Examines the role played by relative clauses in American Sign Language. (FL)

Examines whether specific characteristics of American Sign Language (ASL) syntax affect perceptual processing of the language. Findings support the psychological reality of sentence embedding processes in ASL, further supporting the claim that visually based languages achieve the same functional goals as speech, although with different means. (FL)

Describes discourse development in the sign language of 24 profoundly deaf children. Findings indicate children were acquiring appropriate discourse strategies comparable to those used by hearing children in spoken conversations and adult deaf signers. (DF)

Examines the nature of American Sign Language, indicates its intricate morphological structure, and demonstrates one experimental way of uncovering and validating this structure. (FL)

Examines the narrative story structure of a short American Sign Language narrative using stylistic analysis plus the structure of pausing in the narrative. (FL)

Examines whether, and how, deaf adults adjust their nonvocal communicative behavior when facing one of three audience types: hearing adults who have learned a signed language, deaf adults who use a signed languageand deaf children of deaf parents. (FL)

Uses techniques of the study of conversational analysis in oral language in the study of American Sign Language conversations, and concludes that such conversations are structured in ways that parallel those of spoken language. (FL)

Concludes that differences exist in the classroom behavior of some deaf and some hearing teachers and that what defines the successful teacher is task persistence and clarity. (FL)