In Five Fingers for Survival: A Deaf Sign Language in the Caribbean (1986), Washabaugh found reasons to question the dominant assumption that the vernacular signing of the Deaf is guided by universal acquisition constraints, again pointing out relevant forces external to the language.

Beyond strictly linguistic issues, Washabaugh explored the social forces that bear on non-verbal expressions and communications.

His current project, Silvered Screens: Self in Cinema (forthcoming), pursues a study of more than five hundred movie moments during which characters react to their mirror images.

Silvered Screens concludes that self is far from simple; it is fraught with hidden forces, not unlike our everyday performances of speech, sign, music, and angling.

), Variability in Decreolization on Providence Island, Colombia (Ph.D.) Washabaugh's books include: Flamenco: Passion, Politics and Popular Culture was a finalist for the 1997 Katharine Briggs Folklore Award.