The Routledge Handbook of Theoretical and Experimental Sign Language Research bridges the divide between theoretical and experimental approaches to provide an up-to-date survey of key topics in sign language research. With 29 chapters written by leading and emerging scholars from around the world, this Handbook covers the following key areas: On the theoretical side, all crucial aspects of sign language grammar studied within formal frameworks such as Generative Grammar; On the experimental side, theoretical accounts are supplemented by experimental evidence gained in psycho- and neurolinguistic studies; On the descriptive side, the main phenomena addressed in the reviewed scholarship are summarized in a way that is accessible to readers without previous knowledge of sign languages. Each chapter features an introduction, an overview of existing research, and a critical assessment of hypotheses and findings. The Routledge Handbook of Theoretical and Experimental Sign Language Research is key reading for all advanced students and researchers working at the intersection of sign language research, linguistics, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics.

The Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics provides an up-to-date and accessible overview of various ways in which experiments are used across all domains of linguistics and surveys the range of state-of-the-art methods that can be applied to analyse the language of populations with a wide range of linguistic profiles. Each chapter provides a step-by-step introduction to theoretical and methodological challenges and critically presents a wide range of studies in various domains of experimental linguistics. This handbook: Provides a unified perspective on the data, methods and findings stemming from all experimental research in linguistics Covers many different subfields of linguistics, including argumentation theory, discourse studies and typology Provides an introduction to classical as well as new methods to conduct experiments such as eye tracking and brain imaging Features a range of internationally renowned academics Shows how experimental research can be used to study populations with various linguistic profiles, including young children, people with linguistic impairments, older adults, language learners and bilingual speakers Providing readers with a wealth of theoretical and practical information in order to guide them in designing methodologically sound linguistic experiments, this handbook is essential reading for scholars and students researching in all areas of linguistics.

This collected volume showcases cutting-edge research in the rapidly developing area of sign language corpus linguistics in various sign language contexts across the globe. Each chapter provides a detailed account of particular national corpora and methodological considerations in their construction. Part 1 focuses on corpus-based linguistic findings, covering aspects of morphology, syntax, multilingualism, and regional and diachronic variation. Part 2 explores innovative solutions to challenges in building and annotating sign language corpora, touching on the construction of comparable sign language corpora, collaboration challenges at the national level, phonological arrangement of digital lexicons, and (semi-)automatic annotation. This unique volume documenting the growth in breadth and depth within the discipline of sign language corpus linguistics is a key resource for researchers, teachers, and postgraduate students in the field of sign language linguistics, and will also provide valuable insights for other researchers interested in corpus linguistics, Construction Grammar, and gesture studies.

Applying the framework of the Prosodic Model to naturalistic data, this book presents a systematic study of the phonological structure of Shanghai Sign Language (SHSL). It examines the handshape inventory of SHSL in terms of its underlying featural specifications, phonetic realization and phonological processes such as assimilation, epenthesis, deletion, coalescence, non-dominant hand spread and weak drop. The authors define the role of the prosodic hierarchy in SHSL and analyze the linguistic functions of non-manual markers. This systematic investigation not only contributes to our understanding of SHSL itself, but also informs typological research on sign languages in the world.

This book discusses linguistic diversity, linguistic prejudice, and language variation and change from a Global South perspective by analyzing Brazilian Portuguese, Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS) and indigenous languages spoken in Brazil. It brings together studies and reflections on linguistic prejudice and social discrimination based on data and examples from Brazil and aims to bridge the gap between academic findings and popular notions related to linguistic diversity to promote language diversity and fight linguistic intolerance. Chapters in this volume present contributions to understand the origins and motivations of linguistic prejudice and foster awareness of entrenched opinions regarding linguistic diversity. The first part of the book brings together chapters analyzing basic sociolinguistic questions concerning linguistic prejudice based on theoretical discussions and qualitative research. The second part is composed of chapters that analyze linguistic prejudice in Brazil in major communities that speak Brazilian Portuguese varieties and minor communities that speak native and sign languages. Understanding Linguistic Prejudice: Critical Approaches to Language Diversity in Brazil will be a valuable resource for researchers in sociolinguistics interested in language diversity, language justice and language policy. It will also be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists and other social scientist interested in the relationship between language, diversity, equity and inclusion.

Person and number are two basic grammatical categories. However, they have not yet been exhaustively documented in many sign languages. This volume presents a thorough description of the form and interpretation of person and number in Catalan Sign Language (LSC) personal pronouns. This is the first book exploring together the two categories (and their interaction) in a sign language. Building on a combination of elicitation methods and corpus data analysis, this book shows that person and number are encoded through a set of distinctive phonological features: person is formally marked through spatial features, and number by the path specifications of the sign. Additionally, this study provides evidence that the same number marker might have a different semantic import depending on the person features with which it is combined. Results of this investigation contribute fresh data to cross-linguistic studies on person and number, which are largely based on evidence from spoken language only. Furthermore, while this research identifies a number of significant differences with respect to prior descriptions of person and number in other sign languages, it also demonstrates that, from a typological standpoint, the array of distinctions that LSC draws within each category is not exceptional.

The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Language Education provides the rapidly growing and globalizing field of heritage language (HL) education with a cohesive overview of HL programs and practices relating to language maintenance and development, setting the stage for future work in the field. Driving this effort is the belief that if research and pedagogical advances in the HL field are to have the greatest impact, HL programs need to become firmly rooted in educational systems. Against a background of cultural and linguistic diversity that characterizes the twenty-first century, the volume outlines key issues in the design and implementation of HL programs across a range of educational sectors, institutional settings, sociolinguistic conditions, and geographical locations, specifically: North and Latin America, Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Cambodia. All levels of schooling are included as the teaching of the following languages are discussed: Albanian, Arabic, Armenian (Eastern and Western), Bengali, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Czech, French, Hindi-Urdu, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Pasifika languages, Persian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Yiddish. These discussions contribute to the development and establishment of HL instructional paradigms through the experiences of “actors on the ground” as they respond to local conditions, instantiate current research and pedagogical findings, and seek solutions that are workable from an organizational standpoint. The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Language Education is an ideal resource for researchers and graduate students interested in heritage language education at home or abroad.

The Routledge Handbook of Language and Metaphor provides a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research on metaphor and language, and maps out future directions of research and practice in a variety of contexts in this field.

Surveys key findings and ideas in sign language phonology, exploring the crucial areas in phonology to which sign language studies has contributed.