Cover next page > title: Seeing Language in Sign : The Work of William C. Stokoe author

< previous page
page_142
next page >
Page 142
Stokoe's influence has been so profound that to discuss American Sign Language without mentioning his findings is virtually impossible. As Harlan Lane explains:
Stokoe's work and that of Klima and Bellugi are the pillars on which the whole scholarly edifice was erected. His papers laid the intellectual groundwork. His dictionary presented some of the first evidence that persuaded linguists that natural language could come out of the hands instead of the tongue. The students and postdoctoral fellows he trained went onto create with him the literature of ASL linguistics and psycholinguistics, which in turn was the basis for the present cultural renaissance of the American Deaf community. In 1980 Stokoe's friends in the lab decided to plan a celebration of his work, not only to honor his monumental achievements but to offset the indifference and outright animosity he still faced at Gallaudet (where support for Sim Com continued despite his protests. Baker-Shenk and Battison decided to honor Stokoe with a collection of essays, to be presented to him at the convention of the National Association of the Deaf. That year's convention was particularly important because it marked the association's 100th anniversary. In the introduction to the book of essays, entitled Sign Language and the Deaf Community,
Baker-Shenk explains how the book came to be and why:
In July of 1979 we sent out a letter to fifteen individuals, asking them to contribute to a Festschrift in honor of Bill
Stokoe. Each of these individuals had worked with Dr. Stokoe or had been influenced by his work, and all were actively involved as professionals in research, teaching, or other uses of sign language. We told them we wanted to describe the impact of sign language research on the Deaf community, and we asked each of them to write a paper that would trace the historical development of their professional fields as well as to describe their own involvement in those fields and their personal and professional interactions with Dr. Stokoe.

Download 2.48 Mb.

Share with your friends: