Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:12:37.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Urban and rural sign language in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Jill Jepson
Jill Jepson
Affiliation:
Program in Medical Anthropology, University of California, San Francisco
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A comparison is presented of Indian urban and rural sign languages of the deaf. The structures of both languages are designed for efficient communication but have developed differently in response to different sociolinguistic environments. The urban form transmits information primarily by means of appeal to a shared linguistic code; the rural form mainly by appeal to communal nonlinguistic knowledge. Both languages employ effective and appropriate means given their environments. The relationship between language usage and structure is explored. (Sign language, deafness, India)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 1991 , pp. 37 - 57
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

Armstrong, D. R. (1983). Iconicity, arbitrariness, and duality of patterning in signed and spoken language: Perspectives on language evolution. Sign Language Studies 35: 51–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellugi, Ursula, & Klima, Edward S. (1975). Aspects of sign language and its structure. In Kavanagh, James F. & Cutting, James E. (eds.), The role of speech in language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 171–205.Google Scholar
Brito, Lucinda Rerreira. (1984). Similarities and differences in two Brazilian sign languages. Sign Language Studies 42: 45–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, David, & Craig, Elaine (1978). Contrived sign languages. In Schlesinger, I. M. & Namir, L. (eds.), Sign language of the deaf: psychological, linguistic, and social perspectives. New York: Academic. 141–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, L. (1975). On semantics of space, time, and person reference in ASL. Language 51: 940–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frischberg, N. (1975). Arbitrariness and iconicity: Historical change in American Sign Language. Language 51 (3) 1696–719.Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., & Feldman, H. (1975). The creation of a communication System: A study of deaf children of hearing parents. Sign Language Studies 8: 225–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoemann, H.W. (1975). The transparency of meaning of sign language gestures. Sign Language Studies 7: 151–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hymes, Dell. (1972). Models of the interaction of language and social life. In Gumperz, John J. & Hymes, Dell (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 35–71.Google Scholar
Hymes, Dell. (1974). Foundations of sociolinguistics: An ethnographic approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Kuschel, R. (1973). The silent inventor: The creation of a sign language on a Polynesian Island. Sign Language Studies 3: 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohay, Heather. (1982). A preliminary description of the communication systems evolved by two deaf children in the absence of a sign language model. Sign Language Studies 34: 73–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, J. H., & Griffith, P. L. (1979). On the scientific status of iconicity. Sign Language Stofes 25: 297–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokoe, W. C. (1972). Semiotics and human sign languages. New York: Humanities.Google Scholar
Stokoe, W. C, Casterline, D. C, & Croneberg, C. G. (1965). A dictionary of American Sign Language on linguistic principles. Washington, DC: Gallaudet College Press.Google Scholar
Vasishta, M., Woodward, J., & DeSantis, S. (1980). An introduction to Indian Sign Language. New Delhi: All India Federation of the Deaf.Google Scholar
Vasishta, M., Woodward, J., & Wilson, K. (1978, August). Sign language in India: Regional variation within the deaf population.Paper presented to the 5th International Congress of Applied Linguistics, Montreal.Google Scholar
Washabaugh, W. (1979). Hearing and deaf signers on Providence Island. Sign Language Studies 24: 191–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washabaugh, W. (1980). The organization and use of Providence Island Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 26: 65–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washabaugh, W. (1981). Sign language in its social context. Annual Review of Anthropology 10: 237–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washabaugh, W., Woodward, J., & DeSantis, S. (1978). Providence Island Sign: A context-dependent language. Anthropological Linguistics 20 (3): 95–109.Google Scholar
Wescott, Roger W. (1971). Linguistic iconism. Language 47 (2): 416–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitney, W. D. (1875). Phusei or thesei - Natural or conventional. Transactions of the American Philological Association for 1874. 95–11.Google Scholar