William C. Stokoe, Jr. is most commonly known as the “Father of American Sign Language Linguistics”. Dr. Stokoe did not invent American Sign Language (ASL), but he is thought be the person most responsible for having it recognized as an official language. The work he did while the teaching English at Gallaudet University was essential in proving ASL was not simply a visual code but an actual language. He proved that ASL has the components necessary to be considered a language. These include having phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics—all that he proved to be present in ASL.
Dr. Stokoe was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire and was educated at Cornell University receiving both a bachelors and Ph.D. in English before moving to Wells …show more content…
Stokoe did not know sign language prior to starting his work at Gallaudet and learning sign language was not easy for him. As he was observed deaf people signing he observed that the sentence structure and order of words was very different than English. He began to understand that sign language had set rules and structures that reinforced it as its own language. He worked with linguists and deaf people to write the first sign language dictionary, A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistics Principles.
In 1960 Sign Language Structure was first published by Dr. Stokoe. This was an important publication as it triggered him receiving a grant to help him continue his research. As a college professor grants are essential to aid in funding continuing research that lead to being published. Dr. Stokoe was soon asked to be a speaker at key events for the deaf community and he continued to publish many written works on the topic of ASL and the deaf community.
After teaching a Gallaudet for 16 years Dr. Stokoe a given a laboratory and he was able to focus on his research while continuing to teach one class per semester. It was at this time in his career he was able to advance ASL as a language. Before Dr. Stokoe retired in 1984 he received many awards for the work he had done. In 1980 the National Association of the Deaf honored him at their national