William Stokoe

William C. Stokoe, Jr. (pronounced STOE-kee, (1919 - 2000) was a scholar who extensively researched American Sign Language (ASL) while working at Gallaudet University. He served as chairman of the English department at Gallaudet from 1955 to 1971 and was a researcher there till his retirement in 1984. He published Sign Language Structure (1960) and co-authored A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles (1965).

Through the publication of his work he was crucial in changing the perception of ASL from that of a broken or simplified version of English, to that of a complex and thriving natural language in its own right, with an independent syntax and grammar. Because he raised the status of ASL in academic and educational circles, he is considered a hero in the Deaf community.

Life

William Stokoe was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire. He had one brother, Jim, who was two years younger. He spent his childhood in a rural area near Rochester, New York, where his parents taught him the importance of hard work and education. During high school he was known as "Stubborn Stokoe," because he sometimes argue with teachers about test answers and was known for his willful persistence.

William Stokoe attended Cornell University for his undergraduate degree. He always received good grades, and was awarded a Boldt Scholarship, as well as other scholarships to assist him in paying his tuition. His family was not well off, and he had to work while in college. He was involved in Cornell's ROTC program, as well as fencing. He had a nervous breakdown in 1940 and spent some time in the camp hospital, where he was given the diagnosis of manic-depression and given some medication. He took a year off to recover, and returned to Cornell in 1941. When he returned he received the Boldt scholarship again, was the co-captain of the fencing team, and joined the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa. He never had another recurrence of his illness, but always found it difficult that he was not able to serve during the war.

Shortly after returning to Cornell, Stokoe met Ruth Palmeter, who was also a Cornell student. They were married in November of 1942, and Ruth was a great force of stability during difficult times. William's brother Jim died in December of 1942, and this was a very hard time, as the two were very close. For a short time, William and Ruth assisted with the family farm, but left for graduate school at Cornell in 1943.

William and Ruth had two children: Helen Marie Stokoe, born in 1947, and James Stafford Stokoe, born in 1951. In her later years, Ruth became ill with Alzheimers, and William cared for her. William Stokoe died on April 4, 2000 in Chevy Chase, Maryland from a long illness.

Work

William Stokoe taught English at Wells College after graduating from Cornell. In 1955, Wiliam Stokoe was invited by one of his oldest friends from Cornell University, George Detmold, to teach English at Gallaudet. During this time Gallaudet was undergoing major curriculum improvements and Detmold's task was to get Gallaudet accredited. Stokoe's acceptance of this offer was a great benefit for Gallaudet College, as there were few professors with Ph.D.s at that time at Gallaudet.

Stokoe arrived at Gallaudet in 1955. Stokoe had no training in sign language when he arrived at the college. His only previous experience with anyone deaf had been a blacksmith in his hometown who communicated by writing, and this had been a positive experience. He was unexposed to the negative views of sign language and the deaf that were prevalent at Gallaudet and elsewhere at this time. His specialty was Middle and Old English, particularly Chaucer. He continued to publish literary articles when he first arrived at Gallaudet. He rode his motorcycle to school and practiced Scottish bagpipes on campus so that no one would have to hear him.

Shortly after his arrival at Gallaudet, Stokoe began learning sign language, also called manual communication at the time. Signing did not come easy to Stokoe, and while he learned to sign, he was never a great signer. Some resented Stokoe's close friendship with Detmold, the Dean of Instruction. In noticing deaf people sign with each other, Stokoe began to realize that they communicated in what appeared to be an actual language. The word order and the sentence structure was different than a manually coded system for English, yet deaf signers were able to communicate with one another perfectly well. Although he had no formal training in linguistics, he soon discovered that sign language had its own set of rules and language structure that differed from English, but yet appeared to be a true language. These ideas contradicted what the experts and the deaf believed about sign language at the time: that it was an imitation of English and therefore inferior.

Detmold encouraged Stokoe in his studies of sign language. Gallaudet was accredited in 1957, and William Stokoe spent that summer working with two well-known linguists. Stokoe proposed that the deaf share a culture different from American culture, and that their gestural sign language was, in fact, a language. When school resumed at Gallaudet in the fall, William Stokoe continued to study sign language and was faced with confusion and opposition from deaf and hearing faculty and students because he was challenging the status quo. He became frustrated with resistance to change and was stubborn in having his views and studies heard and acknowledged. His ties to Detmold, his lack of camaraderie with other professors at Gallaudet, and the fact that he was an outsider to the deaf community were all reasons he was resented by some. However, these were also conditions that helped him to see things differently than others did. Stokoe was highly focused on his efforts and had difficulty understanding why others at Gallaudet were not equally intrigued. Stokoe had little time or tolerance for those who were not open to his research, and could be difficult to work with. He had an innate and unusual curiosity that propelled him forward in his research. In the first few years of his research and publishing he found more acceptance outside Gallaudet than at the school for the deaf. Slowly people in deaf academia began to realize the value in Stokoe's work as well, but it took several decades for major changes at Gallaudet to actually take place.

Stokoe invented a written notation for sign language (now called Stokoe notation) as ASL had no written form at the time. Unlike SignWriting, which was developed later, it is not pictographic, but draws heavily on the Latin alphabet. For example, the written form of the sign for the 'mother' looks like U5x. The 'U' indicates that it is signed at the chin, the '5' that is uses a spread hand (the '5' of ASL), and the 'x' that the thumb touches the chin. Stokoe coined the terms tab, dez, and sig, meaning sign location, handshape and motion, to indicate different categories of phonemes in ASL. Some argued his use of technical terminology made his ideas more difficult to understand. The Stokoe notation system has been used for other sign languages, but is mostly restricted to linguists and academics.

William Stokoe retired in 1984. He continued editing the journal Sign Language Studies, writing books, and lecturing. He served on a task force on deaf studies and ASL at Gallaudet in 1993.

Legacy

Stokoe first published Sign Language Structure, in 1960 which included a history of sign language, explained his transcription method, and utilized a detailed linguistic process. After its publication, he was given a grant by the National Science Foundation to continue to study sign language. He was asked to speak regarding his efforts in both the United States and Europe. He wrote numerous essays, articles and books.

William Stokoe brilliantly enlisted the help of deaf people who were willing to collaborate with him. Together with Carl Cronenberg and Dorothy Casterline, they wrote the first sign language dictionary, A dictionary of American sign language on linguistic principles. It was during this time he first began to refer to sign language not just as sign language or manual communication, but as American sign language. This ground-breaking dictionary listed signs and explained their meanings and usage, and gave a linguistic analysis of the parts of each sign.

After some administrative changes at Gallaudet in 1971, Stokoe was replaced as chairman of the English department and a lab was created for him. Stokoe focused on the Linguistics Research Lab and taught one English class each semester. He established an open culture for research and was able to attract notable linguists and researchers from throughout the country, where they accomplished cutting-edge research in the field of sign-language linguistics. Stokoe took over the editing and publishing of the journal Sign Language Studies, when it was discontinued by its former publisher, and in 1972 he started the newsletter Signs for our Times.

He was honored at the 1980 convention of the National Association of the Deaf with a special book of essays by people who had worked closely with or been influenced by William Stokoe and his work. In May 1988 he was presented with an honorary degree from Gallaudet by I. King Jordan, Gallaudet's first deaf president.

He was a person of grand ideas, who was always learning, even if being criticized, and was a remarkable observer of people. The goal that guided his research throughout his career was the improvement of deaf education. While he found linguistic discoveries and the study of deaf culture fascinating, he knew this was meaningless unless it was used to actually help deaf students succeed.

Major Works

• Stokoe, William C. 1960. The calculus of structure; a manual for college students of English. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet College.

• Stokoe, William C. 1972. Semiotics and human sign languages. Approaches to semiotics, 21. The Hague: Mouton.

• Stokoe, William C., Dorothy C. Casterline, and Carl G. Croneberg. 1976. A dictionary of American sign language on linguistic principles. [Silver Spring, Md.]: Linstok Press.

• Stokoe, William C. 1978. Sign language structure the first linguistic analysis of American sign language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press. ISBN 0932130038 ISBN 9780932130037

• Armstrong, David F., William C. Stokoe, and Sherman Wilcox. 1995. Gesture and the nature of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521462134 ISBN 9780521462136 ISBN0521467721 ISBN 9780521467728

• Stokoe, William C. 2002. Language in hand why sign came before speech. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. ISBN 156368103X ISBN 9781563681035

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Maher, Jane. 1996. Seeing language in sign the work of William C. Stokoe. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. ISBN 156368053X ISBN 9781563680533

• Stokoe, William C. 1978. Sign language structure the first linguistic analysis of American sign language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press. ISBN 0932130038 ISBN 9780932130037

External Links

• http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Stokoecompliments.html
• http://deafwiki.org/index.php?title=William_Stokoe