Transmission and Continuity of Mexican Sign Language

Claire Ramsey, The Regents of the University of California (San Diego)

Project Details:

Field Trip Grant. Duration: 2007-2009. £9,995

Project Summary:

In Mexican Sign Language, transmission among deaf people, especially across generations, is undependable, posing a threat to continuity. Most of the world’s sign languages potentially face this threat, giving the project broad significance. I will document at least two of the few extant contexts where deaf signers use LSM to socialize and teach new deaf signers. Videotapes of interactions between fluent deaf signers and a range of new signers (3-40 years old) will be annotated by a deaf/hearing research group. Through a linguistics workshop accessible to deaf Mexicans the project will also lay groundwork for further documentation.