Cover next page > title: Seeing Language in Sign : The Work of William C. Stokoe author
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| < previous page page_89 next page > If you like this book, buy it! < previous page page_90 next page > Page 90 Croneberg's investigations appear in two appendices to the dictionary.] What makes the dictionary a viable reference is, I believe, our genuine attempt to "unlock" the language. By "linguistic" in the phrase "on linguistic principles" I meant describing the language people who used the language used. That is a deliberate tautology, which might better be expressed this way describing the language used by members of Deaf culture, its signs, the way its signs are used in combination, the meanings they express, and the universe of knowledge the language represents. George Detmold remembers the excitement he felt when he first saw the dictionary: I thought it a work of genius. It was a scholarly achievement not far from Samuel Johnson's. I knew of notational systems for recording physical movements in ballet but thought Bill's system more elegant and more significant. I thought it would have tremendous implications for deaf people, and for those who were associated with them, if now their sign language could be written. Most important, I thought, was that their language was treated here like any other language, with structural elements that could be described as they fitted together to convey meaning.29 Ursula Bellugi, a linguist and the director of the Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Studies at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, calls the dictionary "a landmark in the analysis of the special linguistic properties of signed languages" Ina essay entitled "How Signs Express Complex Meanings" she explains the dictionary's value: The Dictionary of American Sign Language [DASL]was significant in two ways (1) it is the first extensive listing of signs of ASL with explanations of their meanings and usage, and (2) it is the first and most complete linguistic analysis of the sign into its component parts. It is not organized alphabetically but according to the elements of signs that Stokoe first identified and described. . . It is important to remember that the DASL is a pioneering Download 2.48 Mb. Share with your friends:
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