Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:54:08.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in Sign Languages

Taboo in Sign Languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2023

Donna Jo Napoli ,
Jami Fisher  and
Gene Mirus
Donna Jo Napoli
Affiliation:
Swarthmore College
Jami Fisher
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Gene Mirus
Affiliation:
Gallaudet University

Summary

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'.
Get access

Keywords

sign language structuremorphologysyntaxsociolinguisticscreativity in language
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Sign Languages
Online ISBN: 9781009291972
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 26 October 2023

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

Abelin, Å. (1999). Phonesthemes in Swedish. Proceedings of XIV International Conference of Phonetic Sciences, 99, 1333–1336. www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS1999/papers/p14_1333.pdf.Google Scholar
Allan, K., ed. (2018). The Oxford handbook of taboo words and language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS1999/papers/p14_1333.pdfGoogle Scholar
Allan, K. & Burridge, K. (2006). Forbidden words: Taboo and the censoring of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersson, L. & Trudgill, P. (1990). Bad language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Aramburo, A. (1994). Sociolinguistic aspects of the Black deaf community. In Erting, C. J., Johnson, R. C., Smith, D. L. & Snider, B. D., eds., The Deaf way: Perspectives from the International Conference on Deaf Culture. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 474–482.Google Scholar
Aronoff, M., Meir, I., Padden, C. & Sandler, W. (2004). Morphological universals and the sign language type. In Booij, G. & van Marle, J., eds., Yearbook of morphology. Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 19–39.Google Scholar
Aubrecht, A. (2017). Message of love. YouTube video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D78-5p3s5E.Google Scholar
Azzaro, G. (2018). Taboo language in books, films, and the media. In Allen, K., ed., The Oxford handbook of taboo words and language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 280–307.Google Scholar
Back, L. T., Keys, C. B., McMahon, S. D. & O’Neill, K. (2016). How we label students with disabilities: A framework of language use in an urban school district in the United States. Disability Studies Quarterly, 36(4). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v36i4.4387.Google Scholar
Badarneh, M. A. (2010). The pragmatics of diminutives in colloquial Jordanian Arabic. Journal of Pragmatics, 42(1), 153–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker-Shenk, C. (1986). Characteristics of oppressed and oppressor peoples: Their effect on the interpreting context. In McIntire, M. L., ed., Interpreting: The art of cross-cultural mediation. Alexandria, VA: Registry of Interpreters, pp. 43–54.Google Scholar
Baker-Shenk, C. & Cokely, D. (1991). Transcription symbols. In American Sign Language: A teacher’s resource text on grammar and culture. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 1–29.Google Scholar
Bat-Chava, Y. (1994). Group identification and self-esteem of deaf adults. Personality and Psychology Bulletin, 20(5), 494–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battison, R. M. (1978). Lexical borrowing in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstock Press.Google Scholar
Battison, R. M. (2013). American Sign Language linguistics 1970–1980: Memoir of a renaissance. In Emmorey, K. & Lane, H. L., eds., The signs of language revisited. New York: Psychology Press, pp. 17–25.Google Scholar
Bauman, H.-D. L., ed. (2008). Open your eyes: Deaf studies talking. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Bauman, H.-D. L. (2009). Postscript: Gallaudet protests of 2006 and the myths of in/exclusion. Sign Language Studies, 10(1), 90–104.Google Scholar
Bauman, H.-D. L., Nelson, J. L. & Rose, H. M. (2006). Signing the body poetic: Essays on American Sign Language literature. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bellugi, U. & Fischer, S. (1972). A comparison of sign language and spoken language. Cognition, 1(2–3), 173–200.Google Scholar
Benedicto, E. & Brentari, D. (2004). Where did all the arguments go? Argument-changing properties of classifiers in ASL. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 22(4), 743–810.Google Scholar
Benedicto, E., Cvejanov, C. & Quer, J. (2008). The morphosyntax of verbs of motion in serial constructions: A crosslinguistic study in three signed languages. In Quer, J., ed., Signs of the time: Selected papers from TISLR 8. Hamburg: Signum, pp. 111–132.Google Scholar
Bishop, M. & Hicks, S. (2005). Orange eyes: Bimodal bilingualism in hearing adults from deaf families. Sign Language Studies, 5(2), 188–230.Google Scholar
Blake, B. J. (2018). Taboo language as source of comedy. In Allen, K., ed., The Oxford handbook of taboo words and language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 353–371.Google Scholar
Bridges, B. & Metzger, M. (1996). Deaf tend your: Non-manual signals in ASL. Silver Spring, MD: Calliope Press.Google Scholar
Brother, M. (2017). Messages from our founder & president. www.coda-international.org/milliebrother.Google Scholar
Brueggemann, B. J. & Burch, S. (2006). Women and deafness: Double visions. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Burch, S. (2004). Signs of resistance: American deaf cultural history, 1900 to World War II. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Burch, S. & Joyner, H. (2007). Unspeakable: The story of Junius Wilson. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burch, S. & Sutherland, I. (2006). Who’s not yet here? American disability history. Radical History Review, 94, 127–147.Google Scholar
Burdiss, C. (2016). More about the deaf grassroots movement. www.paraquad.org/blog/more-about-deaf-grassroots-movement/.Google Scholar
Burke, M. (2013). SPEAKOUT: Deaf or Disabled, Deaf and Disabled, or DeafDisabled? The Buff and Blue. www.thebuffandblue.net/?p=11156.Google Scholar
Burridge, K. (2012). Euphemism and language change: The sixth and seventh ages. Journal in English Lexicography, 7, 65–92.Google Scholar
Caselli, N. K., Sehyr, Z. S., Cohen-Goldberg, A. M. & Emmorey, K. (2017). ASL-LEX: A lexical database of American Sign Language. Behavior Research Methods, 49, 784–801.Google Scholar
Cho, S. J. & Tian, Y. (2020). Why do they keep swearing? The role of outcome expectations between descriptive norms and swearing among Korean youths: A test of the theory of normative social behavior. Western Journal of Communication, 84(2), 227–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cifuentes-Férez, P. & Rojo, A. (2015). Thinking for translating: A think-aloud protocol on the translation of manner-of-motion verbs. Target: International Journal of Translation Studies, 27(2), 273–300.Google Scholar
Costello, B., Fernández, J. & Landa, A. (2006). The non-(existent) native signer: Sign language research in a small Deaf population. In de Quadros, R. M., ed., Theoretical issues in sign language research 9. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Arara Azul, pp. 77–94.Google Scholar
Coulter, G. (1990). Emphatic stress in ASL. In Fischer, S. D. & Siple, P., eds., Theoretical issues in sign language research: Linguistics, vol 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 109–126.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139–167.Google Scholar
Croce, N. E. (1985). Everyone here spoke sign language: Hereditary deafness on Martha’s Vineyard. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cruz, R., Firestone, A. & Love, M. (2023). Beyond a seat at the table: Imagining educational equity through critical inclusion. Educational Review, 1–27. http://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2023.2173726.Google Scholar
Culpeper, J. (2011). Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ćwiek, A., Fuchs, S., Draxler, C. et al. (2022). The bouba/kiki effect is robust across cultures and writing systems. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 377(1841), article 20200390. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2020.0390.Google Scholar
Davey, S. & Phillips, J. (2013). A new challenge: The deaf‐wannabe. Clinical Otolaryngology, 38(1), 109–110.Google Scholar
Davis, L. J. (2002). Postdeafness. In Bauman, H.-D. L., ed., Open your eyes: Deaf studies talking. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 314–326.Google Scholar
Davis, L. J. (2007). Deafness and the riddle of identity. The Chronicle Review (January 12), 1–7.Google Scholar
Deaf Women United (2016). Our mission: Embracing deaf womanhood through ongoing connections, advocacy and awareness. www.dwu.org/about_us.Google Scholar
Deal, M. (2003). Disabled people’s attitudes toward other impairment groups: A hierarchy of impairments. Disability and Society, 18(7), 897–910.Google Scholar
DiMarco, N. & Man, C. (2018). Nyle DiMarco & Chella Man teach us queer sign language. YouTube video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HX0HGa-pok.Google Scholar
Dressler, W. U. & Barbaresi, L. M. (2011). Morphopragmatics: Diminutives and intensifiers in Italian, German, and other languages. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Eckert, P. (2000). Linguistic variation as social practice. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Eckhardt, J. (2002). Profile: Alison Aubrecht, counselor and poet (Part 1: Identity). www.michdhh.org/profiles/aubrecht_alison.html.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. (2014). From compensation to integration: Effects of the pro-tactile movement on the sublexical structure of Tactile American Sign Language. Journal of Pragmatics, 69, 22–41.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. (2018). Re‐Channeling language: The mutual restructuring of language and infrastructure among DeafBlind people at Gallaudet University. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 28(3), 273–292.Google Scholar
Edwards, T. (2022). The difference intersubjective grammar makes in protactile DeafBlind communities. Lingua, 273, 103303.Google Scholar
Emmorey, K., Gertsberg, N., Korpics, F. & Wright, C. E. (2009). The influence of visual feedback and register changes on sign language production: A kinematic study with deaf signers. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30, 187–203.Google Scholar
Fenlon, J., Denmark, T., Campbell, R. & Woll, B. (2007). Seeing sentence boundaries. Sign Language and Linguistics, 10(2), 177–200.Google Scholar
Fine, H. & Fine, P., exec. prods. (1990). Sixty Minutes. New York: Columbia Broadcasting System.Google Scholar
Fischer, S. D. & Lillo‐Martin, D. (1990). UNDERSTANDING conjunctions. International Journal of Sign Linguistics, 1(2), 71–80.Google Scholar
Fisher, J., Mirus, G. & Napoli, D.J. (2018). Sticky: Taboo topics in deaf communities. In Allan, K., ed., The Oxford handbook of taboo words and language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 182–213.Google Scholar
Flying Words Project (2008). Poetry. From The year of walking dogs (DVD). www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnU3U6qEibUGoogle Scholar
Fox, T. F. (1880). Social Status of the Deaf. In Proceedings of the Second National Convention of Deaf-Mutes. New York: New York Institution of the Deaf and Dumb, pp. 13–16.Google Scholar
Frishberg, N. (1975). Arbitrariness and iconicity: Historical change in American Sign Language. Language, 51(3), 696–719.Google Scholar
Garberoglio, C., Johnson, P., Sales, A. & Cawthon, S. W. (2021). Change over time in educational attainment for deaf individuals from 2008–2018. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 34(3), 253–272.Google Scholar
Galvin, R. (2003). The making of the disabled identity: A linguistic analysis of marginalisation. Disability Studies Quarterly, 23(2), 149–178.Google Scholar
Gawinkowska, M., Paradowski, M. B. & Bilewicz, M. (2013). Second language as an exemptor from sociocultural norms: Emotion-related language choice revisited. PloS one, 8(12), article e81225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
George, J. E. (2011). Politeness in Japanese Sign Language (JSL): Polite JSL expression as evidence for intermodal language contact influence. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of California at Berkeley.Google Scholar
Grayson, G. (2003). Talking with your hands, listening with your eyes: A complete photographic guide to American Sign Language. Garden City Park, NY: Square One Publishers.Google Scholar
Greene, D. (2011). ASL for gay, lesbian, bisexual transgender, questioning. YouTube video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTdCZ9i1WY8.Google Scholar
Gregory, S. (1998). Mathematics and deaf children. In Gregory, S., Knight, P., McCracken, W., Powers, S. & Watson, L., eds., Issues in deaf education. Abingdon: David Fulton Publishers, pp. 119–126.Google Scholar
Hairston, E. & Smith, L. (1983). Black and Deaf in America. Silver Spring, MD: TJ Publishers.Google Scholar
Halmari, H. (2011). Political correctness, euphemism, and language change: The case of “people first.” Journal of Pragmatics, 43(3), 828–840.Google Scholar
Hansen, S. J., McMahon, K. L. & de Zubicaray, G. I. (2019). The neurobiology of taboo language processing: fMRI evidence during spoken word production. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 14(3), 271–279.Google Scholar
Harris, R., Holmes, H. & Mertens, D. (2009). Research ethics in sign language communities. Sign Language Studies, 9(2), 104–131.Google Scholar
Herrmann, A. & Steinbach, M., eds. (2013). Nonmanuals in sign language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hill, J. (2014). Junk Spanish, cover racism, and the (leaky) boundary between public and private spheres. Pragmatics, 5(2), 197–212.Google Scholar
Hinton, L., Nichols, J. & Ohala, J. J., eds. (2006). Sound symbolism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hochgesang, J. A. & Miller, M. T. (2016). A celebration of the Dictionary of American Sign Language on linguistic principles: Fifty years later. Sign Language Studies, 16(4), 563–591.Google Scholar
Hoeksema, J. (2012). Elative compounds in Dutch: Properties and developments. In Oebel, G., ed.,Intensivierungskonzepte bei Adjektiven und Adverben im Sprachenvergleich/Crosslinguistic comparison of intensified adjectives and adverbs. Hamburg: Verlag dr. Kovać, pp. 97–142.Google Scholar
Hoeksema, J. & Napoli, D. J. (2008). Just for the hell of it: A comparison to two taboo-term constructions. Journal of Linguistics, 44, 347–378.Google Scholar
Hoeksema, J. & Napoli, D. J. (2019). Degree resultatives as second-order constructions. Journal of Germanic Linguistics, 31(3), 225–297.Google Scholar
Holcomb, T. (2013). Introduction to American deaf culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hollins, K. (2000). Between two worlds: The social implications of cochlear implantation for children born deaf. In Hubert, J., ed., Madness, disability and social exclusion: The archaeology and anthropology of difference. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 180–195.Google Scholar
Horejes, T. P. (2012). Social constructions of deafness: Examining deaf languacultures in education. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Hott, L. & Garey, D., dirs. (2007). Through Deaf eyes. DVD. USA: Florentine Films/Hott Productions.Google Scholar
Hoza, J. (2007). It’s not what you sign: It’s how you sign it. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Hoza, J. (2008). Five nonmanual modifiers that mitigate requests and rejections in American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 8, 264–288.Google Scholar
Hudnall, W. B. (1976). A study of the “grassroots” deaf community in relation to deaf advocacy. Unpublished MA thesis, California State University at Northridge.Google Scholar
Hughes, G. (2015). An encyclopedia of swearing: The social history of oaths, profanity, foul language, and ethnic slurs in the English-speaking world. Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphries, T. (1975). Audism: The making of a word. Unpublished manuscript. San Diego: University of California at San Diego.Google Scholar
Humphries, T. (1977). Communicating across cultures (deaf/hearing) and language learning. Unpublished PhD thesis, Union Institute, Cincinnati, OH.Google Scholar
Humphries, T., Kushalnagar, P., Mathur, G. et al. (2012). Language acquisition for deaf children: Reducing the harms of zero tolerance to the use of alternative approaches. Harm Reduction Journal, 9(1), article 16.Google Scholar
Humphries, T., Kushalnagar, P., Mathur, G. et al. (2017). Discourses of prejudice in the professions: The case of sign languages. Journal of Medical Ethics, 43(9), 648–652.Google Scholar
Janssen, M. J., Riksen-Walraven, J. M. & van Dijk, J. (2002). Enhancing the quality of interaction between deafblind children and their educators. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 14(1), 87–109.Google Scholar
Jay, T. (2009). The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 153–161.Google Scholar
Job, J. (2004). Factors involved in the ineffective dissemination of sexuality information to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. American Annals of the Deaf, 149(3), 264–273.Google Scholar
Johnston, T. & Ferrara, L. (2012). Lexicalization in signed languages: When is an idiom not an idiom? Selected papers from UK-CLA Meetings, 1, 229–248.Google Scholar
Johnston, T. & Schembri, A. (2007). Australian Sign Language: An introduction to sign language linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Keehner, M., Atkinson, J. (2006). Working memory and deafness: Implications for cognitive development and functioning. In Pickering, S., ed., Working memory and education. London: Elsevier, pp. 189–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kensicki, L. J. (2001). Deaf president now! Positive media framing of a social movement within a hegemonic political environment. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 25(2), 147–166.Google Scholar
Kersten-Parrish, S. (2021). De-Masking deafness: Unlearning and reteaching disability during a pandemic. Disability Studies Quarterly, 41(3). https://dsq-sds.org/article/view/8329/6185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinfeld, M. S. & Warner, N. (1996). Variation in the deaf community: Gay, lesbian, and bisexual signs. In Lucas, C., ed., Multicultural aspects of sociolinguistics in deaf communities. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 3–35.Google Scholar
Klima, E. & Bellugi, U. (1975). Wit and poetry in American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 8, 203–224.Google Scholar
Klima, E. & Bellugi, U. (1979). The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Knooihuizen, R. (2008). Fishing for words: The taboo language of Shetland fishermen and the dating of Norn language death 1. Transactions of the Philological Society, 106(1), 100–113.Google Scholar
Kobayashi, Y. & Osugi, Y. (2020). Deaf women’s participation, movements, and rights: Learning from the experiences of deaf women in Japan. Deaf Studies Digital Journal, 5. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dsdj/images/15499139.0005.007-transcript.pdf.Google Scholar
Krieger, J. (2007). Grassroots: Carriers of our ASL? http://seesay-jay.blogspot.com/2007/04/grassroots-carriers-of-our-asl.html.Google Scholar
Künzli, A. (2009). Think-aloud protocols–A useful tool for investigating the linguistic aspect of translation. Meta: journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal, 54(2), 326–341.Google Scholar
Labov, T. (1992). Social and language boundaries among adolescents. American Speech, 67, 339–366.Google Scholar
Lackner, A. (2017) Functions of head and body movements in Austrian Sign Language. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Lancker, D. & Cummings, J. L. (1999). Expletives: Neurolinguistic and neurobehavioral perspectives on swearing. Brain Research Reviews, 31, 8–104.Google ScholarPubMed
Lane, H., (2002). Do deaf people have a disability? Sign Language Studies, 2(4), 356–379.Google Scholar
Lane, H. (2005). Ethnicity, ethics, and the deaf-world. Journal of deaf studies and deaf education, 10(3), 291–310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lane, H., Pillard, R. & French, M. (2000). Origins of the American Deaf-World: Assimilating and differentiating societies and their relation to genetic patterning. Sign Language Studies, 1(1), 17–44.Google Scholar
Leigh, I. W. (2009). A lens on deaf identities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leigh, I. W., Andrews, J. F. & Harris, R. (2016). Deaf culture: Exploring deaf communities in the United States. San Diego: Plural Publishing.Google Scholar
Lentz, E. M. (2014). Deafhood and deaf culture: The relationship. YouTube video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAKGmnhzebQ.Google Scholar
Lewis, K. B. & Henderson, R. (1997). Sign language made simple. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Liddell, S. K. (2003). Grammar, gesture, and meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Liddell, S. K. & Johnson, R. E. (1986). American Sign Language compound formation processes, lexicalization, and phonological remnants. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 4(4), 445–513.Google Scholar
Liddell, S. K. & Johnson, R. E. (1989). American Sign Language: The phonological base. Sign Language Studies, 64, 195–277.Google Scholar
Lillo-Martin, D. (1991). Universal Grammar and American Sign Language: Setting the null argument parameters. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Linfoot-Ham, Kerry (2005). The linguistics of euphemism: A diachronic study of euphemism formation. Journal of Language and Linguistics, 4(2), 227–263.Google Scholar
Llisterri, J. (1992). Speaking styles in speech research: ELSNET/ ESCA/ SALT Workshop on Integrating Speech and Natural Language. Dublin, Ireland, 15–17 July 1992. http://liceu.uab.cat/~joaquim/publicacions/SpeakingStyles_92.pdf.Google Scholar
Lockwood, W. B. (1955). Word taboo in the language of the Faroese fishermen. Transactions of the Philological Society, 54(1),1–24.Google Scholar
Longmore, P. K. & Umansky, L. (2001). The new disability history: American perspectives. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Loos, C., Cramer, J. M. & Napoli, D. J. (2020). The linguistic sources of offense of taboo terms in German Sign Language. Cognitive linguistics, 31(1), 73–112.Google Scholar
Lucas, C., Bayley, R., Rose, M. & Wulf, A. (2002). Location variation in American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 2(4), 407–440.Google Scholar
Magazzù, G. (2018). Non-professional subtitling in Italy: The challenges of translating humour and taboo language. Hikma, 17, 75–93.Google Scholar
Mandel, M. (1981). Phonotactics and morphophonology in American Sign Language. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Mathur, G. & Rathmann, C. (2006). Variability in verbal agreement forms across four signed languages. In Goldstein, L., Whalen, D. & Best, C., eds., Laboratory Phonology 8. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 289–316.Google Scholar
Mathur, G. & Rathmann, C. (2010). Verb agreement in sign language morphology. In Brentari, D., ed., Sign languages: A Cambridge language survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 173–196.Google Scholar
Mauldin, L. (2016). Made to hear: Cochlear implants and raising deaf children. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskill, C., Lucas, C., Bayley, R. & Hill, J. (2011). The hidden treasure of Black ASL: Its history and structure. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
McGlone, M. S., Beck, G. & Pfiester, A. (2006). Contamination and camouflage in euphemisms. Communication Monographs, 73(3), 261–282.Google Scholar
Meir, I., Padden, C., Aronoff, M. & Sandler, W. (2007). Body as subject. Journal of Linguistics, 43, 531–563.Google Scholar
Mesch, J. (2000). Tactile Swedish Sign Language: Turn taking in signed conversations of people who are deaf and blind. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/dbi_culture/15Google Scholar
Mesch, J. & Raanes, E. (2023). Meaning-making in tactile cross-signing context. Journal of Pragmatics, 205, 137–150.Google Scholar
Miller, R. H. (2004). Deaf hearing boy: A memoir. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Mindess, A. (2006). Reading between the signs: Intercultural communication for sign language interpreters. Boston: Intercultural Press.Google Scholar
Mirus, G. (2008). On the linguistic repertoire of Deaf cuers. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Mirus, G., Fisher, J. & Napoli, D. J. (2012). Taboo expressions in American Sign Language. Lingua, 122(9), 1004–1020.Google Scholar
Mirus, G., Fisher, J. & Napoli, D. J. (2020). (Sub) lexical changes in iconic signs to realign with community sensibilities and experiences. Language in Society, 49(2), 283–309.Google Scholar
Mirus, G., Rathmann, C. & Meier, R. (2001). Proximalizaion and distalization of sign movement in adult learners. In Dively, V., Metzger, M., Taub, S. & Baer, A. M., eds., Signed languages: Discoveries from international research. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 103–119.Google Scholar
Mitchell, R. & Karchmer, M. (2004). Chasing the mythical ten percent: Parental hearing status of deaf and hard of hearing students in the United States. Sign Language Studies, 4(2), 138–163.Google Scholar
Montagu, A. (1967). The anatomy of swearing. New York: Rapp & Whiting.Google Scholar
Moores, D. (2001). Educating the Deaf: Psychology, principles, and practices. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Moser, M. G. (1990). The regularity hypothesis applied to ASL. In Lucas, C., ed., Sign language research: Theoretical issues. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 50–56.Google Scholar
Muansuwan, N. (2001). Directional serial verb constructions in Thai. In Flickinger, D. & Kathol, A., eds., Proceedings of the 7th International HPSG Conference, UC Berkeley (22–23 July, 2000). Stanford: CSLI Publications, pp. 229–246.Google Scholar
Muredda, A. (2012). Fixing language: “People-first” language, taxonomical prescriptivism, and the linguistic location of disability. The English Languages: History, Diaspora, Culture, 3(1), 1–10.Google Scholar
Musselman, C. (2000). How do children who can’t hear learn to read an alphabetic script? A review of the literature on reading and feafness. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 5, 9–31.Google Scholar
Napoli, D. J., Fisher, J. & Mirus, G. (2013) Bleached taboo-term predicates in American Sign Language. Lingua, 123, 148–167.Google Scholar
Napoli, D. J. & Hoeksema, J. (2009). The grammatical versatility of taboo terms. Studies in Language, 33(3), 612–643.Google Scholar
Napoli, D. J. & Mirus, G. (2015). Shared reading activities: a recommendation for deaf children. Global Journal of Special Education and Services, 3(1), 38–42.Google Scholar
Napoli, D. J. & Sutton-Spence, R. (2021). Clause-initial Vs in sign languages: Scene-setters. In Lee-Schoenfeld, V. & Ott, D., eds., Parameters of predicate fronting: Cross-linguistic explorations of V(P)-initial clauses. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 192–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Napoli, D. J., Fisher, J. & Mirus, G. (2013). Bleached taboo-term predicates in American Sign Language. Lingua, 123, 148–167.Google Scholar
Napoli, D. J., Spence, R. S. & de Quadros, R. M. (2017). Influence of predicate sense on word order in sign languages: Intensional and extensional verbs. Language, 93(3), 641–670.Google Scholar
Neidle, C., Opoku, A. & Metaxas, D. (2022). ASL video corpora & sign bank: Resources available through the American sign language linguistic research project (ASLLRP). arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.07899v1 [cs.CL]. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2201.07899.Google Scholar
Neidle, C., Kegl, J., MacLaughlin, D., Bahan, B. & Lee, R. (2000). The syntax of American Sign Language: Functional categories and hierarchical structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Nespor, M. & Sandler, W. (1999). Prosody in Israeli Sign Language. Language and Speech, 42(2–3), 143–176.Google Scholar
Nicodemus, B. (2009). Prosodic markers and utterance boundaries in American Sign Language interpretation. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
O’Connell, N. P. (2016). A tale of two schools: Educating Catholic female deaf children in Ireland, 1846–1946. History of Education, 45(2), 188–205.Google Scholar
O’Driscoll, J. (2020). Offensive language: Taboo, offence and social control. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
Ormel, E. & Crasborn, O. (2012). Prosodic correlates of sentences in signed languages. Sign Language Studies, 12(2), 109–145.Google Scholar
Padden, C. (1988). Interaction of morphology and syntax in American Sign Language. New York: Garland Press.Google Scholar
Padden, C. & Humphries, T. (1988). Deaf in America: Voices from a culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Padden, C. & Perlmutter, D. (1987). American Sign Language and the architecture of phonological theory. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 5, 335–375.Google Scholar
Pendzich, N.-K. (2020). Lexical nonmanuals in German Sign Language. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pénicaud, S., Klein, D., Zatorre, R. J. et al. (2013). Structural brain changes linked to delayed first language acquisition in congenitally deaf individuals. NeuroImage, 66(1), 42–49.Google Scholar
Permenter, C. (2012). Deaf community outraged by dirty sign language book. www.lackuna.com/2012/07/02/deaf-community-outraged-by-dirty-sign-language-book/Google Scholar
Perniss, P., Thompson, R. L. & Vigliocco, G. (2010). Iconicity as a general property of language: Evidence from spoken and signed languages. Frontiers in Psychology, 1. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petitto, L. A., Zatorre, R. A., Gauna, K. et al. (2000). Speech-like cerebral activity in profoundly deaf people processing signed languages: Implications for the neural basis of human language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 97(25), 13961–13966.Google Scholar
Petronio, K. (1993). Clause structure in American Sign Language. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Pfau, R. & Quer, J. (2010). Nonmanuals: Their grammatical and prosodic roles. In Brentari, D., ed., Sign languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 381–402.Google Scholar
Pfau, R. & Steinbach, M. (2006). Pluralization in sign and in speech: A cross-modal typological study. Linguistic Typology, 10, 135–182.Google Scholar
Pfau, R., Salzmann, M. & Steinbach, M. (2018). The syntax of sign language agreement: Common ingredients, but unusual recipe. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 3(1), article 107. http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.511Google Scholar
Pietrosemoli, L. (1994). Sign terminology for sex and death in Venezuelan deaf and hearing cultures: A preliminary study of pragmatic interference. In Erting, C., Johnson, R. C., Smith, D. L. & Snider, B. D., eds., The deaf way. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 677–683.Google Scholar
Pilotti, M., Almand, J., Mahamane, S. & Martinez, M. (2012). Taboo words in expressive language: Do sex and primary language matter. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, 2(2), 17–26.Google Scholar
Pizzuto, E. & Corazza, S. (1996). Noun morphology in Italian Sign Language (LIS). Lingua, 98(1–3), 169–196.Google Scholar
Powell, A. (2012). Deaf community rallies against Dirty Signs with Kristin. The Daily Dot. www.dailydot.com/news/deaf-community-petition-dirty-signs-kristin/.Google Scholar
Preston, P. (1994). Mother father deaf: Living between sound and silence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Project-Easier. 2021. Overview of datasets for the sign languages of Europe. www.project-easier.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/67/2021/08/EASIER-D6.1-Overview-of-Datasets-for-the-Sign-Languages-of-Europe.pdf.Google Scholar
Pyers, J. (2006). Indicating the body: Expression of body part terminology in American Sign Language. Language Sciences, 28 (2–3), 280–303.Google Scholar
Quinto-Pozos, D. & Adam, R. (2015). Sign languages in contact. In Schembri, A. C. and Lucas, C., eds., Sociolinguistics and deaf communities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 29–60.Google Scholar
Robinson, C. L. (2006). Visual screaming: Willy Conley’s deaf theatre and Charlie Chaplin’s silent cinema. In Bauman, H.-D. L., Nelson, J. L. & Rose, H. M., eds., Signing the body poetic: Essays on American Sign Language literature. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 195–215.Google Scholar
Robinson, O. E. (2010). We are a different class: Ableist rhetoric in Deaf America, 1880-1920. In Burch, S. and Kafer, A., eds., Deaf and disability studies. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 5–21.Google Scholar
Robinson, O. E. (2012). The Deaf do not beg: Making the case for citizenship, 1880–1956. Unpublished PhD thesis, The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Roush, D. (2007). Indirectness strategies in American Sign Language requests and refusals: Deconstructing the Deaf-as-direct stereotype. In Metzger, M. and Fleetwood, E., eds., Translation, sociolinguistic, and consumer issues in interpreting. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, pp. 103–158.Google Scholar
Rudner, W. A. & Butowsky, R. (1981). Signs used in the deaf gay community. Sign Language Studies, 30(1), 36–48.Google Scholar
Rush, C. (2014). From the mouth of a hard-of-hearing student. August 29. http://silentethnography.blogspot.com/.Google Scholar
Rutherford, S. (1993). A study of American Deaf folklore. Burtonsville, MD: Linstok Press.Google Scholar
Sandler, W. & Lillo-Martin, D. (2006). Sign language and linguistic universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Saunders, K. C. (2016). A double-edged sword: Social media as a tool of online disinhibition regarding American Sign Language and Deaf Cultural experience marginalization, and as a tool of cultural and linguistic exposure. Social Media + Society, 2(1). doi: 10.1177/2056305115624529.Google Scholar
Schein, J. D. (1989). At home among strangers. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Schein, J. & Stewart, D. (1995). Language in motion: Exploring the nature of sign. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Seliger, S. (2012). Why won’t they get hearing aids? New York Times. https://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/why-wont-they-get-hearing-aids/.Google Scholar
Schwager, W. & Zeshan, U. (2008). Word classes in sign languages. Studies in Language, 32(3), 509–545.Google Scholar
Shaffer, B. (2004). Information ordering and speaker subjectivity: Modality in ASL. Cognitive Linguistics, 15(2), 175–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, Rogan (2017). Queer signs. YouTube video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfPAkVGWtMY.Google Scholar
Sheridan, M. A. (2001). Deaf women now: Establishing our niche. In Bragg, L., ed., Deaf World: A historical reader and primary sourcebook. New York: New York University Press, pp. 380–389.Google Scholar
SignSchool (2016a). come-out. YouTube video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXQ3WpRIUDg.Google Scholar
SignSchool (2016b). come-out-of-the-closet. YouTube video. www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=88iTOlH7XYQGoogle Scholar
Singleton, J. L., Jones, G. & Hanumantha, S. (2014). Toward ethical research practice with Deaf participants. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 9, 59–66.Google Scholar
Singleton, J. L., Martin, A. J. & Morgan, G. (2015). Ethics, Deaf-friendly research, and good practice when studying sign languages. In Orfanidou, E., Woll, B. & Morgan, G., eds.,Research methods in sign language studies: A practical guide. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 7–20.Google Scholar
Solomon, A. (2012). Far from the tree: Parents, children and the search for identity. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Solomon, C. & Miller, J. A. (2014). Sign language is not performance art. The Baltimore Sun. April 26. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-04-25/news/bs-ed-media-and-sign-language-20140426_1_american-sign-language-deaf-americans-deaf-people.Google Scholar
Song, S., Zilverstand, A., Song, H. et al. (2017). The influence of emotional interference on cognitive control: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies using the emotional Stroop task. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1–9.Google Scholar
Start, ASL. (2008-2017). Famous deaf people. www.startasl.com/famous-deaf-people_html.Google Scholar
Stauffer, L. K. (2012). ASL students’ ability to self assess ASL competency. Journal of Interpretation, 21(1), 79–90.Google Scholar
Stokoe, W. C., Bernard, H. R. & Padden, C. (1976). An elite group in deaf society. Sign Language Studies, 12, 189–210.Google Scholar
Stone, C. (2009). Toward a deaf translation norm. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Suggs, T. (2012). A deaf perspective: Cultural respect in sign language interpreting. Street Leverage. www.streetleverage.com/2012/08/a-deaf-perspective-cultural-respect-in-sign-language-interpreting/.Google Scholar
Supalla, S. (1992). The book of name signs: Naming in American Sign Language. San Diego: Dawn Sign Press.Google Scholar
Supalla, T. & Newport, E. (1978). How many seats in a chair? The derivation of nouns and verbs in American Sign Language. In Siple, P., ed., Understanding language through sign language research. New York: Academic Press, pp. 91–32.Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, R. & Boyes Braem, P. (2013). Comparing the products and the processes of creating sign language poetry and pantomimic improvisations. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 37(4), 245–280.Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, R. & Kaneko, M. (2016). Introducing sign language literature: Folklore and creativity. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, R. & Napoli, D. J. (2009). Humour in sign languages: The linguistic underpinnings. Dublin: Trinity College.Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, R. & Woll, B. (1999). The linguistics of British Sign Language: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Swinbourne, C. (2013). The 10 annoying habits of hearing people. http://limpingchicken.com/2013/05/20/charlie-swinbourne-the-10-incredibly-annoying-habits-of-hearing-people/.Google Scholar
Sze, F. Y. B., Wei, M. X. & Wong, A. Y. L. (2017). Taboos and euphemisms in sex-related signs in Asian sign languages. Linguistics, 55(1), 153–205.Google Scholar
Tang, G., Brentari, D., González, C. & Sze, F. (2010). Crosslinguistic variation in the use of prosodic cues: The case of blinks. In Brentari, D., ed.,Sign languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 519–542.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. (2017). Deaf people teach us bad words in sign language. YouTube video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdOU3czs-NY&ab_channel=WatchCutVideoGoogle Scholar
Tierney, J. D. (2017). The laughing truth: Race and humor in a documentary filmmaking class. Knowledge Cultures, 5(3), 38–46.Google Scholar
Tropp, L. R. & Wright, S. C. (2001). Ingroup identification as the inclusion of ingroup in the self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(5), 585–600.Google Scholar
TrueBizMe. (2012). Update: Action alert: Hearing person exploiting ASL for profit. https://truebizme.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/action-alert-hearing-person-exploiting-asl-for-profit/Google Scholar
Van Oudenhoven, J. P., de Raad, B., Askevis-Leherpeux, F. et al. (2008). Terms of abuse as expression and reinforcement of cultures. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 32(2), 174–185.Google Scholar
van Someren, M. W., Barnard, Y. F. & Sandberg, J. A. C. (1994). The think aloud method: A practical guide to modeling cognitive processes. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Veale, D. (2006). A compelling desire for deafness. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 11(3), 369–372.Google Scholar
Vigliocco, G., Perniss, P. & Vinson, D. (2014). Language as a multimodal phenomenon: Implications for language learning, processing and evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369. http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0292.Google Scholar
Voghel, A. (2005). Phonologically identical noun-verb pairs in Quebec Sign Language (LSQ): Form and context. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics, 25, 68–75.Google Scholar
Waugh, L. R. & Newfield, N. (1995). Iconicity in the lexicon and its relevance for a theory of morphology. In Landsberg, M. E., ed., Syntactic Iconicity and Linguistic Freezes: The Human Dimension. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 189–221.Google Scholar
Wells, T., Beevers, C., Robison, A. & Ellis, A. (2010). Gaze behavior predicts memory bias for angry facial expressions in stable dysphoria. Emotion, 10(6), 894–902.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. B. (1987). American Sign Language: Linguistic and applied dimensions. Boston: College-Hill.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. B. (1996). Evidence for the function and structure of Wh-clefts in American Sign Language. International Review of Sign Linguistics, 22, 209–256.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. (2000). Phonological and prosodic layering of nonmanuals in American Sign Language. In Emmorey, K. & Lane, H., eds., The signs of language revisited: An anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 190–214.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. B. (2005). A reanalysis of reduplication in American Sign Language. In Hurch, B., ed., Studies in Reduplication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 593–620.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. B. (2011). Modality and the structure of sign language: Sign languages versus signed systems. In Marschark, M. and Spencer, P. E., eds., Oxford handbook of deaf studies, language, and education, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 350–366.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. B. (2016). Preference for clause order in complex sentences with adverbial clauses in American Sign Language. In Pfau, R., Steinbach, M. & Herrmann, A., eds., A matter of complexity: Subordination in sign languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 36–64.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. & Martínez, A. (2002). Physical correlates of prosodic structure in American Sign Language. CLS, 38(1), 693–704.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. & Patschke, C. (1999). Syntactic correlates of brow raise in ASL. Sign Language and Linguistics, 2, 3–41.Google Scholar
Wilcox, P. (2000). Metaphor in American Sign Language. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Wilcox, S. (2009). Symbol and symptom: Routes from gesture to sign language. Second Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 7(1), 89–110.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. (2013). Another language is another soul. Language and Intercultural Communication, 13(3), pp. 298–309.Google Scholar
Winter, B. & Perlman, M. (2021). Size sound symbolism in the English lexicon. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 6(1), article 79. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1646.Google Scholar
Winter, B., Perlman, M., Perry, L. K. & Lupyan, G. (2017). Which words are most iconic? Iconicity in English sensory words. Interaction Studies, 18(3), 443–464.Google Scholar
Winter, B., Sóskuthy, M., Perlman, M. & Dingemanse, M. (2022). Trilled/r/is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languages. Scientific Reports, 12(1), article 1035. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-04311-7Google Scholar
Winter, W. (1970). Basic principles of the comparative method. In Gavin, P. L., ed., Method and theory in linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 147–156.Google Scholar
Wood, S. K. (1999). Semantic and syntactic aspects of negation in ASL. Unpublished MA thesis, Purdue University.Google Scholar
Woodward, J. (1979). Signs of sexual behavior: An introduction to some sex-related vocabulary in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: T. J. Publishers.Google Scholar
Zola, C. (2015). Let’s talk (or sign!) about the deaf, not hearing interpreters. www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/06/10/sign_language_let_s_talk_or_sign_about_the_deaf_not_hearing_interpreters.html.Google Scholar
Zorc, R. D. (1990). The Austronesian monosyllabic root, radical or phonestheme. In Baldi, P., ed., Linguistic change and reconstruction methodology. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 175–194.Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Taboo in Sign Languages
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Taboo in Sign Languages
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Taboo in Sign Languages
Available formats
×