ABOUT THIS BOOK
Uyechi presents an extremely thorough and formal empirical description of the various features of ASL signs, of interest to any theoretician in developing a theory of sign phonology or in testing claims in the theory of the phonology of spoken languages against data from a signed language. The author also presents a formalism for representing signs and makes a number of theoretical proposals based on this formalism. The volume's analysis indicates that the properties of core constructs of the spoken-language phonology, namely the segment and the syllable, differ from the properties of the core constructs in a formal framework of visual phonology. The Geometry of Visual Phonology also differs from other analyses in concluding that such differences are not immediately reconcilable. This volume provides a framework for discussing crucial differences between signs and speech.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I. The Geometry of Visual Phonology: 1. Sign and speech
2. Visual phonology
3. A guide to the thesis
Part II. Hand Prism: 1. 'Traditional' sign parameters
2. Hands that move
3. Handshape
4. Hand orientation
Part III. Signing Space: 1. Local signing space
2. Global signing space
3. Discourse signing space
4. The hand in the signing space
5. Signing spaces, locations, and orientations
Part IV. The Transition Unit: 1. Change in location
2. Change in handshape
3. Change in orientation
4. Moving on
Part V. The Cell: 1. Simple signs
2. Agreement verbs
3. Transition unit and cell
Part VI. Segment and Syllable: 1. Consonants, vowels, and syllables
2. Segments and features
3. Feature geometry and segments
Part VII. A Different Mode: 1. The geometry of visual phonology
2. The phonology of visual geometry
3. Segment, syllable, unit transition, and cell
4. Universal phonology.