Sociolinguistic Variation in American Sign Language, Phase II

美国手语的社会语言学变异，第二阶段该项目是国家科学基金资助项目#93110116的延续。美国手语（ASL）的社会语言学变异将根据美国七个地点（弗吉尼亚州斯汤顿，弗雷德里克，马里兰州）的聋哑人制作的ASL会话录像带进行分析。，波士顿，新奥尔良，堪萨斯城，密苏里州（加州弗里蒙特和华盛顿州贝灵汉），在三个不同的年龄组，中产阶级和工人阶级的社会经济地位。非裔美国人和白种人的签名人数相同。社会语言学变异是指语言项目（声音、手型、单词、语法结构）与社会因素（如年龄、种族、性别、地区和社会经济阶层）之间存在相关性的变异。对社会语言学变异的研究很重要，因为它们使我们了解语言的基本性质以及语言如何变化。这个项目将专注于手语的变化，从而让我们开始看到什么样的变化是所有人类语言的特征，什么样的变化是特定于情态的，也就是说，只有口语或手语的特征。重点将放在目标变量上，包括单手形符号、额头侧面产生的符号和可变代词。所有这些变量的数量都足够大，可以进行与口语变化相同的统计分析。数据中的词汇变化也将被分析。研究结果将是对美国手语中社会语言学差异的全面描述，以及对特定变量的定量分析。该项目的一个必然目标是准备一卷关于社会语言学变异的录像带和手册，供聋人社区的广大儿童、教师、家长和社区成员使用。

Sociolinguistic Variation in American Sign Language, Phase II The project is a continuation of NSF Grant #93110116. Sociolinguistic variation in American Sign Language (ASL) will be analyzed based on videotapes of conversational ASL produced by deaf ASL signers from seven sites in the U.S. (Staunton, Va., Frederick,MD., Boston, New Orleans, Kansas City,Mo., Fremont, Ca., and Bellingham, Wash.), in three different age groups, and of middle-class and working-class socio-economic status. African American and Caucasian signers are represented equally. Sociolinguistic variation is variation that shows a correlation between linguistic items (sounds, handshapes, words, grammatical constructions) and social factors such as age, ethnicity, gender, region, and socioeconomic class. Studies of sociolinguistic variation are important because they inform our understanding of the fundamental nature of language and of how languages change. This project will focus on variation in a signed language and hence will allow us to begin to see what kinds of variation characterize all kinds of human languages and what kinds of variation are modality-specific, i.e. characteristic exclusively of spoken languages or signed languages. The focus will be on target variables including 1-handshape signs, signs produced on the side of the forehead, and variable pronouns. All of these variables occur in large enough numbers to allow for the same kind of statistical analyses that have been used for spoken language variation. Lexical variation in the data will also be analyzed. The result will be a comprehensive description of sociolinguistic variation in ASL, along with a quantitative analysis of specific variables. A corollary goal of the project is the preparation of a videotape and manual about sociolinguistic variation for use by the deaf community at large: for children, teachers, parents, and community members.