Taboo in Sign Languages

Taboo topics in deaf communities include the usual ones found in spoken languages, as well as ones particular to deaf experiences, both in how deaf people relate to hearing people and how deaf people interact with other deaf people. Attention to these topics can help linguists understand better the consequences of field method choices and lead them to adopt better ones. Taboo expressions in American Sign Language are innovative regarding the linguistic structures they play with. This creativity is evident across the grammar in non-taboo expressions, but seems to revel in profane ones. When it comes to the syntax, however, certain types of structures occur in taboo expressions that are all but absent elsewhere, showing grammatical possibilities that might have gone unnoticed without attention to taboo. Taboo expressions are innovative, as well, in how they respond to changing culture, where lexical items that are incoherent with community sensibilities are 'corrected'.

List of contents

1. Taboo; 2. Data Gathering; 3. Taboo across the Grammar of ASL; 4. Bleached Taboo-Term Predicates in ASL; 5. (Sub)Lexical Changes in Iconic Signs to Realign with Community Sensibilities and Experiences; 6. Conclusion: What the Study of Taboo Teaches Us; Appendix: Handshapes Referred To.

Summary

Taboo topics in deaf communities include those found in spoken languages, as well as ones particular to deaf experiences, both in how deaf people relate to hearing people and how deaf people interact with other deaf people. These topics can help linguists understand better the consequences of field method choices and lead them to adopt better ones.

Foreword

Creativity is evident across the grammar in taboo expressions, which respond to changing culture, and, thus, can be 'corrected'.

Product details

• Authors: Jami Fisher, Gene Mirus, Donna Jo Napoli, Donna Jo (Swarthmore College) Fisher Napoli
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2023
• EAN: 9781009291958
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0929195-8
• No. of pages: 75
• Series: Elements in Sign Languages
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Sign Language, Sociolinguistics, Grammar, syntax & morphology, Grammar, syntax and morphology, Other Languages, Relating to people with hearing disabilities or impairments, Sign languages, Braille & other linguistic communication, Sign languages, Braille and other linguistic communication, Sign / Signed languages