| Sign Language |
Article Index for Sign Language |
Articles about Sign Language |
Website Links For Sign Language |
Information AboutSign Language |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SIGN LANGUAGE | |
| sign languages | |
| language | |
| deafness | |
| deaf culture | |
|
working as a team for a school.]] A sign language (also '''signed language''') is a Language which uses Manual Communication , Body Language and lip patterns instead of Sound to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the Hand s, Arm s or Body , and Facial Expressions to express fluidly a speaker's Thoughts . Sign languages commonly develop in Deaf Communities , which can include interpreters and friends and families of deaf people as well as people who are Deaf or Hard Of Hearing themselves. As is the case in spoken language, sign language differs from one region to another. However, when people using different signed languages meet, communication is significantly easier than when people of different spoken languages meet. Sign language, in this respect, gives access to an international deaf community. Sign language is however not universal, and many different sign languages exist that are mostly mutually unintelligible. Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages develop, in fact their complex spatial grammars are markedly different than spoken language. In many cases, various signed "modes" of spoken languages have been developed, such as Signed English and Warlpiri Sign Language . Hundreds of sign languages are in use around the world and are at the core of local Deaf Culture s. Some sign languages have obtained some form of Legal Recognition , while others have no status at all. Exemplary for the mature status of sign languages is the growing body of sign language poetry, and other stage performances. The poetic mechanisms available to signing poets are not all available to a speaking poet. This offers new, exciting ways for poems to reach and move the audience. HISTORY OF SIGN LANGUAGE See Also: History of sign language The recorded history of sign language in Western society extends from the 16th century. In 1755, Abbé De L'Épée founded the first public school for deaf children in Paris; Laurent Clerc was arguably its most famous graduate. He went to the United States with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to found the American School For The Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.1 Gallaudet's son, Edward Miner Gallaudet founded the first college for the deaf in 1857, which in 1864 became Gallaudet University , the only liberal arts university for the deaf in the world. Gallaudet University is still present today; it is located in Washington DC. Generally, each spoken language has a sign language counterpart in as much as each linguistic population will contain Deaf members who will generate a sign language. In much the same way that geographical or cultural forces will isolate populations and lead to the generation of different and distinct spoken languages, the same forces operate on signed languages and so they tend to maintain their identities through time in roughly the same areas of influence as the local spoken languages. This occurs even though sign languages have no relation to the spoken languages of the lands in which they arise. There are notable exceptions to this pattern, however, as some geographic regions sharing a spoken language have multiple, unrelated signed languages. Variations within a 'national' sign language can usually be correlated to the geographic location of (residential) schools for the deaf. International Sign , formerly known as Gestuno, is used mainly at international Deaf events such as the Deaflympics and meetings of the World Federation Of The Deaf . Recent studies claim that while International Sign is a kind of a Pidgin , they conclude that it is more complex than a typical pidgin and indeed is more like a full signed language. LINGUISTICS OF SIGN In linguistic terms, sign languages are as rich and complex as any oral language, despite the common misconception that they are not "real languages". Professional Linguists have studied many sign languages and found them to have every linguistic component required to be classed as true languages. Sign languages are not Pantomime - in other words, signs are largely arbitrary and have no necessary visual relationship to their referent, much as most spoken language is not Onomatopoeic . Nor are they a visual rendition of an oral language. They have complex Grammar s of their own, and can be used to discuss any topic, from the simple and concrete to the lofty and abstract. Sign languages, like oral languages, organize elementary, meaningless units ( Phoneme s; once called Chereme s in the case of sign languages) into meaningful Semantic units. The elements of a sign are Handshape (or Handform), '''O'''rientation (or Palm Orientation), '''L'''ocation (or Place of Articulation), '''M'''ovement, and Non-manual markers (or Facial '''E'''xpression), summarised in the Acronym '''HOLME'''. Common linguistic features of deaf sign languages are extensive use of Classifiers , a high degree of Inflection , and a Topic-comment Syntax . Many unique linguistic features emerge from sign languages' ability to produce meaning in different parts of the visual field simultaneously. For example, the recipient of a signed message can read meanings carried by the hands, the facial expression and the body posture in the same moment. This is in contrast to oral languages, where the sounds that comprise words are mostly sequential (tone being an exception). Sign languages' relationships with oral languages A common misconception is that sign languages are somehow dependent on oral languages, that is, that they are oral language spelled out in gesture, or that they were invented by hearing people. Hearing teachers of deaf schools, such as Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet , are often incorrectly referred to as inventors of sign language. The Manual Alphabet is used in sign languages, mostly for proper names and technical or specialised vocabulary. The use of fingerspelling was once taken as evidence that sign languages are simplified versions of oral languages, but in fact it is merely one tool among many. Fingerspelling can sometimes be a source of new signs, which are called lexicalized signs. On the whole, deaf sign languages are independent of oral languages and follow their own paths of development. For example, British Sign Language and American Sign Language are quite different and mutually unintelligible, even though the hearing people of Britain and America share the same oral language. Similarly, countries which use a single oral language throughout may have two or more sign languages; whereas an area that contains more than one oral language might use only one sign language. USE OF SIGNS IN HEARING COMMUNITIES Gesture is a typical component of spoken languages. More elaborate systems of Manual Communication have developed in situations where speech is not practical or permitted, such as Cloistered Religious Communities , Scuba Diving , Television Recording Studios , loud workplaces, Stock Exchange s, in Baseball , while hunting (by groups such as the Kalahari Bushmen ), or in the game Charades . In Rugby Union the Referee uses a limited but defined set of signs to communicate his/her decisions to the spectators. Recently, there has been a movement to teach and encourage the use of sign language with toddlers before they learn to talk and with non-deaf or hard-of-hearing children with other causes of speech impairment or delay. This is typically referred to as Baby Sign . Convention in '' Chilean Sign Language ''.]] On occasion, where the prevalence of deaf people is high enough, a deaf sign language has been taken up by an entire local community. Famous examples of this include Martha's Vineyard Sign Language in the USA , Kata Kolok in a village in Bali , Adamorobe Sign Language in Ghana and Yucatec Maya Sign Language in Mexico . In such communities deaf people are not socially disadvantaged. Many Australian Aboriginal Sign Languages arose in a context of extensive speech taboos, such as during mourning and initiation rites. They are or were especially highly developed among the Warlpiri , Warumungu , Dieri , Kaytetye , Arrernte , Warlmanpa , and are based on their respective spoken languages. A Pidgin sign language arose among tribes of American Indians in the Great Plains region of North America (see Plains Indian Sign Language ). It was used to communicate among tribes with different spoken Language s. There are especially users today among the Crow , Cheyenne , and Arapaho . Unlike other sign languages developed by hearing people, it shares the spatial grammar of deaf sign languages. Spatial grammar and simultaneity Sign languages exploit the unique features of the visual medium. Oral language is linear. Only one sound can be made or received at a time. Sign language, on the other hand, is visual; hence a whole scene can be taken in at once. Information can be loaded into several channels and expressed simultaneously. As an illustration, in English one could utter the phrase, "I drove here". To add information about the drive, one would have to make a longer phrase or even add a second, such as, "I drove here along a winding road," or "I drove here. It was a nice drive." However, in American Sign Language, information about the shape of the road or the pleasing nature of the drive can be conveyed simultaneously with the verb 'drive' by inflecting the motion of the hand, or by taking advantage of non-manual signals such as body posture and facial expression, at the same time that the verb 'drive' is being signed. Therefore, whereas in English the phrase "I drove here and it was very pleasant" is longer than "I drove here", in American Sign Language the two may be the same length. In fact, in terms of syntax, ASL shares more with spoken Japanese than it does with English.(Karen Nakamura,1995) Written forms of sign languages |
|
|