In Memoriam: Edward S. Klima
Edward S. Klima was a linguist who, together with his wife Ursula Bellugi, wrote ‘The Signs of Language‘ (1979). He was one of the first scholars to pay serious attention to sign languages, ASL grammar in particular, and helped to get them recognized as proper languages. He died on Sept. 25 in the La Jolla section of San Diego, at age 77.
Her is his obituary by the NY Times.
I never met Edward Klima, but I greatly enjoyed reading The Signs of Language, which, I think, presaged much of what has been done in sign language research since.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I met Ed in the late 50’s when he was at MIT and a client of my families food business. I was only 16 at the time and considering what college to attend.
I was interested in his work and he, in turn, took an interest in me. He took me to visit MIT and spoke about his undergraduate education at Dartmouth. I never forgot Ed and his attention to me but I had forgotten that he was the person that had helped guide me to Dartmouth and an educational experience that was transformational for me.
November 29th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
thank you very much