Papers presented at the 6th annual Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research, held Nov. 1998, Gallaudet University.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Why not give us : an articulatory constraint in signed languages / Gaurav Mathur and Christian Rathmann -- Weak drop in sign language of the Netherlands / Els van der Kooij -- The discourse function of noun classifiers in Swedish sign language / Brita Bergman and Lars Wallin -- Signs without hands : nonhanded signs in American sign language / Valerie L. Dively -- Motion and transfer : the analysis of two verb classes in Israeli sign language / Irit Meir -- Functional consequences of modality : spatial coding in working memory for signs / Margaret Wilson and Karen Emmorey -- Proximalization and distalization of sign movement in adult learners / Gene Mirus, Christian Rathmann, and Richard P. Meier -- The emergence of narrative discourse in two young deaf children / Astrid Vercaingne-M�enard, Lucie Godard, and Marie Labelle -- Analyzing variation in sign language / Rob Hoopes, Mary Rose, Robert Bayley, Ceil Lucas, Alyssa Wulf, Karen Petronio, and Steven Collins -- Politeness and Venezuelan sign language / Lourdes Pietrosemoli -- ASL in northern Nigeria : will Hausa sign language survive? / Constanze Schmaling -- Complex superposition of metaphors in an ASL poem / Sarah F. Taub -- British sign language poetry : a linguistic analysis of the work of Dorothy Miles / Rachel Sutton-Spence.