http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1781088852

Lexical borrowing in American sign language

This book is written primarily for those studying linguistic topics in the area of sign language, but also can be useful to sign language teachers who want to understand more about American Sign Language (asl). Pen-and-ink illustrations allow the reader with no knowledge of sign language to follow the discussion. The hypothesis examined in this study is the following: As with oral languages, lexical borrowing from one manual language into another is accompanied by lexical restructuring in accordance with the formational and morphological principles of the borrowing language. This study examines some English words that are fingerspelled by signers and physically change to become asl signs in a systematic and predictable manner. This implies that the process of word borrowing and restructuring in asl is highly similar to the same process in spoken languages. The focus of this study is on the formational aspects of signing. An analysis of loan signs and the English influence that prompts their borrowing also depends on the social world of signers, which is discussed in terms of those aspects of social interaction that create ASL-English bilinguals. The chapters include: (1) Analyzing Signs, (2) Signs in Action, (3) Social Issues, (4) Loan Signs from Fingerspelled Words, and (5) Analysis and Discussion. Appended are illustrations of the handshapes of fingerspelling and a table of symbols used in "a Dictionary of American Sign Language." (Ncr).

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