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.
