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Asl: A Visual Language, Laura L. Wood Ph.D., Lmhc, Rdt_Bct, Miako Villanueva, Deanna Twain

Laura L. Wood

This chapter outlines the main concepts in the linguistic study of American Sign Language (ASL), a language used by deaf people in the United States and a large part of Canada. While the study of languages has been around for centuries, the vast majority of research has focused on spoken languages; approaching the signs used by deaf people as full-fledged, natural languages in their own right and therefore equally worthy of linguistic study is a relatively new concept. The first documented linguistic studies of signed language in the United States were carried out in the late 1950s and early 1960s …