Sign Language

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Sign Language
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SIGN LANGUAGE

• Used primarily by hearing-impaired people,
• Uses a different medium hands, face, and eyes
  (rather than vocal tract or ears).
• NOT derived from spoken language

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Why Study Sign Language?

• Sign Language exhibits same functional properties
  and follow same universal principles as spoken
  languagepossible evidence of universal grammar
  (UG).
• Study of sign language provides unique insight
  into the nature of language itself.
• Brain function similarities indicate language not
  based on hearing and speech.

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MYTHS about sign language

• Its universal NO. ASL / British sign language
  / Spanish sign language
• Its like mime NO. Some signs may be iconic, but
  others are not (e.g.,apple in ASL). Mime can
  use the whole body sign language uses only an
  area between the waist and head.
• Has no grammar on its own. NO. ASL is NOT
  English on the hands. English grammar and ASL
  grammar are very different e.g., ASL has a free
  word order ASL does not have tense markers.
• Cannot convey the same meaning/complexities as
  spoken language. NO. ASL speakers can express
  anything they want in ASL.

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• A signed language is not the same as a sign
  language
• ASL (American Sign Language) is one of the
  worlds many sign languages

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ASL Grammar

• ASL phonology
• Hand-shape, location, movement, palm orientation
  (features on their own may mean nothing)
• Theres also assimilation, syllabic constraints,
  etc, (as in the in the phonology of spoken
  languages).

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ASL Grammar

• ASL morphology
• Parts of speech are also nouns (N),verbs (V),
  adjectives (A), pronouns (Pro), adverbs (Adv).
• A basic form can be inflected in ASL e.g., Give
  and different aspects (Clark, p. 84).
• Also, nouns are associated with spatial points.
  Moving between those mark subject/object and
  pronominal relations.
• ASL classifiers (relationals) are embedded in V
  signals
• ASL signs can form compounds

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ASL Grammar

• ASL Syntax
• Word order SVO (same as English). However, ASL
  tends to be a free word order language.
• ASL allows PRO drop (subjectless sentences).
• Facial expressions express emotions, but also
  signal syntactic relationships. Today snow. Trip
  cancel.

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Structure of ASL

• Five Basic Parameters
• Shape of the hand
• Place of articulation (location)
• Movement
• Palm Orientation
• Region of the hand contacting body
• Orientation of the hand to body
• Orientation of hands to each other
• Facial Expressions

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Some differences/similarities

• In spoken language, phonemes occur linearly in
  ASL primes cannot (spatial)
• ASL involves discrete components, just like
  spoken language
• ASL has minimal pairs, as does spoken language
  (words differing in only one aspect).
• Speakers of both can have dialects and be
  perceived to have accents.

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Sign Language

• Fingerspelling/Manual Alphabet
• Words without assigned signs may be spelled
• Some commonly spelled words become lexicalized
  (e.g. NO)
• Not the same handshape is used in every sign
  language

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Sign Language

• Dialects and Registers
• There are differences between groups within the
  same language. Black ASL may have properties
  (handshapes, certain position of certain fingers,
  size of spaced used, etc) different from other
  forms of ASL.
• Also, formal vs informal contexts affect some
  properties of ASL. For example, deletion is not
  common in formal contexts the signing space is
  bigger in formal contexts, etc.