Twenty master Sign Language interpreters transliterated monologue containing normal speech pausing and then transliterated same passage with inappropriate pausing and reduced intonation. When transliterating, interpreters render source message pauses with visible signals. Interpreters render different kinds of auditory pauses with different kinds…

Explores the role and status of hearing people within the Deaf community, in particular sign language interpreters. Indicates that hearing people and sign language interpreters in particular can become members of the Deaf community. (Author/VWL)

Reports the results of a demographic survey of 160 interpreters. The following categories were used: (1) personal characteristics, (2) family background, (3) educational background, (4) spoken language background, (5) sign language background, (6) contact with deaf community, (7) interpreting background, (8) interpreting experience, (9)…

This study documented prevalent signs used during the interpreting process, specifically related to negation in tactile American Sign Language (TASL). Focused on ASL to TASL only.(Author/VWL)

This paper attempts to outline some of the more obvious implications of the knowledge of a semantically related class of signs, signs relating to sexual behavior, for descriptive and theoretical sociolinguistic and anthropological studies and for applied research in the areas of language and education, medicine, and the law. (Author/CFM)

Describes the Albuquerque (New Mexico) public school system interpreter service for hearing-impaired students, focusing on costs and benefits, the University of New Mexico's program in sign language interpreting, interpreter evaluation, language policy, and interpreter credentials. (CB)

Describes an instrument for objective assessment of sign language interpreters, which used videotapes to assess the accuracy of interpreted output. It categorizes the kinds of modifications made in response to cultural factors, estimates the degree of American Sign Language or English use, and records fingerspelling influence. (Author/SED)

When hearing raters subjectively evaluated the signed and spoken output of 25 sign language interpreters, rater agreement was between 0.52-0.86; the correlation between subjective and objective evaluation was between 0.59-0.79. Raters were unsuccessful in identifying which interpreters had deaf parents. (CB)

A study of 30 sign language interpreters (N=30) attempted to isolate cognitive, perceptual, psychomotor, and affective factors predictive of effective interpretive skills. Analysis revealed that family background (hearing or deaf family members) significantly affected certain personality traits and interpretive skills. (Author/CB)

The performance of two sign language interpreters in interpreting and transliterating two English texts in 1973 and again in 1985 was analyzed. Both interpreters significantly increased their use of four linguistic features of American Sign Language: classifiers; rhetorical questions; noun-adjective word order; and nonmanual negation. (Author/CB)