This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS series. The creators of this series are united by passion for literature and driven by the intention of making all public domain books available in printed format again - worldwide. At tredition we believe that a great book never goes out of style. Several mostly non-profit literature projects provide content to tredition. To support their good work, tredition donates a portion of the proceeds from each sold copy. As a reader of a TREDITION CLASSICS book, you support our mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion.

How many languages are there? What differentiates one language from another? Are new languages still being discovered? Why are so many languages disappearing? The diversity of languages today is varied, but it is steadily declining. In this Very Short Introduction, Stephen Anderson answers the above questions by looking at the science behind languages. Considering a wide range of different languages and linguistic examples, he demonstrates how languages are not uniformly distributed around the world; just as some places are more diverse than others in terms of plants and animal species, the same goes for the distribution of languages. Exploring the basis for linguistic classification and raising questions about how we identify a language, as well as considering signed languages as well as spoken, Anderson examines the wider social issues of losing languages, and their impact in terms of the endangerment of cultures and peoples. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

With Brief Explanatory Notes Of The Gestures Taught Deaf-Mutes In Our Institutions For Their Instruction And A Description Of Some Of The Peculiar Laws, Customs, Myths, Superstitions, Ways Of Living, Code Of Peace And War Signals Of Our Aborigines.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Are You Making Common Signing Errors? Make no mistake about it... when venturing into the world of American Sign Language, the first thing you must understand is that ASL is its own language. It is different from English. ASL is also not like other Signing Systems. Like any other Language, ASL contains its own unique rules of syntax, phonology, grammar, etc. To become fluent in the ASL language, you must first be armed with these essential rules and terminology. Don't Just "Sign..". Communicate methodically takes you, step-by-step, through the essentials of ASL Grammar to prepare you to truly and effectively communicate in and understand ASL. This carefully outlined guide not only illustrates the importance of understanding ASL's overall differences in grammar, the topics are broken up into the six (6) major aspects of the language, making it that much easier for you to understand and follow Here's just a glimpse of what you'll find in this guide: - Get the "inside scoop" about ASL -- Learn vocabulary concepts not taught in most ASL dictionaries and discover the most essential ASL grammar rules. - Packed full with "must have" tools, a glossary of over 200 terms, and a grammar study sheet you'll use again and again - Everything you need in just one place... And answers to questions you may not even know to ask... Regardless of your reasons for learning to communicate in ASL, once you have read this book with its expert advice and hints, you will truly be prepared to master the communication nuances of the ASL Language

Start ASL, the leading online resource for ASL and Deaf Culture, has created this easy-to-use and convenient Terminology Pocket Guide. If you're on the go, or whenever you simply need to make a quick reference, you'll find this tiny yet practical book to be a great friend in your immersion into American Sign Language and the Deaf community. This handy little Pocket Guide contains definitions to those not-so-familiar terms that you may encounter at any time, anywhere. This is not an ASL dictionary, but a convenient Deaf community terminology guide. You will learn the definitions of words/acronyms such as: Audism, CODA, DPN, and more For anyone wanting to truly understand and communicate within the ASL community, we highly recommend having Start ASL's Terminology Pocket Guide on hand for all situations... Never leave home without it

'Stop, Look and Sign' is the perfect book for learners who are deaf, hearing impaired, autistic, or aging. Common words used in everyday settings make it easy for families and friends to sign along. The format is colorful, playful and easy to follow, illustrating one or two words per page. Have fun learning basic sign language

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

With Brief Explanatory Notes Of The Gestures Taught Deaf-Mutes In Our Institutions For Their Instruction And A Description Of Some Of The Peculiar Laws, Customs, Myths, Superstitions, Ways Of Living, Code Of Peace And War Signals Of Our Aborigines.

What is the role of meaning in linguistic theory? Generative linguists have severely limited the influence of meaning, claiming that language is not affected by other cognitive processes and that semantics does not influence linguistic form. Conversely, cognitivist and functionalist linguists believe that meaning pervades and motivates all levels of linguistic structure. This dispute can be resolved conclusively by evidence from signed languages. Signed languages are full of iconic linguistic items: words, inflections, and even syntactic constructions with structural similarities between their physical form and their referents' form. Iconic items can have concrete meanings and also abstract meanings through conceptual metaphors. Language from the Body rebuts the generativist linguistic theories which separate form and meaning and asserts that iconicity can only be described in a cognitivist framework where meaning can influence form.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Plains Indian Sign Talk (PST), a complex system of hand signs, once served as the lingua franca among many Native American tribes of the Great Plains, who spoke very different languages. Although some researchers thought it had disappeared following the establishment of reservations and the widespread adoption of English, Brenda Farnell discovered that PST is still an integral component of the storytelling tradition in contemporary Assiniboine (Nakota) culture.
Farnell's research challenges the dominant European American view of language as a matter of words only. In Nakota language practices, she asserts, words and gestures are equal partners in the creation of meaning. Drawing on Nakota narratives videotaped during field research at the Fort Belknap reservation in northern Montana, she uses the movement script "Labanotation" to create texts of the movement content of these performances.
The first and only ethnographic study of contemporary uses of PST, "Do You See What I Mean"? draws on important developments in the study of language and culture to provide an action-centered analysis of spoken and gestural discourse. It offers a theoretical approach to language and the body that transcends the current "intellectualist" versus "phenomenological" impasse in social and linguistic theory.

Imagine a village where everyone "speaks" sign language. Just such a village -- an isolated Bedouin community in Israel with an unusually high rate of deafness -- is at the heart of "Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind." There, an indigenous sign language has sprung up, used by deaf and hearing villagers alike. It is a language no outsider has been able to decode, until now.

A "New York Times" reporter trained as a linguist, Margalit Fox is the only Western journalist to have set foot in this remarkable village. In "Talking Hands, " she follows an international team of scientists that is unraveling this mysterious language.

Because the sign language of the village has arisen completely on its own, outside the influence of any other language, it is a living demonstration of the "language instinct," man's inborn capacity to create language. If the researchers can decode this language, they will have helped isolate ingredients essential to all human language, signed and spoken. But as "Talking Hands" grippingly shows, their work in the village is also a race against time, because the unique language of the village may already be endangered.

"Talking Hands" offers a fascinating introduction to the signed languages of the world -- languages as beautiful, vital and emphatically human as any other -- explaining why they are now furnishing cognitive scientists with long-sought keys to understanding how language works in the mind.

Written in lyrical, accessible prose, "Talking Hands" will captivate anyone interested in language, the human mind and journeys to exotic places.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

With Brief Explanatory Notes Of The Gestures Taught Deaf-Mutes In Our Institutions For Their Instruction And A Description Of Some Of The Peculiar Laws, Customs, Myths, Superstitions, Ways Of Living, Code Of Peace And War Signals Of Our Aborigines.

Signing with babies has started to become popular. Most parents sign with their children to avoid the terrible twos. It is true that parents who sign with their hearing children have children that talk sooner and are less frustrated than non-signing children. But the benefits of signing don't stop when the child begins to talk. For most parents, when the child begins to talk, the parents stop signing. What parents do not realize is that signing with children uses the same part of the brain that children later will use when learning to read. It should come as no surprise that signing which is visual would use the same part of the brain as reading which is also a visual mode of learning. Research is showing that parents who continue to sign with their children have children that are more interested in books and learn to read sooner. It is very important when signing to children while reading that parents sign the same way good children read. In other words, parents should not be signing every word in the book. How do good readers process words on a page? Why does sign language help children learn to read? How should I incorporate sign into every day activities to help my child become a better reader? To find the answers to these questions, read the book Hands on Literacy by Trish Peterson, MS Ed. Every day activities to promote reading readiness are listed by age group along with milestones you should expect your child to master during that stage. Trish Peterson has a BS in Teaching the Deaf from Penn State and a MS in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Learning Styles from Salem-Teiko. She has been working with young children in early intervention for five years. Prior tothat she taught sign to hearing children in high schools for four years and was a teacher of the deaf in residential, self-contained and mainstreamed settings for 12 years. In addition to providing early intervention services, she currently works as a speech therapist for TST BOCES in Ithaca, NY.

It's the most fun you can have while learning to sign . .

The follow-up to the bestselling "The American Sign Language Puzzle Book," this fun guide from ASL signer Justin Segal gives you tons more of your favorite brainteasers, word searches, scrambles, and crosswords to help you learn the signs with ease.. .

Whether you're a beginning or advanced signer, you'll improve your skills in no time with: . . A fresh variety of puzzles that will broaden your ASL vocabulary . Expressive drawings that show exact hand movements, including placement, direction, and repetition . Puzzles designed to increase your ability to construct phrases . A complete answer key you can use to keep track of your progress .

Sign Language Interpreters in Court: Understanding Best Practices is the first comprehensive text examining the role and function of sign language interpreters working in the legal arena. Designed for interpreters seeking a principled basis to justify best and emerging practices, the book presents a critical analysis of the constitutional, statutory and ethical foundations underpinning the work of court interpreters. Sign Language Interpreters in Court: Understanding Best Practices offers the theoretical tools for understanding, applying and articulating the various roles and functions undertaken by sign language interpreters in court.

Open the door to greater communication with your preverbal child through Baby Sign Language. This practical, illustrated guide shows how simple, easy-to-remember gestures can be used by you and your baby or toddler--to convey thoughts, needs, questions, and answers. It's easy, and babies absolutely love it

Baby-signing takes just a few hours to learn, and can be taught to babies as young as six months of age. In this volume, workshop instructor Karyn Warburton presents more than 200 baby-friendly signs covering a wide variety of subjects that little ones will love to learn and use, and will develop their cognitive skills, cut down on communication frustration, and create a stronger bond. This delightful, easy-to-use book features:

- Clear, step-by-step instructions--based on the Baby Talk workshop format
- Photographs and drawings to illustrate each sign
- Baby-centered sign language activities, including songs and storytelling
- Signs graded for difficulty levels
- Tips on how to introduce and reinforce key signs

In Reading Between the Signs, Anna Mindess provides a perspective on a culture that is not widely understood - American Deaf culture. With the collaboration of three distinguished Deaf consultants, Mindess explores the implications of cultural differences at the intersection of the Deaf and hearing worlds. Used in sign language interpreter training programs worldwide, Reading Between the Signs is a resource for students, working interpreters and other professionals. This important new edition retains practical techniques that enable interpreters to effectively communicate their clients' intent, while its timely discussion of the interpreter's role is broadened in a cultural context. NEW TO THIS EDITION: New chapter explores the changing landscape of the interpreting field and discusses the concepts of Deafhood and Deaf heart. This examination of using Deaf interpreters pays respect to the profession, details techniques and shows the benefits of collaboration.

THE KEY TO MY CHILDREN: HANNAH CAN TALK WITH HER HANDS is about a four year old little girl who uses sign language to communicate, or, as Miss Susan and Miss Nancy say, "she talks using her hands not her voice." The teachers expect Hannah to talk someday, but until then, they have taught her sign language. Feeling powerful in her world can minimize frustration and enable her to learn. After the other students see the power of sign language, they are excited to learn it themselves. It also helps the other children realize Hannah is learning and that they can understand her now if they learn some simple signing words. Hannah's key to learning is sign language.

The study of childhood deafness offers researchers many interesting insights into the role of experience and sensory inputs for the development of language and cognition. This volume provides a state of the art look at these questions and how they are being applied in the areas of clinical and educational settings. It also marks the career and contributions of one of the greatest scholars in the field of deafness: Bencie Woll. As the field of deafness goes through rapid and profound changes, we hope that this volume captures the latest perspectives regarding the impacts of these changes for our understanding of child development. The volume will be of essential interest to language development researchers as well as teachers and clinical researchers.

This volume shows how any two persons may be capable, in half an hour's time, to discourse together by their fingers only, and as well in the dark as the light. The directions herein given are so clear and the method so extensive (yet both superlatively easy) that if six persons are in company (and each of them well versed in the design) yet two of them may discourse together, and the other four wholly ignorant of what they mean. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty, faded or difficult to read. Written in Old English.

Beyond the typical AAC issues explored in most textbooks, this essential collection gives you the opportunity to hear AAC users talk about their lives. Twenty-eight diverse individuals who use AAC, from teens to senior citizens, give first-person accounts of how living with AAC has affected them. Through their personal essays, poems, and interviews, you'll hear their perspectives on the issues that matter most to them, including education, employment, technology, and family. The contributors reveal what using AAC is all about and what works (and doesn't work) for them as they face the daily challenges of communication. These touching and humorous stories will give everyone insight into how to improve communication supports for the people they care for, from AAC users themselves--order today