Signed Languages is at the forefront of current signed language research. The book is an essential resource for any linguist's or deaf scholar's library. The research it contains reflects the current trend toward focusing on international signed languages that previously have been ignored, including those of Sweden, Israel, Venzuela, and northern Nigeria. The book is divided into six sections: Phonology, Morphology and Syntax, Psycholinguistics, Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, and Poetics. In Part One, articulatory constraints and the sign language of the Netherlands are addressed. In Part Two, researchers tackle noun classifiers, non-handed signs, and verb classes in the signed languages of Sweden, the United States, and Israel respectively. Part Three offers the study, "Functional Consequences of Modality: Spatial Coding in Working Memory for Signs." Language acquisition is analyzed in both adult learners and deaf children in Part Four. Part Five reports on the relationship between language and society around the world, focusing particularly on the signed languages of Venezuela and northern Nigeria.
Part Six considers the techniques employed in British Sign Language poetry and ASL poetry.