A. Baker, B. Van den Bogaerde,
and O. Crasborn, Editors

Preface

The papers in this volume are a selection of the presentations given at the seventh international conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research. This meeting, known as TISLR, was held for the first time in its history in Europe – in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from July 22nd to July 27th, 2000. The topic chosen for the meeting and for this volume is cross-linguistic aspects of sign language research. This choice reflects the status quo in the sign linguistics field, as was emphasized by the first guest speaker, Professor Bencie Woll from City University London (see Woll this volume). The time is ripe for this topic since many more sign languages around the world are now being studied compared to 15 years ago when the first TISLR conference was held in Rochester (1986); see the resulting volumes edited by Fischer & Siple (1990). It is now possible to make comparisons and work on typological issues. At the conference many different sign languages were discussed. In the 60 papers and 75 poster presentations in the course of the five days of the meeting there were data presented from 48 different sign languages. They came from all 5 continents: 11 different sign languages from Asia, 8 from the Americas, 2 from Australasia, 5 from Africa and 22 from Europe. The papers in this volume also cover all continents with 17 sign languages being discussed in 19 papers as well as Swedish and Finnish tactile sign languages used by the deaf-blind.One of Siegmund Prillwitz’s remarkable characteristics is that he was never satisfied with research on a small scale but instead always initiated large-scale projects. After several research projects which steadily grew in size he developed a human and social vision. One part of his vision was an educational setting that granted deaf children access to knowledge and access to a wide range of professions through the use of sign language. The other part of his vision was the establishment of a large institution where sign language could be studied and taught. He set up the Centre for German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf in 1986 which, in 1993, became the Institute of German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf. The Institute has grown significantly during the last decade and has an increasing number of important research projects. For ten years now it offers two study programs, a Master’s programme for sign language studies and a diploma programme for sign language interpreters.