Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-kwt9d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T04:23:53.646Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variation and recent change in fingerspelling in British Sign Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Rachel Sutton-Spence,
Bencie Woll and
Lorna Allsop
Rachel Sutton-Spence
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, UK
Bencie Woll
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, UK
Lorna Allsop
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, UK
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

British Sign Language is a language exhibiting extensive regional variation and undergoing rapid change, in a period of changing attitudes to the language and the community of signers. Fingerspelling (a representation of written English) is an aspect of BSL that reflects these variations strongly. Analysis of interviews with Deaf signers appearing on BBC television shows that use of fingerspelling may vary according to various demographic factors and the signers' use of voice. There has also been a decrease in the overall use of fingerspelling in BSL over the last 10 years. Strong evidence is presented to support the claim that fingerspelling in BSL is of two distinct linguistic types. Some fingerspelling involves code-mixing with English, whereas some has become incorporated into the language itself. Further evidence for such a “discontinuity” between the code-mixing and borrowing is presented and discussed.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , October 1990, pp. 313 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Akamatsu, C. (1985). Fingerspelling formulae: A word is more or less the sum of its letters. In Stokoe, W. & Volterra, V. (eds.), SLR '83. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok.Google Scholar
Allsop, L., Woll, B. & Spence, R. (1990). Sign language varieties in British television. In Prillwitz, S. & Vollhaber, T. (eds.), Current trends in European sign language research. Hamburg: Signum.Google Scholar
Battison, R. (1978). Lexical borrowing in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok.Google Scholar
Bulwer, J. B. (1644). Chirologia: Or the natural language of the hand. London: R. Whitaker.Google Scholar
Bulwer, J. B. (1648). Philocophus: Or the deafe and dumbe man's friend. London: Humphrey Moseley.Google Scholar
Davis, J. (1989). Distinguishing language contact phenomena in ASL interpretation. In Lucas, C. (ed.), The sociolinguistics of the deaf community. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Deuchar, M. (1977). Sign language diglossia in a British Deaf community. Sign Language Studies 17:347–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deuchar, M. (1984). British Sign Language. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hoemann, H. & Koenig, T. (1990). Categorical coding of Manual and English alphabet characters by beginning students of ASL. Sign Language Studies 67:175–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klima, E. & Bellugi, U. (1979). The signs of language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kyle, J. G. & Woll, B. (1985). Sign language: The study of deaf people and their language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marmor, G. S. & Petitto, L. (1979). Simultaneous communication in the classroom: How well is English grammar represented? Sign Language Studies 23:99–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, M. (1988). The alphabetic principle & fingerspelling. Sign Language Studies 61:377–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padden, C. & LeMaster, B. (1985). An alphabet on hand: The acquisition of fingerspelling in Deaf children. Sign Language Studies 47:161–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poizner, H., Klima, E. & Bellugi, U. (1987). What the hands reveal about the brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Poplack, S. & Sankoff, D. (1984). Borrowing: The synchrony of integration. Linguistics 22:99–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poplack, S., Sankoff, D. & Miller, C. (1988). The social correlates and linguistic processes of lexical borrowing and assimilation. Linguistics 26:47–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southern Working Party on Signed English (1985). Signed English. St. Albans, Herts.: Heath-lands School for the Deaf.Google Scholar
Woll, B. (1987). Historical and comparative aspects of BSL. In Kyle, J. G. (ed.), Sign and school. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Woll, B. & Allsop, L. (1990). Recent variation in BSL in the light of new approaches to the study of language. In Kyle, J. G. (ed.), Deafness and sign language into the 1990s. Bristol: Deaf Studies Trust.Google Scholar
Yau, S. C. (1977). The Chinese signs. Paris and Hong Kong: Editions Langage CroisésGoogle Scholar