Linguistics of sign

94121374
94121333
94121305
94121322
94121317
94121372
張蕙蘋
陳怡璇
王文謙
何宜璁
劉姿吟
曾美娸
a language which uses manual communication
instead of sound to convey meaning simultaneously combining hand shapes,
orientation and movement of the hands,
arms or body, and facial expressions to
express fluidly a speaker's thoughts.
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.
also used by people with speech impairments
such as aphasia.
to popular belief, sign language is not
universal.
Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign
languages develop, but as with spoken languages,
these vary from region to region.
They are not based on the spoken language in the
country of origin; in fact their complex spatial
grammars are markedly different.
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 cultures.
Some sign languages have obtained some form of
legal recognition, while others have no status at all.
The linguistic sign was first defined by the
Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure in his
Course in General Linguistics in the early 20th
century.
Saussure addressed the seemingly obvious but
also somewhat revolutionary insight that words
are not the things they attempt to represent.
Language does not function through some sort of
special connection between words and things;
rather, language, for Saussure, is a relatively
self-contained system with its own rules.
Language is made up of signs, which have little to
do with the referent, the actual objects in the
world.
The signs themselves are composed of two parts:
the signifier (the letters on the page or the
sound that bounces off our eardrum) and the
signified (the concept that appears on our brain
when we read or hear the signifier).
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 specialized 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.
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.
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.
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."
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 nonmanual 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)
Sign language differs from oral language in its
relation to writing.
The phonemic systems of oral languages are
primarily sequential: that is, the majority of
phonemes are produced in a sequence one after
another, although many languages also have nonsequential aspects such as tone. As a consequence,
traditional phonemic writing systems are also
sequential, with at best diacritics for non-sequential
aspects such as stress and tone.
Sign languages have a higher non-sequential
component, with many "phonemes" produced
simultaneously. For example, signs may involve
fingers, hands, and face moving simultaneously, or
the two hands moving in different directions.
Traditional writing systems are not designed to deal
with this level of complexity.
These systems are based on iconic symbols. Some,
such as sign writing and HamNoSys, are pictographic.
About Me
Calendar
My Blog
Contact Me
almost 5 hundred thousand users
ASL is a complete and refined
language which contains it's own
grammar, syntax and culture. With
all other Sign Languages, ASL's
grammar do differ completely from
written English.
Standardized Sign Language dates
back from the early 1700s which also
forms part of ASL's origins
In 1755, Abbé de l'Épée founded the
first public school for deaf children
in Paris.
Laurent Clerc, a
graduate and former
teacher of the French
School, went to U.S.A.
with Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet to found the
first permanent school
for the deaf. It was
established in
Hartford, Connecticut.
Subject-Object-Verb
Ex. I am fine, thank you.
most commonly used in Taiwan
heavily influenced by Japanese Sign
Language during Japanese rule and thus
has some mutual intelligibility with
both Japanese Sign Language and
Korean Sign Language
The first International Symposium on
Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics was
held on March 1-2, 2003, at Chung
Cheng University in Minhsiung
Object-Subject-Verb
Ex. Long time no see
two main sign languages in Japan:
Japanese Sign Language and
Japanese Oral Sign Language.
JSL used by Deaf people and
JOSL is mainly used by volunteers
and is a pidgin signed Japanese.
The main difference between the
two is the sequence of the words.
In 1862, the Edo government dispatched
envoys to various European schools for the
deaf. The first school for the deaf wasn't
established until 1878 in Kyoto, and it wasn't
until 1948 that deaf children were required to
attend formal education.
JSL: Subject-Verb-Object
JOSL: Subject-Object-Verb
Ex.1 I like you
http://homepage3.nifty.com/shuwa-world/
Ex. 2 Let’s go flower-viewing.
http://homepage3.nifty.com/shuwa-world/
Baby Sign involves
using sign language to
communicate with
infants and toddlers
Children of an early
age have a desire to
communicate their
needs and wishes, but
lack the ability to do so
clearly. With practice
parents, infants and
toddlers can
communicate fluently
and clearly.
Babies in deaf families,
immersed in a signing
environment, use simple
signs from as early as 6
weeks.
Use of baby sign language
is growing, but still not
widespread, partially due
to the fear that children
who sign will not learn to
speak properly later on
A small set of signs
are usually adopted
first, based of
common objects and
terms, that would
be familiar to the
child's everyday
life.
MORE
~
Parents who have some enthusiasm for
sign language may already know the local
adult signs for "eat", "sleep", "more",
"play". It is common for parents to teach
their babies non-simplified signs from
adult sign language such as American Sign
Language rather than specialized, or made
up Baby Sign.
the gestural communication system
developed by a deaf child who lacks input
from a language model in the family.
This is a common experience for deaf
children with hearing parents who are
isolated from a sign language community.
home sign systems show some of the same
characteristics of signed and spoken
languages, and are quite distinguishable
from the gestures that accompany speech
Words and simple sentences are formed,
often in similar patterns despite different
home sign systems being developed in
isolation from each other.
in 1973, a WFD committee ("the
Commission of Unification of Signs")
published a standardized vocabulary.
there is a dominant influence from
American Sign Language and European
sign languages, and African and Asian
signers find IS considerably more
difficult to understand.
The name "Gestuno" was chosen from
Italian, meaning "the unity of sign
languages", but the name has fallen out
of use in favor of the phrase
"International Sign".
International Sign does not have a fixed
grammar, so some argue it's better
defined as a vocabulary rather than a
complete language. Signers may use the
IS signs with the grammar of their own
native sign language
Bill, Please
ASL:
 Children who sign actually speak earlier than
kids who don’t sign
 Children who sign tend to have a larger
vocabulary
 It enhances their self-esteem
 They have an increased interest in books
 It improves their emotional development
 They engage in more sophisticated play
 It builds greater brain function
 It is a good introduction to a second
language
 Some studies show that children who sign
have an IQ that is as much as 10-12 points
higher
Baby’s:
 Babies who Sign tend to be happier and
less frustrated
 Babies who Sign tend to verbalize sooner
 Sign Language can strengthen fine motor
skills
 Sign Language can improve reading scores

 Sign Language may help build and
reinforce creativity
 Sign Language is a fun way for young
children to get excited about different
languages and cultures

Download Report