The featured theme for Gengo Kenkyu No. 146 is ‘Sign Languages in Asia and Africa’
Linguistics has succeeded in elucidating various aspects of human language based on the observation of a vast variety of spoken and written languages. In recent years, however, research on sign languages, linguistic systems based on manual and other bodily expressions, has revealed hitherto overlooked characteristics of language. The signifi cance of sign language research is consequently well recognized, though attention has largely been limited to several major sign languages mainly used in Europe and North America, such as ASL, BSL, DGS and LSF. We believe that a wider range of sign languages will need to be covered if this line of research is to bring further fi ndings and perspectives into linguistics, just as studies of spoken and written languages with radically diff erent characteristics have reinforced or undermined hypotheses and arguments based on the observation of only a handful of languages.
To promote research on as many diff erent types of sign language as possible, we invite papers dealing with Asian and African sign languages (please note that the Pacific and the Middle East are included in Asia).
Both Full Research Papers and Forum Papers are welcome. The deadline for submission is February 28, 2014. Please follow the Rules for Manuscript Submission and the Style Sheet of the journal when preparing a manuscript.
Editorial Board