This completely revised edition includes the most recent vocabulary and signs making the Random House Webster's American Sign Language Dictionary unabridged version the most comprehensive ASL dictionary on the market.

Features:

• Over 5 600 signs
  
• Complete descriptions of each sign plus full torso illustrations
  
• Thousands of cross references
  
• Alternate signs for the same meaning plus different signs for different meanings of the same word

Chapters:

• What is the Deaf Community?
  
• Types of Hearing Loss
  
• Educational Impact of Hearing Loss
  
• Origins
  
• Is American Sign Language a Language?
  
• The Structure of American Sign Language
  
• Signs: The Vocabulary of American Sign Language
  
• Requirements of a Lexicon of Sign Language
  
• Sources of Signs
  
• Usage Levels: The Social Appropriateness of Signs and Their English Translations

The signs are carefully described in terms of handshape location with regard to the body nature of the movement and orientation of the hands. They reflect not only the knowledge of native signers but also the latest findings of linguists who specialize in ASL. Also included is an extensive introduction by the author a former Director of the Gallaudet University Press that examines the origins and structure of American Sign Language to help the reader better understand the signs in this book as the natural language of the deaf community. [Dr. Elaine Costello; (2008) 1200 pages; hard cover]"