THE USE OF BIMODAL COMMUNICATION BY HEARING FEMALE SIGNERS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 by
 
 Lynn S. Messing
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University 
of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the 
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics
 
 Summer 1993
 
 
 
 Copyright 1993 Lynn S. 
Messing All Rights Reserved 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE USE OF BIMODAL COMMUNICATION BY HEARING FEMALE SIGNERS
 
 
 
 by
 
  Lynn S. Messing
 
 
 
 
 
Approved: ________________________________________________  
 
William Frawley, Ph.D.  Acting Chair of the Department of 
Linguistics
 
 
 
 Approved: ________________________________________________  Carol 
E. Hoffecker, Ph.D.  Associate Provost for Graduate Studies
 
 
 
 I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in 
my opinion it meets the academic and professional 
standard required by the University as a dissertation 
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
 
Signed: ________________________________________________  Robert 
J. Di Pietro, Ph.D. (deceased)  Professor in charge of dissertation
 
 I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in 
my opinion it meets the academic and professional 
standard required by the University as a dissertation 
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
 
Signed: ________________________________________________  Nancy 
Schweda-Nicholson, Ph.D.  Professor in charge of dissertation
 
 I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in 
my opinion it meets the academic and professional 
standard required by the University as a dissertation 
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
 
Signed: ________________________________________________  Louis 
Arena, Ph.D.  Member of dissertation committee
 
 I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in 
my opinion it meets the academic and professional 
standard required by the University as a dissertation 
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
 
Signed: ________________________________________________  Juliet 
Langman, Ph.D.  Member of dissertation committee
 
 I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in 
my opinion it meets the academic and professional 
standard required by the University as a dissertation 
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
 
Signed: ________________________________________________  Wendy 
Samter, Ph.D.  Member of dissertation committee
 
 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
  Although it is my name alone which appears on the front 
page of this dissertation, it would be a grave mistake to conclude 
that I could have conducted or documented this research on my own. 
There are a great many people to whom I am indebted for their help 
and encouragement. I have tried to list them all below. If I have 
forgotten anyone, I deeply regret the omission.
 I wish to thank my parents, Ralph and Susan Messing, for 
nurturing my inquisitive nature. My mother not only taught me to read, she 
taught me to love reading. My father instilled within me his love 
of science. Both have provided me with tremendous support 
throughout my life. I only wish my father had lived to see this 
work. 
 Many other people have bolstered my spirits during 
the long and sometimes frustrating process of writing this 
dissertation. These include my brother Robin Messing, my sister 
Eileen Messing, and several friends, especially Eric Berger, 
Dolores (Dolly) Callahan, Margot Kinberg, and Sabita Flannigan (ne 
Nagarajan). 
 Still other people have contributed more 
directly to the content and quality of the dissertation itself. I 
am greatly indebted to my mentor, the late Dr. Robert Di Pietro, 
for encouraging me to pursue my study of bimodal communication, and 
for his generous and noble desire to continue as my dissertation 
advisor when he knew he was dying. His death was a great loss, 
both personally and professionally, to many people, including 
myself. 
 The rest of my dissertation committee, Nancy 
Schweda-Nicholson, Louis Arena, Juliet Langman, and Wendy Samter, 
have also been marvelous throughout this process. They have always 
made themselves available to meet with me, have rapidly returned 
thoroughly commented chapter drafts, and have greatly improved the 
quality of this dissertation with their insightful advice. 
 Finally, there were numerous people who volunteered their 
time to contribute to this work. Among them are Angela (Angie) Carroll, 
who collected the data for the ASL I students; Joanne Jackowski and 
Karen Moore, who helped code the data in order to obtain 
reliability statistics; several students at Gallaudet University 
and the University of Delaware who agreed to be experimental 
subjects; Dr. Robert Johnson, who sponsored me at Gallaudet 
University; and Elizabeth (Betsy) Winston, who distributed 
information about my work to several people at Gallaudet. 
 
 DEDICATION
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 To the memory of my father Ralph A. Messing, this 
dissertation is lovingly dedicated.
 
 
 
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