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Sign Language

Sign Language. By: Shannon Chesna. ASL. American Sign Language uses signs in visual or spatial form. Independent of English Derived from French Sign Language 5 parameters of signs Hand configuration, place articulation, movement, orientation (palm up or down), and facial expression.

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Sign Language

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  1. Sign Language By: Shannon Chesna

  2. ASL • American Sign Language uses signs in visual or spatial form. • Independent of English • Derived from French Sign Language • 5 parameters of signs • Hand configuration, place articulation, movement, orientation (palm up or down), and facial expression

  3. Differences from Spoken Language • Most spoken languages are arbitrary • No relationship between set of sounds and the object that the sound represents • Example: catepillar (big word for small object) • ASL is mainly iconic • The signs represent the objects • Example: tree (forearm upright with hand spread) • Even though these signs may represent something, they are not always transparent in meaning. • Klima and Bellugi performed a study where results showed that only 10% of iconic symbols were identified by hearing observers.

  4. Differences cont. • Frishberg claimed that the level of iconicity has declined in the past 200 years. • To become more conventionalized • Example: Home used to be the signs eat followed by sleep. Now it is cupping your hand and touching two places on your cheek. • ASL is now a “dual system of reference” • Part iconic and part arbitrary

  5. Differences cont. • In spoken languages there are just 1 serial stream of phonemes (sequential) • Sign Language can have multiple things going on at the same time (simultaneous) • ASL has its own morphology (rules for creation of words), phonetics (rules for hand shapes), and grammar that are unlike spoken languages

  6. Differences cont. • Spoken languages have sound as basic “building block” for emotion or feeling • Sign language is visual so it relies on facial expressions and movement to convey emotion

  7. Similarities to Spoken Language • Morphology • Distinctions from first and second person are differentiated by movement • Ex: ask me- movement of sign towards self and ask you- movement of sign away from self • Reciprocity is whether the subject is the cause or recipient of the object or if it is mutual • Ex: They pinched each other- sign with movement back and forth across signers body • English uses the distinction with pronouns

  8. Similarities • English uses subject-verb-object by word order • ASL sometimes uses this with verbs that need a direct object, they are signed subject-object-verb.

  9. Similarities • ASL uses spatial processes to indicate certain nouns • Ex: He said he hit him, and then fell down. • In English this is ambiguous but because ASL uses these spatial processes, it is a clear interpretation.

  10. Error similarities • Thompson, Emmory, and Gollan Study • Found the “tip of the finger” experiences to be similar to “tip of the tongue” experience. • Signers were more likely to retrieve a target sign’s hand configuration and place of articulation than its movement. • Results provide evidence that parameters are independent

  11. Error similarities • Slip of the tongue errors occur in sign language as well however slips of hand • Ex: Deaf woman • Points to possibility that both types of languages take form because of basic cognitive limits on how or how much linguistic information may be structure or used.

  12. Syntax • Primarily conveyed through a combination of word order and non-manual features • Pro-drop and doesn’t have a capula (linking ‘to be’ verb) • Ex: My hair is wet. Signs- MY HAIR WET.

  13. Syntactic word order • Places Adj. after noun • Ex: I have brown dog=DOG BROWN I HAVE • Adv. Occur before verbs • Ex: I enter the house quietly= HOUSE I QUIET ENTER • Modal verbs come after main verb of clause • Ex: I can go to the store for you.= FOR YOU, STORE I GO CAN

  14. Syntax • Negation • Ex: I don’t have any dogs= DOG I HAVE NONE • Questions • Ex: What are you eating?= YOU EAT [WHAT?] • Raised eyebrows are used for rhetorical questions • Subject pronoun tags • Ex: The boy fell down=BOY FALL

  15. Syntax • Conjunctions • “and” does not exist in ASL instead there are two sentences combined by a short pause. “or” and “but” often signed with slight shoulder twist • Ex: I have two Cats and they are named Billy and Bob.= CAT TWO I HAVE. NAME B-I-L-L-Y B-O-B

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