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

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Sign Language Studies has improved with age As more people have become aware of its existence and submitted articles,
Stokoe has been able to publish more selectively. But he has never lost sight of the journal's purpose. Sign Language Studies is one of the few scholarly journals dealing with a range of topics of concern to deaf people. It addresses not only linguistic but educational, sociological, and anthropological issues. Tom Humphries, coauthor of Deaf in America and a frequent contributor to Sign Language Studies, says it is one of the few journals I read from cover to cover these days. I don't think there is any greater collection of articles related to sign language and deaf culture in any journal anywhere. I like the fact that it doesn't have to be a journal of linguistic inquiry all the time and accepts articles on social structure and education issues. Its main contribution, I think, is that it is a place to print good articles that might not get published anywhere else fora variety of reasons. It also offers a context of serious works in which to publish such articles. I. King Jordan "cant imagine not reading" Sign Language Studies:
It is such an important publication. It's the only journal there is that focuses exclusively on the study of sign language and the people who use it. I think that maybe one of the most important things about it is that there is a lot of writing in it about deaf culture and deaf community. It shows, with each issue, that Bill's definition of American Sign Language is the same kind of definition that one would have of any language.4
Harlan Lane, who received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991 for his work on deaf culture and language, offers high praise for Sign Language Studies "What a remarkable achievement it is. In connection with writing a book I have just finished, I recently had occasion to lineup all the issues on my shelf and read them through from beginning to end I found many old friends, seminal papers, and a richness of texturelanguage, culture, anthropology, sociology,
psychologythat few journals could rival."5

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