A Language in Space: The Story of Israeli Sign Language

Irit Meir, Wendy Sandler

Taylor & Francis, 2008 - Education - 332 pages

This English version of A Language in Space: The Story of Israeli Sign Language, which received the Bahat Award for most outstanding book for a general audience in its Hebrew edition, is an introduction to sign language using Israeli Sign Language (ISL) as a model. Authors Irit Meir and Wendy Sandler offer a glimpse into a number of fascinating descriptions of the ISL community to which linguists and other researchers may not have access. An underlying premise of the book is that language is a mental system with universal properties, and that language lives through people.

A clear and engaging read, A Language in Space addresses relevant aspects of sign language, including the most abstract questions and matters related to society and community. Divided into three parts, the book covers:

• the linguistic structure of Israeli Sign Language;
• the language and its community; and
• a broad depiction of ISL and the contribution of sign language research to linguistic theory.

This book is intended for linguists (with or without a background in sign language), psychologists, sociologists, educators, students, and anyone with an interest in the human capacity for language.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Language in Space: The Story of Israeli Sign Language
• Authors: Irit Meir, Wendy Sandler
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis, 2008
• ISBN: 080586265X, 9780805862652
• Length: 332 pages
• Subjects: Education / Bilingual Education; Education / Special Education / Communicative Disorders; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Psycholinguistics / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Sign Language; Medical / Audiology & Speech Pathology; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition; Psychology / General; Psychology / Neuropsychology