Reiterative code-switching, when one lexical item from one language is produced immediately after a semantically equivalent lexical item in another language, is a frequent phenomenon in studies of language contact. Several spoken language studies suggest that reiteration functions as a form of accommodation, amplification (emphasis),…

Situations of language contact are often the norm for sign languages. This article investigates a case of unimodal contact between Cena, a young sign language in its third generation that is used in a small rural community in Brazil, and Libras, the national sign language of Brazil. Our analysis concerns one by-product of this contact: reiterative…

Maritime Sign Language (MSL) is a Canadian, minority sign language that originally stems from British Sign Language (BSL). Currently used by elderly Deaf people in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland (and Labrador), it is a moribund language, having undergone language shift to American Sign Language (ASL). MSL is…

Recent research has shown that a distinct variety of American Sign Language, known as Black ASL, developed in the segregated schools for deaf African Americans in the US South during the pre-civil rights era. Research has also shown that in some respects Black ASL is closer than most white varieties to the standard taught in ASL classes and found…

Minimal expressions are at the heart of interaction: Interjections like "Huh?" and "Mhm" keep conversations flowing by establishing and reinforcing intersubjectivity among interlocutors. Crosslinguistic research has identified that similar interactional pressures can yield structurally similar words (e.g., to initiate repair…

Research on translanguaging practices of Deaf people have shown their creative multimodal resources to communicate (Kusters 2017; Holmström and Schönström 2017; Moriarty Harrelson 2017). These findings have enlightened disciplines like sociolinguistics and bilingual education and can be equally important for policy makers who make decisions that…

International Sign (IS) and American Sign Language (ASL) have both been used as lingua francas within international deaf contexts. Perspectives on the uses of IS and ASL as lingua francas in such contexts are connected to discourses pertaining to the form, function, status, value, languageness, and global reach of IS and ASL. While there are some…

This study examined the extended discourse used by two Deaf parents with their two Deaf children (ages two and four). The study was conducted using an in-depth examination of parental expressive use of American Sign Language, looking at the use of discourse and the features and contexts that offered the most opportunity for rich language…

This article explores current creative practices involving the representation of sign languages, sign language interpreting, sign language translation (Napier and Leeson 2016; HBB4ALL 2017; CNLSE 2017; Tamayo 2022), and sign language live translation (Tamayo 2022) in audiovisual content. To that end, a review of the concept "creative sign…

The focus of this article is on deafblind people who are or have been involved with deaf signing communities and, when vision changes, transition to tactile reception of sign language. This brings about a disconnection with the signing community, exploration of (other) possibilities, and seeking or creating deaf blind spaces. In the United States,…

This article explores turn-taking in Japanese Sign Language ( JSL) by using Baker's (1977) framework. JSL as a language is wholly unrelated to American Sign Language (ASL), but because Baker and other discourse analysts have always been concerned mostly with ASL and European sign languages, it remains to be seen if Asian sign languages such as JSL…

Research interest in heritage speakers and their patterns of bilingual development has grown substantially over the last decade, prompting sign language researchers to consider how the concepts of heritage language and heritage speakers apply in the Deaf community. This overview builds on previous proposals that ASL [American Sign Language] and…

A "heritage language" is defined as a minority language that differs from the dominant language used in a particular community. Codas (children of Deaf adults) who sign but may be dominant in the spoken language of their community present an interesting case due to the added difference of a spoken/signed modality in their linguistic…

A number of language acquisition patterns have been identified in the signing of a newly designated population of bimodal bilingual individuals--"heritage signers." This article examines subject-referent tracking forms in the ASL (American Sign Language) narratives of six elementary-school-aged, native-signing, bimodal bilinguals made at…

Despite the upward trajectory of formal American Sign Language (ASL) instruction, evidence-based practices remain in a rudimentary stage of development. Previously, no known studies had distinctly investigated supplemental ASL laboratories (ASL labs), despite over half of ASL instructors utilizing them alongside their classes. This qualitative…