Is perception reality? Editor Melanie Metzger investigates the cultural perceptions by and of deaf people around the world in Bilingualism and Identity in Deaf Communities.

       “All sociocultural groups offer possible solutions to the dilemma that a deaf child presents to the larger group,” write Claire Ramsey and Jose Antonio Noriega in their essay, “Ninos Milagrizados: Language Attitudes, Deaf Education, and Miracle Cures in Mexico.” In this case, Ramsey and Noriega analyze cultural attempts to “unify” deaf children with the rest of the community. Other contributors report similar phenomena in deaf communities in New Zealand, Nicaragua, and Spain, paying particular attention to how society’s view of deaf people affects how deaf people view themselves.

       A second theme pervasive in this collection, akin to the questions of perception and identity, is the impact of bilingualism in deaf communities. Peter C. Hauser offers a study of an American child proficient in both ASL and Cued English while Annica Detthow analyzes “transliteration” between Spoken Swedish and Swedish Sign Language. Like its predecessors, this sixth volume of the Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities series distinguishes itself by the depth and diversity of its research, making it a welcome addition to any scholar’s library.

As with all professional interpreters, sign language interpreters strive to achieve the proper protocol of complete objectivity and accuracy in their translation without influencing the interaction in any way. Yet, Melanie Metzger's significant work Sign Language Interpreting: Deconstructing the Myth of Neutrality demonstrates clearly that the ideal of an interpreter as a neutral language conduit does not exist. Metzger offers evidence of this disparity by analyzing two videotaped ASL-English interpreted medical interviews, one an interpreter-trainee mock interview session, and the other an actual encounter between a deaf client and a medical professional.

          Sign Language Interpreting relies upon an interactional sociolinguistic approach to ask fundamental questions regarding interpreter neutrality. First, do interpreters influence discourse, and if so, how? Also, what kind of expectations do the participants bring to the event, and what do the interpreters bring to discussions? Finally, how do their remarks affect their alignment with participants in the interaction? Using careful assessments of how these interviews were framed, and also re-interviewing the participants for their perspectives, this penetrating book discloses the ways in which interpreters influence these situations. It also addresses the potential implications of these findings regarding sign language interpretation in medical, educational, and all other general interactions. Interpreter trainers and their students will join certified interpreters and Deaf studies scholars in applauding and benefiting from the fresh ground broken by this provocative study.

Signed Languages: Discoveries from International Research collects the thirteen freshest, most innovative papers presented at the sixth Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research conference in 1998, the largest of its kind ever convened. Presented together in this timely compendium, the research reflects the current trend toward focusing on international signed languages that previously have been ignored, including those of Sweden, Israel, Venezuela, and northern Nigeria.

The anthology 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, nonhanded 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.