Overview

As the only book of its kind, this book describes the social and historical background of this signed language and places Irish Sign Language in a world context. The Signs of Ireland corpus is used to introduce phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.It also examines the key influences driving signed language linguistics in the past decade, including: recognition of the role of gesture; the influence of cognitive linguistics; the complexities of iconic representation in signing space; the role of simultaneous construction; and the grammar of ISL. All examples listed are drawn from the Signs of Ireland corpus, one of the largest digital corpora of a signed language in Europe, and are included on the accompanying DVD. An essential resource for sign language teachers and interpreters, students of sign linguistics, and learners of ISL in Ireland, this book offers new insights into the role of gesture, spatial models, iconicity, metaphor, and metonymy in ISL grammar, vocabulary and discourse.

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9780748638239

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Reviews

Research on signed languages around the world is growing and the far reaching benefits of societal and political recognition have been witenssed in numerous countries. Books like these are important as they serve to compile research into one place and frame the information for readers who may not otherwise consult academic journals to find that the signed language used in their region is a rich and complex language. Additionally, volumes like this one enable signed language users and researchers around the world to continue cross-linguistic comparisons in the visual-manual modality, enriching our understanding of individual langugages as well as language and cognition in general. --Christina Heally, Gallaudet University Sign Language and Linguistics

Author Information

Lorraine Leeson is Director of the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College Dublin. John I. Saeed is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, Trinity College Dublin.

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