Phonological Structures in American Sign Language

FAIN: GY-10109-73

Lynn A. Friedman
Unaffiliated independent scholar

To preserve and enhance the status of the American Sign Language of the deaf (ASL): 1) in terms of its linguistic status among other natural languages; 2) as an educational medium in schools for the deaf; 3) within the deaf community, a social, economic, political, and linguistic minority. The investigators will perform a linguistic analysis of various aspects of its phonology (cherology), in order to add to the exisiting knowledge concerning the formal properties of this unique visual language. Projected analyses: stress patterns, phrasing, assimiliation, placement, and the paralinguistic use of visual cues.