In discussions of the history of American Sign Language (ASL), a village sign language—Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL)—has been identified as a possible contributor to ASL and to its differentiation from French Sign Language (LSF; cf. Groce 1985: 73-74, Lane et al 2011: 76, Poole Nash 2015: 611). On this account, MVSL contributed to ASL t…[Read more]

Young children are thought to play a unique role in the emergence and evolution of language. In research on language acquisition by a deaf child of late learners of ASL as well as in research on the emergence of new signed languages, young children have shown the ability to impose systematicity on relatively less systematic linguistic input…[Read more]

For a long time, metaphors have played an important role in depicting language history. In this study, we contrast early metaphors on language history, such as the family tree or the wave model, with recent metaphors that were popularized after the quantitative turn, such as forests of trees or phylogenetic networks. Speculating about metaphors…[Read more]

Pop Art * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Junk food * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Spicy stuff * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Meat Market * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Mascot * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Bye-bye, Sailor! * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Sailor’s Bar * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Hay Bar * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Pop corn * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

Hacker’s Playground * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

The term cancer climax is meant as, in the narrative, the building culmination of the illness to a narrative point at which either the ill or the illness finally succumbs; the cancer climax is not necessarily synonymous with the overall narrative climax or peak of the story. Creators might place it at a separate point in their works to impart a…[Read more]

Like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) itself, Just Roll with It by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie does not reveal itself immediately. The YA graphic novel betrays nothing on its cover, with its summary blurb, or for the first sixty-plus pages of the story. With no overt initial comment, the narrative follows sixth-grader Maggie as she…[Read more]

This slide set includes a translation into English of Tam o’ Shanter by Robert Burns. The aim of the translation is to preserve the original poetic effect of the poem written in Scots. The slide set is intended for academic and educational purposes, as well as personal enjoyment.

Tam o’ Shanter, a great narrative poem written by Roberts Burns, is written in Scots and as such is difficult to access by standard English speakers and non-natives alike. This monograph offers an account of the language of Tam as characterised by a significant number of distinctive lexical and phonological items related to Old Norse. It is c…[Read more]

Tam o’ Shanter, a great narrative poem written by Roberts Burns, is written in Scots and as such is difficult to access by standard English speakers and non-natives alike. Old Norse influences form an essential part of the fabric of Tam, and the poem can only be fully understood when these are identified and described. This article presents a n…[Read more]

DARE * PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-ND

Spectators of the 2020/21 Olympic Games were frequently confronted with references to Japanese popular culture, particularly at the opening and closing ceremonies. However, these references to anime, manga, video games and other visual media were often so subtle that they were easy to miss unless pointed out and explained by television…[Read more]