Linguistic Ethnography and Sign Language Studies

Abstract

Linguistic Ethnography and Sign Language StudiesThis special issue introduces the approach of "linguistic ethno graphy" (LE) in sign language studies.While this term has been adopted by only a handful of sign language researchers in the past few years, LE has existed as a named emerging field for at least twenty years in the United Kingdom and Europe.A number of sign language researchers have done work that we see as falling under the term linguistic ethnography (LE) even when they have not classified their work as such.This introduction for the special issue gives a quick overview of what LE means, how it has emerged as a field, and what kind of sign language research work classifies as LE.In the last part, we also introduce the five articles featured in this special issue and discuss how they fit in the development of LE as a field. What Is LE ?Linguistic ethnography links the micro to the macro, the small to the large, the varied to the routine, the individual to the social, the creative to the constraining, and the historical to the present and to the future.(Copland and Creese 2015, 26) LE focuses on the study of language use in everyday contexts by combining ethnography and linguistics.A key tenet in linguistics is to produce generalizations about language structures and patterns, and in many branches of linguistics, the formal properties of languages are treated independently of their use and meaning in context.Ethnographers, however, focus on the creation of meaning through language

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