 |
Linguistics of American Sign
Language
From the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Nearly 15 years ago (can it have been that long?) when I was beginning my doctoral studies, I took a linguistics of American Sign Language (ASL) course at my university. Our textbook was the first edition of The Linguistics of American Sign Language. Since then, I had not seen any of the subsequent revisions; therefore it was with great pleasure and anticipation that I accepted this opportunity to review this book. The current edition maintains the same basic structure as the original. There is an introductory section on basic linguistic concepts, followed by sections on phonology, morphology and syntax, semantics, and language in use, and each section is further subdivided into units, with most units having some homework assignment for students to complete. In addition, each unit typically has one or two supplementary readings culled from the classic literature on that particular topic, which graduate students and overachievers could read to further their understanding of the topic. Here is where I have a quibble, however minor, with the new edition. Whereas the first edition had these supplementary readings at the end of the chapter or unit, in the current edition, they are relegated to a separate section at the end of the book, forcing students to hunt through the pages until they find the reading, instead of having them fairly readily at hand at the end of that chapter. In addition, one criticism of the original text was that the authors utilized information almost exclusively from linguistic research conducted at Gallaudet, and this appears to remain mostly true in the current edition as well. On the positive side, I note that they have expanded their discussion of some topics slightly, and added others, such as artistic and stylistic forms of ASL (ABC stories, poetry, handshape stories, etc) and newer areas of linguistic research, such as on the presence and effects of metaphor in ASL. One of the biggest changes, and an entirely welcome one, I might add, is their corpus of signed material for analysis. When I took this course, we had a videotape consisting of only one story, ‘‘The Snowmobile,’’ that we watched repeatedly (and nearly wore out), analyzing it from different perspectives according to the topic for that chapter. Although the story itself is fun to watch, it does get tiresome seeing it for the umpteenth time! In the present edition, there is a DVD exhibiting a variety of styles, from the historical (Veditz’ speech) and regional (ASL texts from around the country) to the poetic (one of Valli’s poems) as well as that fershlugginer Snowmobile story! Putting these texts on DVD is a very nice feature, eliminating the need for forwarding back and forth through a videotape, especially with 14 texts to choose from. All in all, this textbook remains a valuable resource for educators and students alike. The changes and expansions that have been made have mostly improved the book, and I look forward to using this textbook in my future classes on ASL linguistics.
-- Donald A. Grushkin, California State University, Sacramento Clayton Valli was Assistant Professor in the Master’s Interpreting Program at Gallaudet University. Ceil Lucas is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at Gallaudet University. Kristin J. Mulrooney is Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Gallaudet University. ISBN 1-56368-283-4, 7 x 10 casebound, 560 pages, illustrations, photographs, notes, references, index, DVD $75.00s
To order by mail, print our Order Form or call:
TEL 1-800-621-2736; (773) 568-1550 8 am - 5 pm CST |
