Abstract
The development of national sign languages and of language policies associated with national sign languages are both relatively recent, and are products of the spread of nationalism, spurred on by national and international movements in the fields of human rights and education. There have, however, always been policies towards sign languages, policies which have overtly or covertly been influenced by wider attitudes towards language in general. These policies have often denied sign language the status of languages and have in turn denied their users their full humanity. The impact of philosophers of language on these policies towards sign languages has often been profound, especially where speech has been assumed to be synonymous with language.
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Branson, J., Miller, D. (1997). National Sign Languages and Language Policies. In: Wodak, R., Corson, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4538-1_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4538-1_9
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