37.1720, FYI: STAL Seminar: May 18, 14:30 CEST: Yim Binh Felix Sze, "Taboos and Euphemisms in Sex-Related Signs in Asian Sign Languages"

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1720. Fri May 08 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1720, FYI: STAL Seminar: May 18, 14:30 CEST: Yim Binh Felix Sze, "Taboos and Euphemisms in Sex-Related Signs in Asian Sign Languages"

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Date: 08-May-2026
From: Dan Zeman [danczeman at gmail.com]
Subject: STAL Seminar: May 18, 14:30 CEST: Yim Binh Felix Sze, "Taboos and Euphemisms in Sex-Related Signs in Asian Sign Languages"


The Slurring Terms Across Languages (STAL) network
(https://sites.google.com/view/stalnetwork/home) an international and
interdisciplinary network whose primary aim is to promote work on
slurs, pejoratives, expressives and evaluative terms from less studied
languages, invites you to the eight talk of the 2025-2026 academic
year. The invited speaker is Yim Binh Felix Sze (The Chinese
University of Hong Kong), who will give a talk entitled "Taboos and
Euphemisms in Sex-Related Signs in Asian Sign Languages" (see the
abstract below). The event will take place online on Monday, MAY 18,
14:30-16:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST), and is part of the of
STAL network seminar series (program here:
https://sites.google.com/view/stalnetwork/seminar) If you want to
participate, please write to stalnetwork at gmail.com for the Zoom link.
All welcome!
ABSTRACT:
This talk presents findings from my earlier paper on sex-related
euphemisms in four historically unrelated Asian sign languages: Hong
Kong Sign Language, Jakarta Sign Language, Sri Lankan Sign Language,
and Japanese Sign Language. The central research question is whether
direct visual reference to sex-related body parts or concepts is taboo
among Deaf signers, and, if so, what strategies they use to form
euphemistic expressions. I will present evidence showing that,
although Deaf signers are accustomed to the visual explicitness of the
signing modality, the highly iconic nature of some sex-related signs
can still be offensive, thus giving rise to euphemistic expressions.
While some of these euphemistic strategies aim to reduce the visual
iconicity associated with taboo signs, most closely resemble
strategies used in spoken languages, suggesting that verbal politeness
strategies may be universal across language modalities.

Linguistic Field(s): Philosophy of Language

Subject Language(s): Hong Kong Sign Language (hks)
                     Japanese Sign Language (jsl)
                     Sri Lankan Sign Language (sqs)

Language Family(ies): Asian Deaf Sign Languages



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