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Chapter 5 - Coggle Diagram
Chapter 5
Sign Language Engraved in Deaf History
In ASL, one-handed signs below the neck tend to become two-handed.
In ASL, two-handed signs in contact with the face tend to become one-handed.
Early research by linguist James Wood- ward13 concluded that 60 percent of the signs used in America during the early 1800s origi- nated with French signs brought to Hartford by Clerc . The study determined that the other 40 percent came from unknown sources.
sign production tends to become more fluid by dropping parts of a sign.
In the process of producing signs more fluidly, sometimes MVSL and ASL took diver- gent paths.
A common experience within the Deaf community was when Deaf chil- dren, especially those from hearing families, entered school not knowing they had names. Students learned sign language among themselves, or those who came from homes with deaf parents or siblings brought signs.
As Baker and Pad- den explain, signs are to be seen—thus, ASL signs are developed according to the boundaries of the human visual system.
Interestingly, one of the oldest signs that Deaf people have unconsciously refused to give up is the sign for INSTITUTE
As discussed in an earlier chapter, signs were already used in America long before the 1817 establishment of the American Asylum of the Deaf and Dumb in Hartford.
Alexander Graham Bell, a highly influential figure of that period, considered sign lan- guage a foreign language that should not be taught in the public schools. Sign language for deaf students was one of many casualties.
Later, researchers discovered that signs had char- acteristics such as phonology, morphology, and syntax, and much more. This discovery, however, initially met with much resistance, even from Deaf people themselves.
Sign language, although it was the main form of communication among students (and some dorm counselors and teachers), was not formally taught in the classrooms at all. The irony is that in the classroom they were often first taught — remember they were Deaf children who never learned to speak — to pronounce and speak their name, then to print their name, then later given a name sign before finally learning how to fingerspell their names.
Birth of ASL Research
probable reason for the negativity was the social and intellectual climate of people, both deaf and hearing, during the 1950s and 1960s that did not click with Stokoe’s work. People simply thought sign language was an exten- sion of English and resented a hearing man’s seemingly arrogant work.
During the 1970s, people’s attitudes began to change—perhaps as an extension of the country’s freethinking culture. People began to realize that there indeed existed a Deaf culture, one that centered on sign language, or now ASL.
Stokoe and his team identified 19 handshapes, 12 locations and 24 movements present in sign language.
Stokoe, who retired in 1984 and passed away in 2000, is now considered the “Father of American Sign Language Linguistics.”
In 1960, Stokoe published his findings in a book, Sign Language Structure: An Outline of the Visual Communication Systems of the American Deaf. His research showed that sign language was a complete and complex language dis- tinct from English. He claimed that sign language, although in a visual mode, was more than gestures and that it was a true language in itself.
Bellugi and Klima adopted Stokoe’s model of the three parameters (handshape, location, and movement), and suggested that there were additional features.
Linguistics Research Laboratory in 1957.
During the early 1960s, the study of structural linguistics became more commonplace among American colleges and universities, although it was still a raw, pioneering field.
An early supporter of Stokoe’s research came from Ursula Bellugi, Ed.D., and her husband Edward Klima. They were invited by Jonas Salk to set up a small research unit at the Salk Institute in San Diego.
What, Exactly, Is ASL?
ASL is not: An aural/oral language. A universal language. A written language. All iconic (picture-like). Equaling the grammar and structure of spoken English.
Once again, ASL has its own vocabulary, grammar, and structure unrelated to English. Therefore it cannot be translated word-for-word in English.
Baker and Padden21 and Baker and Cokely22 wrote that ASL was a visual- gestural language created by Deaf people in America and in part of Canada.
ASL compounds are created from two separate signs, which then work together like one sign.
In ASL, linguists have identified facial and body behavior that determine sentence types.
From Gestures to Sign Language
A unique characteristic of ASL is that it is capable of expressing three- dimensional ideas. Fingers and hands play roles in expressing details.
However, written language has a chief advantage: it can be recorded easily for posterity, akin to drawings on cave walls or cuneiforms. Spoken and written languages have become more sophisticated the longer humans have lived on the earth.
Baker and Cokely5 wrote that ASL is a visual- gestural language created by Deaf people. They further stated that ASL grammar involves the use of the signer’s eyes, face, head, body posture, hands and arms.
Anthropologist Gordon Hewes argued that about four million years ago the first human-animals, australopithecines, communicated with each other using their hands—possibly to give directions or to ask for help in locating things such as tools.