The signs of language revisited: an anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima

1174 Pages·2000·5.16 MB·English

by  Karen Emmorey

The Signs of Language Revisited : An
title: Anthology to Honor Ursula Bellugi and
Edward Klima
author: Emmorey, Karen.
publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
isbn10 | asin: 0805832467
print isbn13: 9780805832464
ebook isbn13: 9780585356419
language: English
subject Sign language, American Sign Language.
publication date: 2000
lcc: HV2474.S573 2000eb
ddc: 419
subject: Sign language, American Sign Language.
Page iii
The Signs of Language Revisited
An Anthology to Honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward
Klima
Edited by
Karen Emmorey
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
and
Harlan Lane
Northeastern University
Page iv
Copyright © 2000 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form,
by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means without the
prior written consent of the publisher.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430
Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The signs of language revisited: an anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and
Edward Klima / edited by Karen Emmorey, Harlan Lane
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3246-7
1. Sign language. 2. American Sign Language. I. Emmorey, Karen.
II. Lane, Harlan L. III. Bellugi, Ursula, 1930
HV2474.S573 2000
419.21dc21 99-041589
Books published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates are printed on acid-
free paper, and their bindings are chosen for strength and durability.
Printed in the Untied States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Page v
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Contributors xiii
I 1
Reminiscences
1 3
Two Memorable Meals With Ursula and Ed
Lou Fant
2 5
American Sign Language Linguistics 19701980: Memoir
of a Renaissance
Robbin M. Battison
3 17
A Fish Story for Ursula and Other Remembrances
Bernard Bragg
II 21
Historical and Comparative Analyses of Sign Languages
4 23
Sign Languages and Sign Language Families in Thailand
and Viet Nam
James Woodward
5 49
Lexical Comparison of Signs From American, Australian,
British, and New Zealand Sign Languages
David Mckee And Graeme Kennedy
6 77
Origins of the American Deaf-World: Assimilating and
Differentiating Societies and Their Relation to Genetic
Patterning
Harlan Lane, Richard C. Pillard, and Mary French
III 101
Language in the Visual-Spatial Modality
7 103
Sign Language Research at the Millennium
Elissa L. Newport and Ted Supalla
8 115
Attentional Resources and Working Memory: A New
Framework for the Study of the Impact of Deafness on
Cognition
Patricia Siple
Page vi
9 135
When Does Modality Matter? Evidence From ASL on the
Nature of Working Memory
Margaret Wilson and Karen Emmorey
10 143
A Pilot Study of the Expressive Gestures Used by
Classical Orchestra Conductors
Penny Boyes Braem and Thüring Bräm
11 169
An Interpreter Creates the Space
Nancy Frishberg
IV 193
Linguistic Analysis of Sign Languages
12 195
More Than Just Handwaving: The Mutual Contributions
of Sign Language and Linguistics
Susan D. Fischer
13 215
Phonological and Prosodic Layering of Nonmanuals in
American Sign Language
Ronnie B. Wilbur
14 245
A Two-Handed Manual Alphabet in the United States
Ruth C. Loew, C. Tane Akamatsu, and Mary Lanaville
15 261
Iconicity and Transparency in Sign Languages: A Cross-
Linguistic Cross-Cultural View
Elena Pizzuto And Virginia Volterra
16 287
Codeswitching in ASL and Written English Language
Contact
Marlon Kuntze
17 303
Indicating Verbs and Pronouns: Pointing Away From
Agreement
Scott K. Liddell
V 321
Language Acquisition
18 323
Viewing Deaf Children in a New Way: Implications of
Bellugi and Klima's Research for Education
Jeffrey G. Bettger
19 333
Shared Motoric Factors in the Acquisition of Sign and
Speech
Richard P. Meier
Page vii
20 357
Explorations of Enhanced Gestural Input to Children in
the Bimodal Period
Adele Abrahamsen
21 401
Early and Late in Language Acquisition: Aspects of the
Syntax and Acquisition of Wh-Questions in American
Sign Language
Diane Lillo-Martin
22 415
Bringing Affective Expression into the Service of
Language: Acquiring Perspective Marking in Narratives
Judy Reilly
23 435
Search for the Missing Link: The Development of Skilled
Reading in Deaf Children
Carol A. Padden and Vicki L. Hanson
24 449
On the Biological Foundations of Human Language
Laura Ann Petitto
VI 475
The Neural Organization of Sign Language
25 477
Language and the Brain
Antonio R. Damasio and Hanna Damasio
26 493
Some Observations Regarding Paraphasia in American
Sign Language
David P. Corina
27 509
The Structure of Language as Motor Behavior: Clues
From Signers With Parkinson's Disease
Howard Poizner, Diane Brentari, Martha E. Tyrone, and
Judy Kegl
28 533
On the Uniqueness of Language
Victoria A. Fromkin
Author Index 549
Subject Index 561
Page ix
PREFACE
Few disciplines can trace their body of knowledge and techniques,
and the ranks of their practitioners, so extensively to the efforts of one
pair of scholars as can signed language research. The two scholars, for
whom this volume is published in tribute by their students and
collaborators, are Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima at The Salk
Institute for Biological Studies.
Bellugi and Klima's pioneering work, which gave rise to further
investigation by scholars worldwide, was in fields as diverse as signed
language morphology and syntax, discourse structure, and art forms;
memory; neuroscience; language acquisition; and spatial cognition.
Their first paper together, titled "Language in Another Mode,"
appeared in 1974. Two of their books were particularly acclaimed and
influential: The Signs of Language (Harvard University Press, 1979)
and What the Hands Reveal About the Brain (MIT Press, 1987; with
Howard Poizner). One of their most recent publicationsfor their active
program of research continues apaceis "Neural Organization of
Language: Evidence From Sign Language Aphasia" (with Greg
Hickok), published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Bellugi and Klima's intellectual contribution has extended well
beyond signed language studies into adjacent disciplines. Because
signed languages are indeed language in another mode (visualmanual
rather than auraloral), the facts uncovered about their structure and
function probe the more general conceptions (invariably rooted in
spoken language) that guide those disciplines. Consider the example
of neuroscience: Bellugi and Klima's finding that aphasias of sign
languagelike those of spoken languageare associated with left-
hemisphere lesions indicates that hemispheric dominance for language
is rooted in something as abstract as grammatical structure and not in