Research and Theory in Deaf-Blind Interpreting

2006-0090

ADVERBIAL MORPHEMES IN TACTILE AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE, Collins, Steven Douglas. -- UMI Dissertation Services: 2004, 126.  Discusses an aspect of linguistic use of adverbial morphemes as applied to a single case study of Tactile American Sign Language (TASL) as used by some American Deaf-Blind signers. TASL, a variation of the visual language recognized as American Sign Language (ASL), is not visually based. In ASL adverbial morphemes occur on the face and are non-manual signals that the Deaf-Blind signer does not see. This requires the ASL signer to make a slight modification, from these “invisible” non-manual morphemes to a tactile morpheme.  Accrued data concentrates on six fundamental features of adverbial morphemes intrinsic to TASL: manner/degree, time, duration, purpose, frequency, and place/position/direction.   A doctoral dissertation submitted to the Graduate College of Union Institute and University, May 2004.

2007-0276

AUTONOMY AND LINGUISTIC STATUS OF NONSPEECH LANGUAGE FORMS, Teodorsson, S.T. 1980.  Nonspeech language forms, above all sign language and writing, are discussed with respect to phylogenesis, ontogenesis, and acquisition as well as with respect to neurophysiological and psycholinguistic processes. Speech has not been demonstrated to be phylogenetically or ontogenetically prior to gestural expression. Especially the evidence of the linguistic ability of deaf and deaf-blind people demonstrates that the various expression forms (delological forms) of language are neurophysiologically and psycholinguistically parallel. A terminology is proposed for the linguistic description of these forms.   Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 1980 Mar;9(2):121-45

2004-0005

BILINGUALISM AND IDENTITY IN DEAF COMMUNITIES, Metzger, Melanie (Ed.) -- Gallaudet University Press: 2002, xii, 317. The goal for this book was to include empirically-based work that is international in scope and extends knowledge of the sociolinguistic issues in deaf communities by building on previous research or breaking new ground with preliminary studies.  This collection of data-based studies follows a variety of research methodologies with two recurring themes.  First, the perception of deaf people and deaf communities and second, bilingualism.  Specifically related to deaf-blindness, in part six, there is the study Tactile Swedish Sign Language:  Turn Taking in Signed Conversations of People Who Are Deaf and Blind by Johanna Mesch.   Sociolinguistics In Deaf Communities Series, Volume 6

2004-0165

CORTICAL PROCESSING OF TACTILE LANGUAGE IN A POSTLINGUALLY DEAF-BLIND SUBJECT, Osaki, Yasuhiro, et al. 2004.  Neural networks of the brain have been reported to have a certain plasticity, an ability to be remodeled and transformed when one sensory function (e.g., hearing or vision) is absent. However, it is unclear which neural networks are involved in language processing when hearing and vision are lost simultaneously in adulthood. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and positron emission tomography (PET), this study analyzed the neural activations in a post-lingually deaf-blind person reading tactile language as compared to 6 normal volunteers. The study found that tactile language activated the brain's language systems as well as higher order systems in the deaf-blind person. Some of these same regions were activated in the 6 normal volunteers but none of them had the same activity distribution as the deaf-blind person, suggesting that enhanced cortical activation of cognitive and semantic processing is involved in the interpretation of tactile sign language.  NEUROREPORT, vol. 15, #2, pp.287-291

2010-0002

CYBERSIGN AND NEW PROXIMITIES: Impacts of New Communication Technologies on Space and Language, Keating, Elizabeth, Edwards; Terra; Mirus, Gene. 2008. This article addresses ways that new digital communication technologies that transmit video images (e.g., via the Internet or videophone) are influencing social interaction and language use among the Deaf community in the U.S.  It shows examples of ways signers are inventing or adapting communication behaviors as a result of technological mediation of their visual space.  Although the article does not directly address these issues for individuals who are deaf-blind, it includes a couple of examples of how some adaptations are similar to adaptations used by deaf-blind people. JOURNAL OF PRAGMATICS, vol. 40, pp. 1067-1081.

2002-0205

DEAF-BLIND INTERPRETING: Interpreters' Use of Negation in Tactile American Sign Language, Frankel, Mindy A. 2002, 11.  This article describes a study performed to document prevalent signs used during the interpreting process, specifically relating to negation in tactile sign language.  The project focused on American Sign Language (ASL) to tactile ASL only.  The author intended to document specific signs that pertain to the way deaf interpreters express negation in deaf-blind interpreting.  The results of this research are intended to help achieve greater understanding of what seasoned interpreters are doing in the deaf-blind field today.  SIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES, vol. 2, #2, Winter 2002, pp. 169-180.

2005-0012

DEICTIC POINTS IN THE VISUAL-GESTURAL AND TACTILE-GESTURAL MODALITIES, Quinto-Pozos, David. -- Cambridge University Press: 2002.  This book chapter begins by reviewing the similarities and differences in signed language between blind and sighted signers and then describes a study that examined the use of deictic points in narratives produced by two deaf-blind adults as compared to their use in two deaf-sighted adults. Nonmanual signals (e.g., eyebrow shifts, head and torso movement, and eye gaze) are integral to sign language as it is used by deaf-sighted signers. This study found that sign language production by deaf-blind individuals differs from that of sighted deaf individuals in that deaf-blind signers do not use nonmanual signs extensively. Additionally, sighted-deaf signers utilize deictic points for referential purposes while deaf-blind signers use other strategies to accomplish the same task. The ability to perceive eye gaze appears to be a crucial component in the realization of deictic points for referential purposes.   Modality and Structure in Signed and Spoken Languages. Richard P. Meier, Kearsy Cormier, & David Quinto-Pozos (Eds.), pp. 442-467

2008-0447

DISCOURSE GENRE AND LINGUISTIC MODE: INTERPRETER INFLUENCES IN VISUAL AND TACTILE INTERPRETED INTERACTION, Metzger, Melanie; Fleetwood, Earl; Collins, Steven D. 2004. In this article, the authors investigate visual and tactile ASL-English interpreters' influences on interactive discourse through an interactional sociolinguistic analysis of videotaped, interpreted interactions. They examine the participation framework of each of the interactions to determine whether the interpreters' utterances influence the interaction. For example, how do interpreters' code choices align them with the Deaf-sighted, Deaf-Blind, or hearing participants? How do interpreters create footings within their renditions and self-generated nonrenditions? Based on a growing body of research on tactile signed languages and on signed language interpretation of dyadic interaction such as student-teacher meetings, medical interviews, and multiparty genres such as classroom discourse, they examine ways in which discourse genre and linguistic mode contribute to those interpreter-generated influences.   Publisher's web site: http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/SLS.html Sign Language Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, Winter 2004, pp. 118-136.

2000-0250

FASTEN SEATBELTS: A Guided Tour of the Research on Deafblind Communication in 45 Minutes. Mortensen, Ole E. 1999, 15.  A presentation giving an overview of the research that has taken place regarding communication and the deafblind population.  Reviews communication methods such as ASL, tactile ASL, fingerspelling, computer recognition, Tadoma, and communication speed and accuracy of each.   Plenary presentation at the International Symposium on Development and Innovations in Interpreting for Deafblind People, Netherlands, June 1999.

2009-0280

HAPTICES AND HAPTEMES: A Case Study of Developmental Process in Social-Haptic Communication of Acquired Deafblind People [Dissertation], Lahtinen, Riitta M. -- A1 Management: 2008, 196. This dissertation describes a qualitative study of communication between a deaf-blind individual and his hearing-sighted partner and how their communication experiences changed as his hearing and vision deteriorated. It focuses on social-haptic communication, a form of touch communication that augments verbal or signed language. Two different elements of social-haptic communication are classified. (1) Haptices—messages shared by touch on the body. These messages make it possible to share such things as emotional experiences, social atmospheres, hobbies, and games. (2) Haptemes—the small components of touch messages that make up each haptice. A hapteme is received through a body channel, in which the whole body is transmitting touch information.

2000-0351

PROCEEDINGS OF AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON DEVELOPMENTS AND INNOVATIONS IN INTERPRETING FOR DEAFBLIND PEOPLE, Peckford, Bob (Ed.) 1999, 83.  The third annual conference of its kind aimed at identifying what was happening in interpreting for deafblind people in Europe and to share ideas, information and materials on this subject.  Three key issues were examined in a comparative study during the conference; the role and function of the interpreters, models of interpreter training, and the rights of deafblind people to interpreters.  Three overview papers are presented addressing the interim results from that study in the areas listed above.  Additional technical papers review recent research, developments and models of training are included in the proceedings as well.  Held at Leeuwenhorst, The Netherlands, June 1999

2006-0010

A PROCESS MODEL FOR DEAF-BLIND INTERPRETING, Jacobs, Rhonda. -- Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf: 2005, 23.  This paper addresses the need for a theoretical model of interpreting for people who are both deaf and blind, lays out a version of a process model based on the works of Colonomos, Cokely and Seleskovitch, and then expands this model, viewing it through the lens of Deaf-Blind interpreting. A checklist is included as an appendix for use in interpreter training.  Journal of Interpretation

2006-0175

SIGNED CONVERSATIONS OF DEAF-BLIND PEOPLE, Mesch, Johanna, PhD. -- Canadian Deafblind and Rubella Association: 2003, 5.  This is the text of a workshop presentation given at the 13th DbI World Conference on Deaf-Blindness. The study focuses on turn taking and questions in conversations among deaf-blind people using tactile sign language.   13th DbI World Conference on Deafblindness Conference Proceedings, August 5-10, 2003, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

2010-0001

THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF SIGN LANGUAGE, Lucas, Ceil; Bayley, Robert; Kelly, Arlene Blumenthal. -- Blackwell Publishing: 2005. This book chapter on sociolinguistic variation in American Sign Language (ASL) contains a 2-page section on variations in tactile ASL (primarily a summary of a study by Collins and Petronio that was published in "Pinky Extension and eye Gaze: Language Use in Deaf Communities," Gallaudet University Press, 1998). Martin J. Ball. Clinical Sociolinguistics.

1994-0617

STUDY OF THE TACTUAL AND VISUAL RECEPTION OF FINGERSPELLING, Reed, Charlotte M.; Delhorne, Lorraine A.; Durlach, Nathaniel I.; Fischer, Susan D. 1990.  The purpose of the study reported here was to examine the ability of experienced deaf-blind subjects to receive fingerspelled materials, including sentences and connected text, through the tactual sense.  A parallel study of the reception of fingerspelling through the visual sense was also conducted using sighted deaf subjects.  The study concluded that tactual spelling is sent and received with excellent accuracy at 2-6 letters per second.  Visual reception, on the other hand, with the use of variable speed videotape playback, could be shown to be much faster than the sender can form the letters.  JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING RESEARCH, vol. 33, no. 4, December 1990, pp. 786-797.

1996-0544

STUDY OF THE TACTUAL RECEPTION OF SIGN LANGUAGE, Reed, Charlotte M.; Delhorne, Lorraine A.; Durlach, Nathaniel I.; Fischer, Susan D. 1995.  In the study reported here, 10 experienced deaf-blind users of either American Sign Language or Pidgin Sign English participated in experiments to determine their ability to receive signed materials including isolated signs and sentences.  Experimental results are discussed in terms of differences in performance for isolated signs and sentences, differences in error patterns for the ASL and PSE groups, and communication rates relative to visual reception of sign language and other natural methods of tactual communication.  JOURNAL OF SPEECH AND HEARING RESEARCH, vol. 38, April 1995, pp. 477-489.

2003-0454

TACTILE SIGN LANGUAGE: Turn Taking and Questions In Signed Conversations of Deaf-Blind People, Mesch, Johanna. -- Signum: 1998, 250.  This dissertation is primarily about turn-taking and questions as they are carried out in tactile conversation.  Beginning with the concept of deaf-blind people and different methods of communication, it then presents the material used in the authors’ analysis and then an overview of the concept of "conversation" which consists of sequences, turns, adjacency pairs and feedback. It then looks more specifically at form and function regarding questions with an overview of interrogative clauses in sign language and shows what partial signals are used in questions.  The author also analyzes yes/no questions, alternative questions and wh-questions.  Finally the book examines support questions and how conversational participants support one another by requesting feedback and clarification.  This dissertation was originally written in Swedish and then translated into English.  Publisher's web site:  http://www.signum-verlag.de    International Studies on Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf, Volume 38

2004-0117

TACTILE SWEDISH SIGN LANGUAGE: Turn Taking in Signed Conversations of People Who Are Deaf and Blind, Mesch, Johanna. -- Gallaudet University Press: 16.  This chapter describes how deaf-blind people regulate turn-taking in conversations when using tactile sign language.  Describes the two different conversation positions, monologue and dialogue, used by deaf-blind signers.  Provides line drawings to illustrate how the different positions affect the conversation, and the manual sign structure.  Describes turn zones, back channeling and support turns, all of which direct the flow of the conversation.   From Bilingualism and Identity in Deaf Communities, Metzger, Melanie (Ed.).

2000-0455

WHAT HAPPENS IN TACTILE ASL? Collins, Steven; Petronio, Karen. -- Gallaudet University Press: 1998, pp. 18-37.  This study focused on tactile ASL as it was used by fluent Deaf-Blind ASL users when they communicated tactilely with other fluent Deaf-Blind ASL users.  Selected linguistic features from four subfields of linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax and discourse) were studied.  Comparing visual ASL with tactile ASL provided a unique opportunity to observe the variation and change that occurred when a community of fluent Deaf-Blind ASL signers used a visual language in a tactile mode.  Pinky Extension and Eye Gaze: Language Use in Deaf Communities. Lucas, Ceil (Ed.) 

2009-0236

THE USE OF VISUAL FEEDBACK DURING SIGNING: Evidence from Signers with Impaired Vision, Emmorey, Karen, Korpics, Franco, Petronio, Karen. 2009. The role of visual feedback during the production of American Sign Language was investigated by comparing the size of signing space during conversations and narrative monologues for normally sighted signers, signers with tunnel vision due to Usher syndrome, and functionally blind signers. The interlocutor for all groups was a normally sighted deaf person. Signers with tunnel vision produced a greater proportion of signs near the face than blind and normally sighted signers, who did not differ from each other. Both groups of visually impaired signers produced signs within a smaller signing space for conversations than for monologues. Signers with tunnel vision may align their signing space with that of their interlocutor. In contrast, blind signers may enhance proprioceptive feedback by producing signs within an enlarged signing space for monologues, which do not require switching between tactile and visual signing. The authors hypothesize that signers use visual feedback to phonetically calibrate the dimensions of signing space, rather than to monitor language output. JOURNAL OF DEAF STUDIES AND DEAF EDUCATION, vol. 14, #1, pp. 99-104.

2008-0281

YES, #NO, VISIBILITY, AND VARIATION IN ASL AND TACTILE ASL, Petronio, Karen; Dively, Valerie. 2006.  When using tactile ASL, the deaf-blind receiver receives language by placing a hand on top of the signer's hand. This article describes a study that compared the functions and frequency of the signs YES and NO in tactile ASL and visual ASL. It found that YES and/or NO were used for twelve functions in both. There was, however, some variation. With regard to frequency, the two signs occurred far more often in tactile ASL. Unexpectedly, significant variation was also found within visual ASL, depending on the number of interviewees in a session. YES and NO were used more frequently with two or more interviewees and less often when only one interviewee was present. The data also reveal variation in tactile ASL that correlates with role and gender, as well as the age at which a participant started using tactile ASL.  SIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES, vol. 7, #1, Fall 2006, pp. 57-98.