Trevor Johnston’s
Homepage
I
am Associate Professor in Signed Language Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney,
Australia).
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Personal qualifications |
Formal qualifications |
Scholarly qualifications |
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Native signing background Extended deaf family Multi-generational signing environment |
BA (Honours Ist Class) 1977 PhD (Linguistics) 1990 DLitt (Honoris Causa) 1997 |
Author/editor of Research projects |
Research
interests
q
The linguistics of Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and other signed
languages.
q
Signed language lexicography and lexicology.
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The digital documentation of signed languages, video-linked
transcription and notation of signed language texts and, in particular, the
development of corpus-based descriptions of signed languages.
q
The nature and role of lexical and non-lexical signs (especially
pointing signs and indicating and depticting signs) in signed languages.
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Typological issues in the description of the grammar of signed
languages.
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Gesture and visual representation signed languages.
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Functional perspectives in the description of signed
and spoken language grammars.
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Grammaticalization in signed languages.
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Sociolinguistic variation in signed languages.
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Signed language acquisition and assessment.
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Sign bilingual education.
Auslan
Signbank
This
is a recently completed pilot of an interactive dictionary of Auslan on an
internet website. It was funded by the Telstra
Foundation. The database of Auslan lexical signs, which has been the source
of several editions of the Auslan dictionary in both book and CD-ROM formats,
has been partially built into a website compatible database and a website
designed around it. The website includes user interactivity for feedback and
evaluation, especially for the validation of existing data and the collection
of new data. The principal objective of the SignBank project is to facilitate
the standardisation of Auslan usage and to develop technical and specialist
signs within a participatory and interactive community-based framework. This
project recognises the ownership of Auslan lies in the deaf sign language using
community, not with committees of experts, teachers or government officials.
The first stage of Auslan Signbank is
now operational.
Sociolinguistic
Variation in Australian Sign Language
This
project is funded under the Linkage scheme by the Australian Research Council and the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children.
It is a three-year study investigating phonological, lexical and grammatical
variation in Australian Sign Language (Auslan) that began in January 2003. I am
Partner Investigator with Chief Investigator Adam Schembri
(Postdoctoral Research Fellow), and our current deaf research assistants for
data collection are Julia Allen in Sydney, and Patti Levitzke-Gray in Perth.
Our principal consultant for the project is Professor Ceil Lucas of Gallaudet University in Washington DC. The
aim of the project is to collect and analyse conversational and elicited data
from up to 150 native and near-native signers of Auslan in Sydney, Melbourne,
Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth. We are interested in variation in the language
due to region, gender, age, language background and possibly also socioeconomic
status and social networks. For more information on the project, please read
the article Sociolinguistic
variation in Auslan (Australian Sign Language): A research project in progress
a version of which appeared in the journal Deaf Worlds (Schembri, A., &
Johnston, T. (2004). Sociolinguistic variation in Auslan (Australian Sign
Language): A research project in progress. Deaf Worlds, 20(1), S78-S90.)
The
Auslan Archive Project: a corpus of Auslan texts from native signers
A
three year project to systematically collect a corpus of Auslan texts from
adult native signers began in 2004. The project is funded by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project,
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The aim is to
record, document, annotate and selectively transcribe naturalistic, controlled
and elicited signed language text from deaf native users of Auslan. Language
recording sessions will be conducted of one hundred deaf native signers of
Auslan (twenty language participants in each of five sites). Participants will
take part in three hours of language-based activity involving: a one-on-one
interview, elicited personal narrative (significant life event), narrative
productions elicited by viewing a stimulus video and a cartoon story (without
written text), a barrier task (illustrations identified or sequenced in
response to signed descriptions), shadowing of another participants signed
utterances, re-telling in Auslan of a story signed in Auslan and seen for the
first time, and free group conversation. These recordings will serve as a basis
for a future corpus-based grammar of Auslan and will be archived at SOAS in
London and Macquarie University library, Sydney.
Current
writing projects
Schembri, A., Turner,
G.H. & Johnston, T. (Eds). (in preparation) Sign linguistics: An
introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Johnston, T. &
Schembri, A. (in preparation) An introduction to the linguistics of
Australian Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Last updated: 7 March 2006