Introduction

This overview of sign language with specific reference to British Sign Language (BSL) aims to provide the linguistic background for the language learning part of the study. With this intention, our description and analysis is biased towards those aspects that will be the most relevant for our exploration of Christopher and the comparator group’s signing. For a more detailed description of BSL see Sutton-Spence & Woll (1999); for a detailed theoretical account of American Sign Language (ASL) see Neidle et al. (2000); for a more universal perspective, see Sandler & Lillo-Martin (2006).

The structure of the rest of the chapter is as follows. In section 2.1 we look at the fundamental nature of signed languages as ‘natural’ (human) languages, and begin the discussion of ‘sign space’. In 2.2 we explain how the basic building blocks of BSL can be analysed as ‘phonologically’ organised. We summarise current theory on how sign languages are structured at this most fundamental level, and then describe how the modality of sign language presents the learner with specific problems of articulation and perception. This allows us to present a preliminary proposal for how signs are represented in the lexicon of the signer, a proposal which raises issues to do with iconicity in sign languages. We suggest that there are radical differences between child and adult sign language learners to do with the role of a sign’s iconic elements. This difference is captured in our model of the mind, as spelt out in detail in ch. 6 and summarised in outline below. In section 2.3 we give an overview of the morpho-syntax of BSL, including word-order and topicalisation, negation and question marking, verb agreement, pronominalisation and anaphora. For all these domains the importance of ‘facial action’ is emphasised.