The sociolinguistics of sign languages parallels as well as complements the sociolinguistics of spoken languages. All of the key areas of sociolinguistics, such as multilingualism, language contact, variation, and language attitudes—are of immediate relevance to sign languages. At the same time, sign language researchers using a range of data sources and methods (e.g., sign language corpora, linguistic elicitation, and linguistic ethnography) have showed that the unique natures and features of sign languages allow us to look at all these areas from a different vantage point. First, deficit perspectives on deafness serve to sharply distinguish the reality of sign languages from that of spoken languages. The linguistic status of sign languages has been long contested, and certain forms of signing are still labeled “nonlanguage.” The delineation and differentiation of sign languages, and of sign languages from other signing practices (e.g., gesturing, home sign) has therefore been a key issue. Second, sign languages are used by both deaf and hearing people, in contexts where spoken/written languages, and increasingly also other sign languages are in use, leading to complex multimodal forms of sign–spoken, sign–written, and sign–sign language contact, and to hierarchical constellations of language attitudes and ideologies in relation to signed and spoken languages and variants.

中文翻译：

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出现与演变：引入手语社会语言学

手语的社会语言学与口语的社会语言学相辅相成。社会语言学的所有关键领域，例如多语言、语言接触、变异和语言态度——都与手语直接相关。同时，手语研究人员使用一系列数据源和方法（例如，手语语料库、语言启发和语言民族志）表明，手语的独特性质和特征使我们能够从一个不同的有利位置。首先，关于耳聋的缺陷观点有助于将手语的现实与口语的现实区分开来。手语的语言地位长期以来一直存在争议，某些形式的手语仍被贴上“非语言”的标签。” 因此，手语的划分和区分，以及手语与其他手语实践（例如手势、家庭手势）的区别一直是一个关键问题。其次，聋人和听力正常的人都使用手语，在口语/书面语言以及越来越多地使用其他手语的环境中，导致手语、手语和手语的复杂多模式形式联系，以及与手语和口语及其变体有关的语言态度和意识形态的等级星座。