Connections between Fingerspelling and Print: The Impact of Working Memory and Temporal Dynamics on Lexical Activation
Recently there has been a renewed interest in characterizing the role of fingerspelling for deaf readers. The present study takes a step back and creates a theoretical foundation for investigating similarities between fingerspelling and print decoding in hearing signers. In this way, we can probe the constraints of temporal processing and memory on L1 orthography and the processing of L2 fingerspelling. Using a cross-modal priming paradigm, the role of orthography and phonology in print and fingerspelling word recognition was investigated. Results indicate significant inhibition in target retrieval when the prime was fingerspelled but not when it was presented in print. It was hypothesized that inhibition was due to either recoding or prime temporal dynamics. Hearing nonsigners were tested with serially or simultaneously presented print to determine the role of recoding and temporal dynamics. The results suggest that: (1) difficulties in processing fingerspelling for L2 learners might arise from recoding back into an L1 orthographic representation; (2) working memory abilities may reduce inhibition caused by recoding in L2 learners; (3) serial presentation of an orthographic code, either manual or visual, reduces priming effects; and (4) letter position differences provide evidence of depletion of activation over time.
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Understanding and Not-Understanding: What Do Epistemologies and Ontologies Do in Deaf Worlds?
This article explores the role of understanding and not-understanding in deaf worlds. Using ethnographic data from fieldwork in urban India, ethnographic work by another scholar based in the United States, and an analysis of an advertisement campaign by a video relay service in the United States, the article argues that an effort to “make understanding happen” is a part of deaf socialities in India and elsewhere. Working toward and valuing understanding are components of deaf people’s epistemologies and ontologies. Deaf people’s (signed) language ideologies emphasize the importance of understanding, which helps produce deaf communities of practice. An explicit desire to make understanding happen—on multiple levels—demonstrates the importance of the work that understanding does in deaf worlds.
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Sampling Shared Sign Languages
This article addresses some of the theoretical questions, ethical considerations, and methodological decisions that guided the creation of the Kata Kolok corpus as well as the Kata Kolok child signing corpus. This discussion is relevant to the formation of prospective sign corpora that aim to portray the various sociolinguistic landscapes in which sign languages, whether rural or urban, emerge and evolve.
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An Initial Description of the Deaf Community in Haiti and Haitian Sign Language (LSH)
Deaf people in Haiti have stated that they use a distinct language, namely Haitian Sign Language (LSH). It has yet to be documented or described. This article is the first attempt at such a description based on a research collaboration between Deaf Haitians and American signed language linguists. Here we describe the language community and its language.
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