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Classifying Signed Languages:`Urban Sign’, `Village Sign’,
`Home Sign’, and an Instructive Border Case
Charles University Guest LectureKate Mesh, 10-24-14
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How are Sign Languages Classified?
• Urban
• Village
• Home Sign
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• Originated and maintained in educational
institutions.
• Deaf people maintain the language.
• Urban / National / “Deaf
Community” Sign Languages
WFD (2014); Meir et al (2010); Woodward (1996, 2000)
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• e.g., Český znakový jazyk:
• 1st deaf school founded 1786
• Urban / National / “Deaf
Community” Sign Languages
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Village Sign Languages
• Originated and maintained in villages
where the rate of deafness is high.
• Deaf and hearing villagers sign.
• There are few distinctions between deaf
and hearing people in the society.
Meir et al (2010); Nonaka (2012; 2009)
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Village Sign Languages
E.g., Adamorobe Sign Langauge (Ghana)
41 deaf signers; “many” (of pop. 3500) hearing signers
Deaf and hearing villagers are (nearly all) farmers
(Kusters 2012; Nyst 2009)
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Village Sign Languages
E.g., Al-Sayyid Bedoin Sign Langauge (Israel)
• 140 deaf signers; “many” (of pop. 3000) hearing
signers
• Deaf and hearing: similar work, dissimilar education.
(Sandler et al 2005; Kisch 2004)
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Village Sign Languages
E.g., Ban Khor Sign Language (Thailand)
• 16 deaf signers; ~500 hearing signers
• Deaf and hearing: similar work (rice farming); similar
education (until recently) (Nonaka 2012, 2007)
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Village Sign Languages
E.g., Kata Kolok (North Bali)
• 50 deaf signers; “most” (pop. 2,200) hearing signers
• Deaf and hearing: similar jobs, similar marriage
opportunities
(de Vos 2011; Marsaja 2008)
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How are Sign Languages Classified?
• Home Sign
• Exactly one deaf person signs. Hearing family
members may sign, but do not match the
deaf person’s signs.
(Goldin-Meadow et al 2011, 2003;
Coppola 2002; Frishberg 1987)
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How are Sign Languages Classified?
• Home Sign
E.g., “David” and his hearing family
• 1 deaf signer
• parents and sister use gestures unlike “David’s
(Goldin-Meadow et al 2011, 2003)
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Chatino Sign Language (CSL):
What kind of signed language could this be?
CSL investigated during 3.5 months of
fieldwork in 2012 and 3 months of
fieldwork in 2014
(and counting…)
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Oaxaca City
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Oaxaca to Field Site
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Oaxaca to Field Site
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San Juan Quihije & Cieneguilla
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San Juan Quiahije & Cieneguilla
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What is the Rate of Deafness?
• Combined Pop. 3,628 (INEGI 2012)
• Deaf individuals: 10
– 6 adults (2 female)
– 4 children (all female)
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Are Deaf and Hearing People
‘Equal’?• Employment: similar farming work (some
exceptions)
• Education: no deaf education (but one deaf
child goes to school, anyway)
• Marriage patterns: deaf men marry hearing
women
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Who Uses the Language?
• 11 Deaf people
• Their immediate family members
– Is their signing similar to that of deaf people?
• Extended family members
– Not always: what factors motivate family members
to sign?
• Others?
– “Associates” (= friends and co-workers)
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Who is ‘Signing’ and who is
‘Gesturing’?• Many hearing people are willing to gesture
with one another—when they can’t hear one
another and when they don’t share a
language.
• Is there anything different about how they
gesture with deaf people?
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We stopped asking:
What kind of signed language could this be?
…and started asking:
What supports communication between deaf and hearing people
here?
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What Communication Looks Like:
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An Early Project on the Language Structure:
Exploring Negation among deaf and hearing signers
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Project 1: Negation in CSL
• 6 independent manual negative particles in Chatino Sign (Hou & Mesh 2013)
• For basic clause negation: – TWIST-Y– TWIST-5– WAG
• 3 other semantically negative signs– FINISH– DEAD– WAG
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(1) TWIST-Y
This sign functions as:• an existential negator• a basic clausal negator
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(1) TWIST-Y
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(2) TWIST-5
This sign functions as:• a basic clause negator• an existential negator• a negative interjection
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(2) TWIST-5
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(3) WAG
This sign functions as:• a basic clause negator• a negative interjection
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(3) WAG
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(4) FINISH
• With a headshake and other non-manual markers, this functions as an emphatic negative
• Without a headshake, this denotes an event completion marker and also a discourse marker
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(4) FINISH
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(5) DEAD
• With a headshake and other non-manual signals, this denotes an aspectual function, meaning `no more’
• Without the headshake, this is a lexical item denoting `dead’
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(5) DEAD
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(6) SHRUG
• A semantically negative item that means `I don’t know’ when produced with raised eyebrows, hunched shoulders, and lips turned down
• Also functions as a discourse marker
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(6) SHRUG
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Where deaf and hearing signers differ: deaf use of multiple distinct contiguous
negators
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Where deaf and hearing signers differ: deaf use of multiple distinct contiguous negators
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Where deaf & hearing signers look the same: all use negators at the ends of
sentences
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Where deaf & hearing signers look the same: all use verb- & clause-final negation