their academic achievement in ASL/English bilingual programs. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of ASL proficiency on reading comprehension skills and academic achievement of 85 deaf or hard-of-hearing signing…

Presents a list of classifiers in American Sign Language and describes a study of their semantic characteristics. Classifiers are defined as certain hand shapes in particular orientations that stand for certain semantic features of noun arguments and which may substitute for particular nouns in various semantic environments, thereby functioning as…

This paper focuses upon the deaf as an American Sign Language-using community, out of the English-using mainstream. (RC)

Examination of two native American Sign Language signers' use of negative headshakes found that negative headshakes (1) were used syntactically to indicate negation; (2) could be accompanied by other nonmanual behaviors; (3) could accompany a negative lexical item; and (4) were synchronized generally with syntactic constituents. (Author/CB)

The author offers support for viewing the deaf child as a member of a linguistic minority and considers how this situation affects education of the deaf. Deaf persons are discussed in terms of their intellectual abilities, educational achievement, English competence, and the sociolinguistic factors which point to the existence of a deaf community.…