Home Linguistics & Semiotics Sign Language
book: Sign Language
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Sign Language

An International Handbook
  • Edited by: Roland Pfau , Markus Steinbach and Bencie Woll
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2012
Download eBook (PDF)
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science [HSK]

About this book

Sign language linguists show here that all questions relevant to the linguistic investigation of spoken languages can be asked about sign languages. Conversely, questions that sign language linguists consider - even if spoken language researchers have not asked them yet - should also be asked of spoken languages. The HSK handbook Sign Language aims to provide a concise and comprehensive overview of the state of the art in sign language linguistics. It includes 44 chapters, written by leading researchers in the field, that address issues in language typology, sign language grammar, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, sociolinguistics, and language documentation and transcription. Crucially, all topics are presented in a way that makes them accessible to linguists who are not familiar with sign language linguistics.

  • the first encyclopaedic reference book in the field of sign language research
  • over 40 chapters covering all aspects of the linguistic study of sign languages
  • extensively illustrated with examples from over 30 sign languages

Author / Editor information

Roland Pfau, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Markus Steinbach, University of Göttingen, Germany; Bencie Woll, University College London, Great Britain.

Supplementary Materials

Topics

  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Frontmatter

    i
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Preface

    v
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Contents

    vii
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Notational conventions

    ix
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Sign language acronyms

    xi
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    1. Introduction

    1
    Download PDF
  • I. Phonetics, phonology, and prosody
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    2. Phonetics

    4
    Onno Crasborn
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    3. Phonology

    21
    Diane Brentari
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    4. Visual prosody

    55
    Wendy Sandler
    Download PDF
  • II. Morphology
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    5. Word classes and word formation

    77
    Irit Meir
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    6. Plurality

    112
    Markus Steinbach
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    7. Verb agreement

    136
    Gaurav Mathur and Christian Rathmann
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    8. Classifiers

    158
    Inge Zwitserlood
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    9. Tense, aspect, and modality

    186
    Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach and Bencie Woll
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    10. Agreement auxiliaries

    204
    Galini Sapountzaki
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    11. Pronouns

    227
    Kearsy Cormier
    Download PDF
  • III. Syntax
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    12. Word order

    245
    Lorraine Leeson and John Saeed
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    13. The noun phrase

    265
    Carol Neidle and Joan Nash
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    14. Sentence types

    292
    Carlo Cecchetto
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    15. Negation

    316
    Josep Quer
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    16. Coordination and subordination

    340
    Gladys Tang and Prudence Lau
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    17. Utterance reports and constructed action

    365
    Diane Lillo-Martin
    Download PDF
  • IV. Semantics and pragmatics
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    18. Iconicity and metaphor

    388
    Sarah F. Taub
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    19. Use of sign space

    412
    Pamela Perniss
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    20. Lexical semantics: Semantic fields and lexical aspect

    432
    Donovan Grose
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    21. Information structure

    462
    Ronnie B. Wilbur
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    22. Communicative interaction

    489
    Anne Baker and Beppie van den Bogaerde
    Download PDF
  • V. Communication in the visual modality
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    23. Manual communication systems: evolution and variation

    513
    Roland Pfau
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    24. Shared sign languages

    552
    Victoria Nyst
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    25. Language and modality

    574
    Richard P. Meier
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    26. Homesign: gesture to language

    601
    Susan Goldin-Meadow
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    27. Gesture

    626
    Aslı Özyürek
    Download PDF
  • VI. Psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    28. Acquisition

    647
    Deborah Chen Pichler
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    29. Processing

    687
    Matthew W.G. Dye
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    30. Production

    711
    Annette Hohenberger and Helen Leuninger
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    31. Neurolinguistics

    739
    David Corina and Nicole Spotswood
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    32. Atypical signing

    762
    Bencie Woll
    Download PDF
  • VII. Variation and change
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    33. Sociolinguistic aspects of variation and change

    788
    Adam Schembri and Trevor Johnston
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    34. Lexicalization and grammaticalization

    816
    Terry Janzen
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    35. Language contact and borrowing

    841
    Robert Adam
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    36. Language emergence and creolisation

    862
    Dany Adone
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    37. Language planning

    889
    Trude Schermer
    Download PDF
  • VIII. Applied issues
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    38. History of sign languages and sign language linguistics

    909
    Susan McBurney
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    39. Deaf education and bilingualism

    949
    Carolina Plaza Pust
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    40. Interpreting

    980
    Christopher Stone
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    41. Poetry

    998
    Rachel Sutton-Spence
    Download PDF
  • IX. Handling sign language data
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    42. Data collection

    1023
    Mieke Van Herreweghe and Myriam Vermeerbergen
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    43. Transcription

    1045
    Nancy Frishberg, Nini Hoiting and Dan I. Slobin
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    44. Computer modelling

    1075
    Eva Sáfár and John Glauert
    Download PDF
  • Indexes
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index of subjects

    1103
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index of sign languages

    1120
    Download PDF
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index of spoken languages

    1125
    Download PDF

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
August 31, 2012
eBook ISBN:
9783110261325
Hardcover published on:
August 17, 2012
Hardcover ISBN:
9783110204216
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
12
Main content:
1126
Illustrations:
205
Tables:
19
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110261325
eBook ISBN: 9783110261325
Hardcover ISBN: 9783110204216
Keywords for this book
Sign Language; Language Typology; Grammar; Psycholinguistics; Neurolinguistics; Sociolinguistics
Audience(s) for this book
Linguists, Sign Language researchers, researchers in Deaf Studies. Reference work for advanced undergraduates and post-graduates. Those in such fields as Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics, Deaf Studies, education of the deaf, speech and language therapy with deaf children and adults, students of Sign Language, Sign Language interpreters
Safety & product resources
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Winner of the OpenAthens UX Award 2026
Winner of the OpenAthens UX Award 2026
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 10.3.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110261325/html
Scroll to top button