Random House Webster's Concise American Sign Language Dictionary - Softcover

Costello Ph.D., Elaine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375703527 ISBN 13: 9780375703522

Publisher: Random House Reference, 1999

Synopsis

This dictionary represents the cutting edge in reference works for American Sign Language, with a treasury of signs for the novice and experienced user alike. A unique dictionary for a unique language, its many features include:
¸  Over 4,500 signs--more than other ASL dictionaries!
¸  Superior full-torso illustrations
¸  Complete descriptions of each sign

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Dr. Costello's work establishes ASL as a major force in the future of communications for both the deaf and the hearing."--Richard Dysart, Trustee, Gallaudet University; Actor, L.A. Law

"This scrupulously researched book solidifies the position of American Sign Language as a rich, vibrant,
living language. It is a welcome addition to the shelf of anyone interested in the wonders of ASL."--Lou Ann Walker, author, A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family (1986)

From the Inside Flap

ary represents the cutting edge in reference works for American Sign Language, with a treasury of signs for the novice and experienced user alike. A unique dictionary for a unique language, its many features include:
¸ Over 4,500 signs--more than other ASL dictionaries!
¸ Superior full-torso illustrations
¸ Complete descriptions of each sign

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Why This Dictionary?

        
This dictionary represents a commitment to American Sign Language, known familiarly as ASL--a commitment to its authenticity as a living, evolving, fully functional language and to its role as a cohesive force among the large numbers of its regular deaf and hearing users known as the Deaf community.
        
Numbering more than 16 million, people with hearing loss form the largest disability group in this country. Adding to this number are the 4,000 to 5,000 babies who are born deaf every year, countless numbers of people who suffer injuries or illnesses that cause deafness, and those whose hearing is deteriorating as a natural result of the aging process.
        
After a long and controversial history, American Sign Language has emerged in recent decades not only as the standard means of communication for deaf people and for their families, friends, and colleagues, but also as a symbol of cultural unity. Sign language is in fact the native language--that is, the language learned before any other--of some 300,000 to 500,000 users in North America. At any given time there are roughly 100,000 people actively learning ASL, both in formal institutions of learning and in classes conducted by social agencies, churches, and other groups. It is estimated that 13 million people, including members of both the deaf and hearing populations, can now communicate to some extent in sign language. If we count all of them, this would make ASL the fourth most commonly used language in the United States.
        
American Sign Language is becoming even more important as federal law increasingly mandates acceptance and accommodation of deaf people in the workplace, the education system, and public accommodations. Most recently, the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which became law on July 26, 1990, has extended to deaf people what may be the world's strongest civil rights legislation for the disabled. Businesses and public entities of all kinds must now be prepared to communicate effectively--through sign language if necessary--with job applicants, employees, customers, and service users who are deaf.
        
Clearly, the need for reference materials in sign language is great. To help meet this need, the Random House Webster's Concise American Sign Language Dictionary offers a comprehensive and up-to-date treasury of signs, faithfully recording their formation and usage. In addition to the standard signs used in day-to-day communication throughout the nation, this book features signs from an expanding technical vocabulary. Thus this dictionary is a broad reference designed to be useful to a wide range of users, from novices seeking "survival signs" for rudimentary communication to sophisticated users already fluent in ASL and looking to enlarge their vocabularies. This compendium is drawn from an ever-growing collection, maintained by the author and continually augmented by contributions from members of the Deaf community.
        
The formation of each sign in this dictionary is depicted in relation to the entire upper torso, in illustrations prepared by Deaf artists using models from the Deaf community. Each illustration is accompanied by a complete verbal description of how the sign is made and, often, by a "hint" to help the reader remember the sign.
        
As with any other living, growing language, American Sign Language can never be fully and finitely documented: it constantly evolves and changes; it has variant forms that shift according to individual, group, or regional usage; and most saliently, as a language transmitted not by writing but by gesture, it is in many respects a language to which no printed reference book can fully do justice. What this dictionary can do, however, is provide the fundamental building blocks of this language: a basic vocabulary of ASL signs.
        
And so, welcome to the beautiful visual language called American Sign Language! Enjoy the physical character of each sign and the messages that its gestures convey. Through interaction with its community of users, add the nuances of the language that come so naturally to its native speakers. Above all, put aside inhibitions, physically and emotionally entering into the essential conceptual nature of the language.

Guide

HOW TO USE THIS DICTIONARY

What This Dictionary Contains

Requirements of a Lexicon of Sign Language
        
Like any specialized dictionary, such as a legal or medical lexicon, this one contains a specialized vocabulary. Rather than embracing the full spectrum of terms from common to technical that one finds in a standard dictionary of English, this book focuses on the body of signs most responsive to the needs of users and students of American Sign Language (ASL).
        
This means that while a broad range of concepts is covered, many English words are not included. In some cases this is simply because their signs are used infrequently. Other terms do not have a corresponding sign; their meanings are communicated quite differently in sign language--for example, as an integrated component of some other sign, as a nonmanual cue accompanying a sign, as a pointing (or "indexing") movement, or by fingerspelling.
        
Conversely, there are strings of words in this book, phrases and entire clauses that would be out of place in a standard dictionary. Here they represent concepts expressed in one unified signing gesture in ASL. Examples are I love you and Now I remember.
Sources of Signs
        
For the most part, the signs in this dictionary are firmly established elements of American Sign Language. Some signs from systems of Manually Coded English have also been included, to reflect recent borrowings into ASL. In addition, the dictionary includes a few fingerspelled forms, like ha ha, which are considered to be ASL signs, although no attempt is made to give a comprehensive listing of these terms.
        
Although some regional variation is represented, the signs have been collected primarily from up and down the East coast. The general tendency is for these signs to spread westward.

Usage Levels: The Social Appropriateness of Signs and Their English Translations
        
Like English and every other language, American Sign Language contains its share of terms that would be inappropriate in polite conversation. If a dictionary is to present an accurate picture of a language, it must include even vulgar or disparaging terms. In this dictionary, to prevent the novice from inadvertently insulting a conversational partner by unwittingly using a sign that would cause offense, cautionary notations or labels have been included for such signs. For example, a note at the end of the description of the sign might indicate that the sign is used disparagingly, or a cautionary usage label may be added to an English translation.

How to Find a Sign

Complete Entries
        
All entries, whether words or phrases and whether common terms or proper nouns, are presented in large boldface type in a single alphabetical listing, following a strict letter-by-letter order that disregards spaces between words, for example ever, everlasting, ever since. An exception to this order is made for verb phrases, which are shown as a group.
        
Most signs can be found by looking them up under any of several English words or phrases. Only one of these, however, will set forth a complete description of the sign. That complete entry usually includes one or more part-of-speech labels (n. for noun, v. for verb, etc.), and a description of how to make the sign.
        
Additional words for concepts covered by that sign are often listed within the entry in small boldface type, although the list of words with equivalent or related meanings is by no means exhaustive. Typical examples may be seen at the entry for confident, which lists the related form confidence as another meaning for that sign, and the entry for earn, which notes that the same sign is used for deserve, income, salary, and wages. Where appropriate, these additional words are given usage labels (e.g., informal, slang, vulgar, diminutive) to emphasize that the sign portrayed in that entry may be interpreted in those various ways depending upon the context and manner in which it is used, and that it should therefore be used with some caution.
Cross References
        
A cross-reference entry, at its own alphabetical listing, simply sends the reader to one or more complete entries, where appropriate signs will be found. An example is the entry for fatigue, which states: See signs for tired, weak.
        
An additional type of cross reference, signaled by the instruction to "See also sign for...," is found within complete entries. This occurs when the signs for two different words are interchangeable. For example, at achieve there is an instruction to "See also sign for successful," while at successful we find a matching instruction to "See also sign for achieve." This means that either sign may be used to represent either concept.
        
Because the range of meanings for a sign may differ widely from the meaning of its closest ...

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Reference
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375703527
• ISBN 13: 9780375703522
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528