Deaf Around the World: The Impact of Language

417 Pages·2010·3.19 MB·English

by  Gaurav Mathur

Deaf around the World
This page intentionally left blank
Deaf around the World
The Impact of Language

EDITED BY
Gaurav Mathur
Donna Jo Napoli

2011
Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further
Oxford University’s objective of excellence
in research, scholarship, and education.
Oxford New York
Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi
New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
With offi ces in
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
Copyright © 2011 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Deaf around the world: the impact of language / edited by
Gaurav Mathur and Donna Jo Napoli.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-973254-8; 978-0-19-973253-1 (pbk.)
1. Sign language. 2. Deaf—Means of communication.
I. Mathur, Gaurav. II. Napoli, Donna Jo, 1948–
HV2474.D43 2010
419—dc22 2009052404
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Acknowledgments
T he editors thank Leah Geer for help on proofi ng and formatting the entire
manuscript and Dorothy Kuntz for help in technical matters. We thank the
William J. Cooper Foundation of Swarthmore College for fi nancial support of
the eponymous conference held in spring 2008.
Within their chapters, the authors of the individual contributions to this
volume acknowledge those who have helped them. Here we repeat acknowl-
edgments only for reproduction permissions and aid with fi gures.
For chapter 1, we thank Meir Etedgi for illustrating fi gure 1.2.
For the response to chapter 4, we thank Connie de Vos for permission to
print fi gure 4R.3, for which she owns the copyright.
For chapter 6, we thank Owen P. Wrigley and the National Association of
the Deaf in Thailand for permission to reprint the material in fi gure 6.14,
which is from The Thai Sign Language Dictionary (revised and expanded edi-
tion), edited by Manfa Suwanarat, Anucha Ratanasint, Vilaiporn Rungsrithong,
Lloyd Anderson, and Owen P. Wrigley and published by the National Associa-
tion of the Deaf in Thailand. In addition, for help in so many ways in procur-
ing that permission, we thank Chip Reilly.
F or the response to chapter 6 we thank Ishara Press for permission to
reprint fi gure 6R.1 from Dikyuva and Zeshan’s (2008) T ürk İşaret Dili, Birinci
Düzey [Turkish Sign Language, Level One], published in Nijmegen, and from
Lutalo-Kiingi’s (2008) Possessive Forms and Structures in Ugandan Sign
Language, in Possessive and Existential Constructions in Sign Languages, Sign
Language Typology Series no. 2, edited by Ulrike Zeshan and Pamela Perniss,
105–124, also published in Nijmegen.
For chapter 9, we thank Douglas McLean and Forest Books for permission
to print data from Maryland in table 9.1.
F or the response to chapter 9, we thank Busisiwe Kheswa for taking the
photos in fi gures 9R1–9R3 and John Meletse and Paul Mokgethi for serving as
the models in these photos.
Chapter 10 builds on Karen Nakamura’s 2006 article “Creating and Contest-
ing Signs in Contemporary Japan: Language Ideologies, Identity, and Commu-
nity in Flux” in Sign Language Studies 7(1): 11–29. We thank Gallaudet University
Press and Project Muse for permission to reprint major parts of that article.
vi Acknowledgments
For chapter 11 we thank Wang Ke’nan, principal of Beijing no. 2 School for
the Deaf, for permission to use the school gate photo in fi gure 11.1.
For chapter 12 we thank Gallaudet University Press for permission to
reprint the cartoons in fi gures 12.1–12.5 from Deaf Culture, Our Way: Anec-
dotes from the Deaf community, edited by Roy K. Holcomb, Samuel K. Holcomb,
and Thomas K. Holcomb (San Diego: DawnSignPress, 1996).
Contents
C ontributors , xi
I ntroduction: Why Go around the Deaf World? , 3
G aurav Mathur and Donna Jo Napoli
PART I SIGN LANGUAGES: CREATION, CONTEXT, FORM
1 Sign Language Geography , 19
C arol A. Padden
Response : Some Observations on Research Methodology in
Lexicostatistical Studies of Sign Languages , 38
J ames Woodward
2 Two Types of Nonconcatenative Morphology in Signed
Languages , 54
G aurav Mathur and Christian Rathmann
Response : Some Observations on Form-Meaning
Correspondences in Two Types of Verbs in ASL , 8 3
P aul G. Dudis
3 Sources of Handshape Error in First-Time Signers of ASL , 9 6
D eborah Chen Pichler
Response : Modality and Language in the Second Language
Acquisition of American Sign Language , 1 22
R ussell S. Rosen
4 Getting to the Point: How a Simple Gesture Became a Linguistic
Element in Nicaraguan Signing , 127
A nn Senghas and Marie Coppola
Response : A Point Well Taken: On the Typology and Diachrony of
Pointing , 144
R oland Pfau
viii Contents
5 Acquisition of Topicalization in Very Late Learners of Libras:
Degrees of Resilience in Language , 164
S andra K. Wood
Response : A Critical Period for the Acquisition of a Theory of Mind?
Clues from Homesigners , 184
C yril Courtin
6 Interrogatives in Ban Khor Sign Language: A Preliminary
Description , 194
A ngela M. Nonaka
Response : Village Sign Languages: A Commentary , 2 21
U lrike Zeshan
7 Sign Language Humor, Human Singularities, and the Origins of
Language , 231
Donna Jo Napoli and Rachel Sutton-Spence
Response : Gesture First or Speech First in Language Origins? , 251
A dam Kendon
PART II SOCIAL ISSUES/CIVIL RIGHTS
8 Best Practices for Collaborating with Deaf Communities
in Developing Countries , 271
A my Wilson and Nickson Kakiri
Response : Deaf Mobilization around the World:
A Personal Perspective , 287
Y erker Andersson
9 HIV/AIDS and the Deaf Community: A Conversation , 2 97
L eila Monaghan and Deborah Karp
Response : HIV/AIDS and Deaf Communities in South Africa: A
Conversation , 307
John Meletse and Ruth Morgan
10 The Language Politics of Japanese Sign Language (Nihon Shuwa) , 3 16
K aren Nakamura
Response : Pluralization: An Alternative to the Existing Hegemony in JSL, 3 33
S oya Mori
11 Social Situations and the Education of Deaf Children in China , 3 39
J un Hui Yang
Contents ix
Response : Social Situations and the Education
of Deaf Children in India , 3 52
M adan M. Vasishta
12 Do Deaf Children Eat Deaf Carrots? , 3 59
P aul Scott
First Response : “We’re the Same, I’m Deaf, You’re Deaf, Huh!” , 367
D onna West
Second Response : Deafhood and Deaf Educators: Some
Thoughts , 372
P addy Ladd
I ndex , 383