Narrative description of research, teaching and service interests

Research

record of conference participation, presenting fifteen papers at international conferences. My book, published by Gallaudet University Press, was also a cognitive analysis of signed language focusing on what constitutes a metaphor in visual/gestural languages; the book established a basic standard for analyzing signed language metaphors. In the applied arena, my book (with S. Wilcox), Learning To See: American Sign Language as a Second Language, has been revised for broader distribution under Gallaudet University Press and was also translated into Portuguese and published in Brazil (2005). Also in applied, educational, and sociolinguistic study, I have authored or co-authored five articles on signed languages and the signed language interpreting profession. An earlier National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored videotape that I produced for national dissemination has been revised into DVD format, Linguistics Terminology Explained in ASL (Sign Media, Inc., 2007), and offers interpreter education programs across the nation a broader access to accurate interpretations of a core lexicon for the linguistic sciences. The following sections outline my work in both theoretical and applied linguistics.

Cognitive, Functional, and Typological Research in Signed Language Linguistics

Since acquiring tenure, I have developed a strong research program in the area of cross-linguistic studies of visual/gestural languages, including work on British, Italian, Catalan, and Japanese Sign Languages. I have received two grants from the University of New Mexico, the first, in 2003, to do a comparative study of metaphor and metonymy in Tunisian Sign Language and ASL, and the second, in 2003, to study metaphor in LSF (French Sign Language) and ASL. I am now in the process of developing a new NSF grant proposal to do a typological and comparative study of signed languages which would bring together researchers and native signers from Tunisia, Switzerland, Scotland, Japan, Italy, Spain, Britain, and France. The broad goal of the study of linguistics is to determine how human languages are alike and how they differ. In my study I will focus on metaphorical and metonymic semantic contrasts in the thought and communicative domains in order to address the similarities and differences between varying signed languages. This analysis of word meaning extension is also critical for cross-cultural understanding. I anticipate submitting this proposal by July of 2008. Scholars from several countries, Dr. Katsunori Fukuyasu from Japan; Dr. Zouhair Maalej from Tunisia; Dr. Lorraine Leeson from Ireland; Dr. Penny Boyes-Braem from Switzerland; Elena Pizzuto from Italy; Gary Quinn from Scotland; Dr. Maria-Josep Jarque from Catalan, and others, have indicated an interest to collaborate on this future project.

My work over the past seven years has already involved international travel and cross-linguistic research, with presentations at conferences on cognitive linguistics and typology in Poland, France, Scotland, Spain, Italy, and North Africa. Some of the highlights of this work include a course taught in British Sign Language, at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland on visuality in signed languages, specifically in areas of modality, iconicity, classifiers, and metaphor. As part of this course, I presented a lecture, that was subsequently broadcast across Scotland, entitled “Sign Language, Cognitive Visuality and the Impact of Culture.” I also presented in a video broadcast lecture at the 2nd National Conference of Spanish Sign Language in Valladolid, Spain entitled “Systematicity in American Sign Language: Cross-linguistic implications.” In 2003, I organized a theme session on the cross-linguistic analysis of metaphor in signed languages at the International Cognitive Linguistics Association conference in Logroño, Spain. This work in the area of cross-linguistic study of signed languages represents a significant step forward in our knowledge of signed languages and also in our understanding of the cognitive foundations of language in general.

Much of my recent work has focused as well on conceptualization in signed languages. This is an area of research within the field of cognitive grammar, a fairly new approach to linguistic structure, that is rapidly growing in popularity. Structural approaches to language, which have dominated the field over the past hundred years, stress the autonomy of language from other cognitive abilities, and the autonomy of the components of grammar (the sound system, the lexicon, and the syntax). Semantics and the facts of actual speaker usage are taken to be peripheral to the study of language as a system.

Within cognitive linguistics, on the other hand, language is seen as a key element of cognition in general. Grammar is defined as symbolic – allowing systematic connections between conceptualizations and such observable phenomena as sounds and gestures. Thus, conceptualization is seen as central to the study of language form, and we do not make sharp distinctions between lexical and grammatical meaning, semantics, and the meaning that derives from language in use, pragmatics. Nor are sharp distinctions drawn between lexicon and grammar.

My work has centered on the conceptualizations revealed by the use of metaphor and metonymy in language. Metaphors are mappings across conceptual domains and are said to be one of the main cognitive mechanisms by which we comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract reasoning. Metaphor allows us to understand relatively abstract or unstructured concepts in terms of more concrete, or more structured concepts. The modern literature on conceptual metaphor was inspired by the publication of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By in 1980. My book, Metaphor in American Sign Language, was the first effort to apply this theory to a signed language, and my continued work in this area represents prominent research in this field.

One of the main findings on my research of metaphor is that isolating metaphorical cognitive constructs can lead to deeper understanding of the cultural and linguistic differences between all languages, regardless of the signed or spoken modalities involved. My work has centered on the conceptualizations revealed by the use of metaphor and metonymy in signed languages. I served as editor of a special edition of the journal Sign Language Studies on the topic of metaphor in signed languages (2005). I also co-authored an article, with M. Josep Jarque and S. Wilcox, on metaphor and iconicity in three signed languages (Jezikoslovlje 2004), and authored an article on metonymic and metaphorical mappings in ASL discourse (Cognitive Linguistics 2004). I also have a chapter in press in the volume Verbal and Signed Languages: Comparing structures, constructs and methodologies edited by E. Pizzuto, P. Pietrandrea & R. Simone (Mouton de Gruyter) which is entitled, “Constructs of the Mind: Cross-linguistic Contrast of Metaphor in Spoken and Signed Languages.” Finally, I am currently at work on an article on the verbs of eating and drinking in ASL and Catalan Sign Language with my colleagues M.J. Jarque, S. Wilcox, and I. Codorniu, for the volume The Linguistics of Eating and Drinking (edited by John Newman, John Benjamin’s Publishing Company, in preparation).

Another research interest I have been pursuing over the course of my career is the study of grammaticalization. Grammaticalization refers to the linguistic changes that occur over time in which a lexical item used very frequently in certain contexts becomes a grammatical item, or through which a grammatical item becomes more grammatical. In both cases, the item becomes reduced in form and more general in meaning. This theory can be effectively applied to the study of American Sign Language (ASL). My initial research on langue des signes-Françoise (French Sign Language) was extended to look for evidence of grammatical and phonological change that accompanies signed language grammaticization, specifically in the area of dynamic (movement) verbs in ASL. An article that came from this interest is “GIVE: Acts of Giving in American Sign Language,” appearing in the edited book, The Linguistics of Giving (1998). My work in this area was presented at the 1997 International Cognitive Linguistic Association Conference in Amsterdam, and the Istituto di Psicologia in Rome, Italy, as well as in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and other national locations.

Finally, I have an ongoing interest in modality in signed languages. Two papers, “Gestural Expression of Modals in American Sign Language” and “Deontic and Epistemic Modals in ASL: A Discourse Analysis,” have been published in edited volumes.

Research in Applied Linguistics and Signed Language Interpreting

A great deal of my work in applied linguistics has been in the field of signed language interpreting. Interpretation involves more than the translation of words. It requires the conversion of concepts and ideas from one language into another, with close attention to the cultural and social underpinnings of those concepts. I have received four grants since being awarded tenure which provided funding to allow my program to serve as a Consortium Site for RSA Region VI for the investigation of interpreter education (2000, 2001, 2004, and 2005-06). This funding has helped to result in my coordination and collaboration of over 200 workshops in the state of New Mexico.

In addition, prior to receiving tenure, I served as Principle Investigator on two National Science Foundation (NSF) awards. Together, these grants, entitled “Linguistic Training of Signed Language Interpreters” ($146, 906), were responsible for setting a precedent and a model for other sciences that are opening their conference doors to deaf scientists. Interpreting linguistic concepts in any language is difficult; however, not only is the signed language linguistics field full of specialized terminology, but the whole discipline had been developed using the theories and terminology originally established to describe spoken languages. Under the NSF grant awards, a distinguished group of Deaf and hearing linguists and interpreters from across the county and Canada gathered at the University of New Mexico to prepare for the eight-week 1995 Summer Linguistics Institute, and to discuss and agree upon accurate interpretations of a core linguistic lexicon. One of the results of this gathering is that many of the current international conferences on signed languages consistently hire interpreters who had been trained under the auspices of the grant.

Other areas of research interest include teaching ASL as a second language; the cognitive processes involved in simultaneous interpretation; translation of ASL into English and English into ASL; and transliteration (spoken English to signed English). With Sherman Wilcox, I published an article on ASL for J. Rosenthal's edited volume, Handbook of Undergraduate Second Language Education: English as a Second Language, Bilingual, and Foreign Language Instruction for a Multilingual World (Erlbaum 2000).

Teaching

Through my years at UNM, I have taught over 225 separate classes, developed many courses, and subsequently supervised over a dozen part-time teachers in courses ranging from introductory signed language, to cross-linguistic analysis of semantics in signed languages, to interpretation. It was gratifying that the College of Arts and Sciences awarded me Outstanding Teacher of the Year (1998) following nominations from my graduate and undergraduate students. However, the most profound emotion that I have experienced in my years of teaching at UNM was when I was honored by students who initiated the establishment of the Dr. Phyllis Perrin Wilcox Scholarship, the first endowed scholarship in Signed Language Interpreting at our university.

I have taught workshops on ASL linguistics, the national certification of deaf interpreters, and explained to numerous young deaf adolescents in the public schools systems about the responsible use of interpreters. Either as advisor or as committee member, I have guided over a dozen doctoral students, and am currently serving as dissertation advisor to a Deaf student who is working in the area of ancestral roots of ASL, Cistercian Sign Language and French Sign Language. I have worked with ten graduate students pursuing their master degrees and close to fifty who enrolled under my supervision for undergraduate independent study. I have enjoyed hosting international students from China and Tunisia, including one Fulbright scholar who was able to complete the research on his book of Tunisian spoken metaphors.

Coordination of the baccalaureate degree program in signed language interpreting since its inception in 1983 has constituted a large portion of my professional focus. Under my direction, the program grew from one faculty member (Lecturer II) to include three tenured faculty (one full professor, two associate professors), three full-time lecturers, close to ten part-time faculty positions, and one full-time staff person. Eight students enrolled in my small class in 1971; now more than 1,200 students a year seek to acquire signed language and interpretation knowledge. The UNM interpreting program that I founded is highly competitive, and many signed language students apply to be accepted into the program. The small number of majors accepted annually–approximately 15 new students each year–ensures that each one receives considerable individual attention.

Teaching comes in many forms and one of the most challenging and enjoyable to me has been the development of the interpreting practicum course, which involves intensive one-to-one guidance during the final portion of the major’s undergraduate education. Not only do our majors receive mentoring from carefully chosen professional interpreters in our state, but the community is supplied with entry level interpreters from motivated seniors in our program. Fifteen majors enrolled in the practicum generate close to 200 hours per person, totaling almost 3,000 hours of carefully monitored service to businesses, schools, and organizations yearly. I created and taught this capstone course for fifteen years; the current faculty member has continued the fundamental structure of this course. Interpreting alumni currently working as administrators of interpreting programs in regional neighboring states of California, Colorado and Arizona have requested information regarding the practicum system, setting up models to be followed elsewhere. This practicum is nearly unique in its extent and depth among undergraduate programs at UNM. Extensive, well-coordinated collaboration occurs between the interpreting majors and certified interpreters and deaf consumers in our state.

Working as an adjudicator on the Ethical Standards Committee in the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. (RID) has given me the opportunity to serve on educational panels about ethics at national conferences. I have also taught workshops to groups ranging widely from 15 to 350 participants on various topics at the biannual RID conferences in San Francisco; El Paso; and San Antonio, Texas. I have consulted with CHAO (Coalition for Health, Advocacy, and Outreach) for the development of a spoken language interpreting course for Vietnamese medical interpreters, and taught in their program.

I have also been active in teaching courses for the general linguistics program here at UNM, in particular, teaching the semantics of ASL. Since developing the curriculum for and team-teaching the course Metaphors in Signed and Spoken Languages with Eve Sweetser (University of California, Berkeley) during the 1995 Linguistics Institute at UNM, I have been periodically teaching courses on this topic to graduate and undergraduate students at UNM. Following enrollment in this course, several students have published or begun their doctoral studies in metaphor theory. Last summer, several key developments in Scotland and the United Kingdom led to an invitation to teach at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Following the 2003 acceptance of British Sign language as one of the official languages of the UK, the Scottish Parliament undertook a national language strategy that would guide the development and support of Scotland’s signed languages, including BSL.

Because of the severe shortage of BSL interpreters, the Parliament established a two year educational program, Models for Programmes Training Language Teachers. I was one of several international instructors invited to teach a selected group of Deaf Scottish interpreter educators.

My invited course was “Visuality and Signed Language” which included developing a fifty-page module on modality, iconicity, classifiers, metaphor and metonymy.

Service

A strong source of pride from my years at the University of New Mexico is the establishment, expansion and educational enrichment generated by the baccalaureate degree in Signed Language Interpreting. I did not plan to build an interpreting program. I came to UNM to learn. Without any interpreters available, and only a few people in the city able to sign, the task of enrolling in university classes was daunting. In the face of tremendous adversity, I not only had to set up a program, but I had to convince the entire university that this was a field of real science. A few administrators through the years understood this drive, this thirst to become educated. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge at least three of the earlier advocates who joined my struggle to establish this emerging program: Dr. Lloyd Lamb, Dr. Joel Jones and Dr. Chris Garcia. Their vision and understanding balanced the often constant, subtle, invisible discrimination encountered while setting up the haven of communication that this program has become for deaf students now entering UNM.

Interpreting graduates from this vibrant program now number over 260. The university program has become one of the leaders in its field, recognized by national organizations and educational institutions across the nation for its excellence in the instruction of interpretation. Many of the interpreting majors who graduated have passed the arduous national certification process. Numerous former students currently interact professionally in the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID), the national organization for signed language interpreters. Former interpreting majors currently serve on committees in RID–one as chair of its certification body, another as co-chair on the video interpreting committee, and a few have advanced to Local Testing Administrators in several states, including New Mexico. Interpreting students who completed dual majors have gone on to become medical doctors, administrators of interpreter referral agencies, and to serve on such distinguished committees as the National Mission Advisory Panel at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Although some of these alumni may not currently work as full-time interpreters, their knowledge nevertheless serves the interpretation needs of the Deaf community.

In New Mexico’s local and state community, approximately 90% of the freelance interpreters employed by the Community Outreach Program for the Deaf (COPD) are graduates from the UNM interpreting program. COPD director, Koko Chino, a graduate from this program, affirms that interpreters are hired into such institutions and businesses as Lovelace, University, and Presbyterian Hospitals; District, Magistrate, Metropolitan and Municipal court systems; the New Mexico Legislature; and other government, public and private entities that provide services to deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind individuals in their daily lives. Not only do UNM graduates serve the Deaf community in New Mexico and the nation, but they assist public and private businesses and educational and governmental agencies to satisfy the stipulations that mandate them to provide interpreting services.

The interpreting program has impacted the Department of Linguistics at every level. Associate and assistant professors, lecturers, RAs and TAs have been hired because they were attracted to UNM’s fertile soil for theoretical and applied signed language research. The first graduate student to obtain his terminal degree in our doctoral program wrote his dissertation on signed language linguistics. The B.S. interpreting program spawned the B.A. in Linguistics with a concentration in Signed Language Studies, which is proving to be a significant contributor to expansion in the undergraduate program in the Department of Linguistics. In great part due to the growing success of the bachelor program in Signed Language Interpreting, the department now attracts graduate students who are enthusiastic about the opportunity to study in a cognitive-functional program with adjacent signed language linguistics courses. Internationally, the Department of Linguistics attracts visiting scholars and graduate students who have traveled from Argentina, Brazil, Catalan, Germany, Japan, and other countries, aware that UNM houses a program favorable to research in the cross-linguistic study of signed languages.

My service interests also involve service to the Deaf community at national and local levels. I am certified as an interpreter by the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts and by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and function as an intermediary interpreter in legal situations. I have served RID as chair of their National Review Board (final national grievance review body), have served on state and national committees, and have presented lectures to the organization’s membership. In the state chapter I have served as president three times, and I have been elected to every administrative position of that organization. I have served two terms as a regional representative for the Conference of Interpreter Trainers (CIT). I was instrumental in implementing Sign Fest, a local annual visual arts performance which offered sell-out performances for fifteen years, and more recently, Vision Day, a day of educational workshops and performances by well-known deaf entertainers. Service to the community has also included arranging hundreds of workshops for the benefit of both the university and community-based interpreters. As current Chair of the New Mexico Mentoring Board, I stay abreast of the rural and municipal interpreting needs in our state and strive to move the interpreting envelope outward to all deaf people in New Mexico. I serve on local, state, regional, and national advisory boards which contribute to a better quality of life for citizens of the Deaf community.

My broader service to the state has included implementing interpreting standards in the public school districts of New Mexico; acceptance of ASL as a foreign or ‘second’ language at UNM; establishment of a referral center for faculty and students at UNM; working with New Mexico legislators to pass the 1979 Deaf Interpreter Act mandating the use of interpreters in the court system; and serving on the initial committee that established the Licensure Act of 2007 – all essential services that provide the avenues to a normal life for deaf citizens in our state.

In summary, I have a strong record in research, teaching, and service over the course of my career at UNM. I have maintained a strong record of publication and of presentation at international conferences, resulting in a significant body of research on the cognitive linguistic study of signed languages. I have been very successful in teaching, with enthusiastic student evaluations. And, in line with my commitment to the study of ASL and the enrichment of the Deaf community, I was instrumental in the development of a degree program in Signed Language Interpreting and in building the program in Signed Language Studies at UNM.

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