About Ashley Beard

Sam Supalla’s 1992 work, The Book of Name Signs, highlights the importance of naming in both identification and determining one’s sociocultural belonging relative to a group (in this case, the Deaf community). This includes how and by whom name signs are given to an individual; what systems of naming are followed (whether arbitrary or descriptive); and the presence of unique conventions of usage in the Deaf community in the United States (primarily, the lack of vocative function found with name signs). Our study spins off from Supalla’s assessment, comparing name sign components and strategies in the United States to those of Deaf living in Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa, one of the areas where ASL has been transplanted by Dr. Andrew Foster, founder of many schools and known as the Father of Deaf Education in Africa.