Rachel Sutton-Spence

Turn-Taking Patterns in Deaf Conversation.

This paper will focus on the turn-taking patterns of Deaf signers and will compare them with turn-taking patterns found in spoken interaction. Turn-taking in the conversation of hearing people has been the subject of considerable attention, but the way conversation is organised by Deaf conversationalists has received less attention. This paper reports on a small project involving conversational data obtained from two Deaf friendship groups, one all-female and one all-male. Our main aim was to establish whether Deaf interactants orient to a one-at-a-time model of turn-taking, or whether there was any evidence to suggest they can also orient to a more collaborative model. It has been assumed by researchers in the field of Deaf Studies that Deaf interactants orient to a one-at-a-time model since, where the medium of communication is visual rather than sound based, participants can attend to only those sources of talk that they can see. The paper also examines the data to see if there are any gender differences in the way Deaf interactants organise conversation.

Analysing Sign Language Poetry

Acknowledgements Preface Some General Points about Sign Languages What is Sign Language Poetry? Repetition In Sign Language Poetry Symmetry and Balance Neologisms Ambiguity Themes in Sign Poetry Metaphor and Allusion The Poem and Performance Blended Sign Language Poetry and Spoken Language The Hang Glider Trio Five Senses and Three Queens Afterword by Paddy Ladd Appendix: Texts of Poems Notes Bibliography Index

Anthropomorphism in Sign Languages: A Look at Poetry and Storytelling with a Focus on British Sign Language.

The work presented here considers some linguistic methods used in sign anthropomorphism. We find a cline of signed anthropomorphism that depends on a number of factors, including the skills and intention of the signer, the animacy of the entities represented, the form of their bodies, and the form of vocabulary signs referring to those entities. We consider four main factors that allow signers to anthropomorphize the whole range of entities (from animate to inanimate): the linguistic base that allows such play, the ability of the nonmanuals to anthropomorphize even when the manual articulators are signing in an ordinary way, the range of possibilities for both manual and nonmanual articulators when the signer engages in (almost) complete embodiment of the nonhuman character, and how nonhumans are portrayed as communicating via sign language.

Symmetry in Sign Language Poetry

This paper considers the range of ways that sign languages use geometric symmetry temporally and spatially to create poetic effect. Poets use this symmetry in sign language art to highlight duality and thematic contrast, and to create symbolic representations of beauty, order and harmony.

Iconicity and Metaphor in Sign Language Poetry

This article explores a unique relationship between iconicity and metaphor: that seen in creative sign language, where iconic properties abound at all levels of linguistic representation. We use the idea of “iconic superstructure” to consider the way that metaphoric meaning is generated through the iconic properties of creative sign language. We focus on the interaction between the overall contextual force and individual elements that build up symbolism in sign language poetry. Evidence presented from the anthology of British Sign Language poetry demonstrates that metaphoric meaning is not inherent in signs. What is inherent is iconic value—and purely iconic signs become metaphorical when situated in a certain poetic context.

British Sign Name Customs

Research presented here describes the sign names and the customs of name allocation within the British Deaf community. While some aspects of British Sign Language sign names and British Deaf naming customs differ from those in most Western societies, there are many similarities. There are also similarities with other societies outside the more familiar cultures of most English-speakers. Naming customs in the British Deaf community are shown here to vary over time, with changes in education and other key elements of the British Deaf experience influencing the choice and use of sign names. While descriptive sign names are important within the British Deaf community, arbitrary signs, and those derived from the English language are also important. Additionally BSL sign names are shown to vary among different sections of the Deaf community. In contrast to reports from America, we find that British Deaf parents in the past have rarely allocated sign names to their children—deaf or hearing—beyond finger-spelled forms of their English names. Some of these children of Deaf parents retain these fingerspelled forms throughout their lives. Others only acquire names motivated by descriptive processes on entering school or even later in life. Thus, we conclude that, unlike people in many societies, the overwhelming majority of British Deaf people appear to acquire descriptive sign names from outside their families.

Por que precisamos de poesia sinalizada em educação bilíngue

Uma verdadeira educacao bilingue e bicultural para criancas surdas requer que elas aprendam a forma de arte surda de poesia em lingua de sinais. Neste artigo apresento as vantagens e desvantagens de se fazer isto. Revisando a escassa literatura sobre o ensino de poesia sinalizada para criancas surdas, seja traduzida ou original, eu a relaciono ao uso de literatura em cenarios de aprendizagem de L2. Reflexoes de professores-poetas surdos do Reino Unido mostram que a crianca surda prontamente se simpatiza com a poesia sinalizada, e com o foco linguistico adequado dos professores, isto as ajuda a desenvolver uma gama de habilidades linguisticas e a expressar suas emocoes. Barreiras para isto, contudo, incluem a falta de treinamento e apreensao de professores surdos e ouvintes – mesmo quando os professores sao poetas.

The Linguistics of British Sign Language: Linguistics and sign linguistics

Linguistics tries to find out the rules that explain what language users know, so that we can understand how language works. People who know a language use it without thinking. They can use a language very well, and get it right nearly all of the time. But, if we ask them to tell us the rules of their language, they often find that they cannot because they have never had to think about it before. Most users of a language do not think in terms of ‘rules’ for their language and often do not stop to think about it. As sign linguists, we want to stop and think about language, most especially British Sign Language, so that we can find the rules that explain how the language works. If we are to understand how BSL works, sign linguistics needs to ask questions like: Is BSL just a pantomime? Is sign language the same around the world? How do we ask a question in BSL? How do we say ‘no’ in BSL? What is the order of signs in BSL? Does BSL have adjectives and adverbs like English does? How do we show something happened a long time ago in BSL? Are there some handshapes that are not part of BSL? Can we sign with a straight face and give the full meaning? Do all signers sign in the same way in BSL, or are there differences?

Why we need signed poetry in bilingual education

A truly bilingual and bicultural education for deaf children requires them to learn about the deaf art-form of sign language poetry. In this article I outline the advantages and challenges of doing this. Reviewing the scarce literature on teaching deaf children signed poetry, whether translated or original, I relate it to the use of literature in L2-learning settings. Reflections of deaf teacher-poets from the UK show that deaf children readily relate to signed poetry, and with informed language focus from teachers it helps them to develop a range of language skills, and express their emotions. Barriers to this, however, include lack of training and awareness for both deaf and hearing teachers – even when the teachers are poets.

The Linguistics of British Sign Language: Mouth patterns and other non-manual features in BSL

‘BSL is a language that uses the hands to communicate instead of the tongue.’ This statement is only true up to a point, because other parts of the body are also very important in BSL. Signers actually look at each others faces, not their hands, when communicating. This chapter will explore the role of nonmanual features in BSL, focusing especially on the role of the mouth, but also on the rest of the face, and the head. There are many mouth patterns that convey grammatical and phonological information in BSL (see also chapter 9). Although BSL is independent of English, it has been influenced by English, and has borrowed from English. One of the things it has borrowed is the mouth patterns from English words. BSL has not just borrowed randomly, though, and there are times when English mouth patterns are borrowed, and times when they are not. More importantly, BSL changes the English mouth patterns, so that when they are used, they are not always used as they are in English. Understanding the use of mouth patterns in BSL is important. Knowing how and when to use appropriate mouth patterns is a difficult skill for learners of BSL. This discussion of mouth patterns also reinforces the point that it is not possible to sign BSL and speak English at the same time, because we will see that there are many occasions when an English mouth pattern is inappropriate while signing BSL.