Speaker: Prof. Felix Sze (Department of Linguistics & Modern Languages)
| Date: | 5 October 2012 (Fri) |
| Time: | 4:00pm |
| Venue: | G24, Fung King Hey Building, CUHK |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Studies of sign languages started in 1960s in the United States and gradually flourished around the globe. Five decades of fruitful research findings have not only unraveled the linguistic properties of sign languages in parallel with spoken languages, but also raised the social status of sign languages to the benefit of the Deaf Communities, particularly in the education sector. This talk began with some common misconceptions about the Deaf communities and sign languages. This is followed by a comparison of sign languages and spoken languages. It shown that, despite some modality-specific characteristics, sign languages in fact exhibit striking similarities to spoken languages in their linguistic organization. This talk ended with a discussion of why sign languages are so important to the Deaf Communities, and how early exposure to sign languages can benefit the cognitive and linguistic development of deaf children. |
For the powerpoint presentation of the talk, please click here
For those who would like to review the video archive of the talk, please contact the Faculty Office at 3943 7107.