Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T19:20:25.488Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ASL or contact signing: Issues of judgment1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Ceil Lucas  and
Clayton Valli
Ceil Lucas
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Interpreting, Gallaudet University
Clayton Valli
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and Interpreting, Gallaudet University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reports on one aspect of an ongoing study of language contact in the American deaf community. A kind of signing that results from the contact between American Sign Language (ASL) and English exhibits features of both languages. The ultimate goal of the study is a linguistic description of contact signing and a reexamination of claims that it is a pidgin. Ten dyads and two triads of native ASL signers (6 white dyads, 4 black dyads, 2 black triads) were videotaped with a deaf interviewer, a hearing interviewer, and alone with each other. The different interview situations induced switching between ASL and contact signing. This article (1) reviews the pattern of language use during the interviews with the white dyads and describes the judgments of selected videotaped segments by 10 native signers; (2) examines the role of demographic information in judgments. For each segment, half of the judges were given one set of demographic information, and the other half were given another set. Indications are that this information does affect judgment, even though the linguistic forms viewed were identical. (American Sign Language, language contact, language judgments, deaf community)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 201 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anisfeld, M., & Lambert, W. (1963). Evaluation reactions of bilingual and monolingual children to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 69:82–97.Google Scholar
Bouchard-Ryan, E. (1973). Subjective reactions toward accented speech. In Shuy, R. & Fasold, R. (eds.), Language attitudes: Current trends and prospects. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Brennan, E. M.Brennan, E. B.Dawson, W. E. (1975). Scaling of apparent accented ness by magnitude estimation and sensory modality matching. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 4:27–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiasson-Lavoie, M., & Laberge, S. (1971). Attitudes face au français parlé à Montréal et degré de conscience de variable linguistique. Unpublished research paper, McGill University.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. (1959). Diglossia. Word 15:325–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graff, D., Labov, W., & Harris, W. A. (1986). Testing listeners' reactions to phonological markers of ethnic identity: A new method for sociolinguistic research. In Sankoff, D. (ed.), Diversity and diachrony. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 45–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grebler, L., More, J. W., & Guzman, R. C. (eds.) (1970). The Mexican American people. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hoover, M. R. (1978). Community attitudes toward Black English. Language in Society 7:65–87.Google Scholar
Lambert, W., et al. (1960). Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 60:44–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, P. M. (1982). Are there really signs of diglossia? Reexamining the situation. Sign Language Studies 35:127–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Light, R. Y., Richard, D. P., & Bell, P. (1978). Development of children's attitudes toward speakers of standard and non-standard English. Child Study Journal 8(4):253–65.Google Scholar
Lucas, C., & Valli, C. (1989). Language contact in the American deaf community. In Lucas, C. (ed.), The sociolinguistics of the deaf community. Orlando, FL: Academic.Google Scholar
Muench, E. (1971). Preliminary report: Scaling of accented ness by magnitude estimation. Unpublished manuscript, University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Palmer, L. A. (1973). A preliminary report on a study of the linguistic correlates of raters' subjective judgments on non-native English speech. In Shuy, R. & Fasold, R. (eds.), Language attitudes: Current trends and prospects. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. 41–59.Google Scholar
Preston, D. (1989). Perceptual dialectology. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Reilly, J., & McIntire, M. (1980). American Sign Language and Pidgin Sign English: What's the difference? Sign Language Studies 27:151–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, M. (1974). The magic boxes: Pre-school children's attitudes toward Black and Standard English. The Florida FL Reporter 12.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, M. (1977). The magic boxes: Children and Black English. Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Shuy, R. W., Baratz, J., & Wolfram, W. (1969). Sociolinguistic factors in speech identification (Project Report No. MH15048-01). Washington, DC: National Institute of Mental Health.Google Scholar
Stokoe, W. (1969). Sign Language diglossia. Studies in Linguistics 21:27–41.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. M. (1975). Mexican-American English: Social correlations of regional pronunciation. American Speech 50:18–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, F. (1970). Psychological correlates of speech characteristics: On sounding “disadvantaged.” Journal of Speech & Hearing Research 13:472–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, F. (1973). Some research notes on dialect attitudes and stereotypes. In Shuy, R. W. & Fasold, R. W. (eds.), Language attitudes: Current trends and prospects. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. 113–28.Google Scholar
Williams, F., Whitehead, J. L., & Miller, L. M. (1971). Ethnic stereotyping and judgments of children's speech. Speech Monographs 38:166–70.Google Scholar
Williams, F. (1972). Relations between language attitudes and teacher expectancy. American Educational Research Journal 9:263–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, F., Whitehead, J. L., & Traupmann, J. (1971). Teachers' evaluations of children's speech. Speech Teacher 20:247–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. (1973). Some characteristics of Pidgin Sign English. Sign Language Studies 3:39–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J., & Markowicz, H. (1975). Some handy new ideas on pidgins and Creoles: Pidgin Sign Languages. Paper presented at the Conference on Pidgin and Creole Languages,University of Hawaii,Honolulu.Google Scholar