Acknowledgements

The present work could not have been carried out without the help and support of several people and institutions. On the Czech side, I would like to express my gratitude to students, friends and colleagues at the Department of Deaf Studies at Charles University in Prague, where I have been teaching, for several years, courses dedicated to the topics that are closely connected with the contents of the present book. I would like to thank the Czech Fulbright Foundation which has granted me a scholarship that enabled me to spend several months at the University of Texas at Austin (Department of Communication Studies) and to carry out a considerable portion of the necessary research. My most sincere thanks go to Jürgen Streeck from the above-mentioned department for having accepted me as a Fulbright visiting scholar, for his kind interest in my work and for many illuminating discussions we had on the subject. I would also like to thank the members of his research group who have provided me with most valuable feedback during our wonderful Friday sessions: among those, let me mention at least Kate Mesh and Eryn Whitworth. Above all, I would like to express my infinite gratitude to Adam Kendon who has carefully read and re-read my manuscript and provided me with so many critical remarks and suggestions for improvement that it practically makes him a co-author of the present study.