sign languages for linguistics 1 (stanford)

12 November 2008 Linguistics 1: Frishberg 1

Sign Language: At least 4 myths, a few true facts,

and fun stuff from the web

Nancy Frishberg, Ph.D. [email protected]

Always start with a joke



Goals for Today

•  Let’s share assumptions and questions about sign language

•  Let’s correct some misunderstandings and decide how to reconcile some incompatible ideas

•  Let’s agree on how to decide whether sign language fits in the scheme of human language behavior

•  Let’s learn a few fun facts about signing


My contact with deafness

•  Hard of Hearing mother •  Toddler friend also “Hard of Hearing” •  Junior High School friend had deaf

grandparents – We spelled; I learned a dozen signs

•  Grad school entry (in linguistics) coincided with Bellugi’s first NIH grant


Your experiences with Deafness? Signing?

•  School? •  Scouts? •  Sesame Street? •  Other TV? Movies?

•  Informal contact? •  Formal instruction? •  Language Files

readings?

This is where you get to ask stupid questions -- but, there are no stupid questions -- and reveal your assumptions and preconceptions

Some of the student questions •  Genetics of deafness? •  Differences between

ASL and other sign languages

•  Expressive capacity? •  How does ASL create

new words •  Is ASL grammar

equivalent to English grammar

•  When did signing start? •  How does sign express

ideas like “sarcasm”? •  Shouldn’t there be one

sign language – universal?

•  Regional differences •  “Music” equivalent?



A Couple of Examples of Fluent Signing

•  Jane Norman’s blog and vlog http://thedeaflens.com/?cat=24

•  Hatrak Sisters Enterprises http://www.hatraksisters.com/


4 Myths - 2x2

•  Signing is Pantomime •  Signing is Universal

•  Signing is a coded form of speech •  Signing is fingerspelling


Myth! Signing is Pantomime

•  Is pantomime conventional? standardized? –  Or can it change from one person to another?

From one occasion to another? –  How about signing?

•  Does pantomime fit the temporal requirements or habits of a human language?

•  How culturally bound is pantomime? How about signing?

•  Does pantomime imply “concrete” or “simple”? How about signing?


Myth! Signing is Universal

•  If signing were a universal language, then –  You would understand what we’ve seen on these

vlogs and websites without transcripts or interpretation

–  You would not need any help understanding what any deaf person signs

–  People from around the world would be able to communicate with each other successfully and effortlessly in gesture

–  There would not be many sign languages, nor regional variation within each sign language


Myth! Signing is a coded form of speech

•  If signs are coded speech, then there is a 1:1 relationship between signs and spoken language – At what level would this coding happen?

•  Sounds? Cf. Cued speech •  Words? Parts of words? Cf. SEE, etc. •  Spelling? (see next slide)


Myth! Signing is fingerspelling Fingerspelling is a method of representing (English)

words using a series of manual gestures that correspond to the alphabet

•  No difference between capital and lowercase, limited use of punctuation –  i.e., it’s not writing

•  One-handed vs. two-handed spelling –  Quick aside on history of ASL and BSL, Rochester Method

•  How does it function in the stream of signs?


Signing is

•  A mode of producing and perceiving specific primary human languages –  ASL ≠ BSL; ASL ≠ LSF –  Different sign languages are not mutually

intelligible to native signers –  Not transparent to non-signers, but possible more

obviously iconic than (most) spoken languages •  Capable of all expression available to other

modes of human language –  Meets the duality of patterning criterion for human

languages


Modalities of Production Speech Signing

One articulator Two articulators, plus face/body

Invisible to speaker Generally visible to signer

Invisible to addressee Visible to addressee

Asymmetric Mirror-image symmetric

Breathing, vocalization, pitch, timbre, pausing, silence

Gesture area, size of space, rhythmic structures, pausing, silence

Other? Other?


Modalities of Perception Speech Signing

Ears - auditory Eyes - visual (& tactile?)

Omni-directional Subscribed visual angle

Speech concentrated in certain frequencies of human hearing

Foveal vs. peripheral vision; cones and rods

Distance limits? Barriers? Noise? Darkness?

Distance limits? Barriers? Noise? Darkness?

Speaker’s voice competes with addressee’s voice

Signer and addressee can overlap without apparent conflict

Other? Other?


Questions

•  From the reading •  From our discussion so far •  If time permits, we’ll continue to …


2 Articulators + Face


One- & Two-handed signs

Teuber, et al. (1980) computer tally of 1628 non-compounds

1-handed signs 38% N = 585

2-handed signs 62% N = 1230

Drawn from Stokoe, Casterline & Croneberg’s Dictionary of American Sign Language (1965).

Not based on usage frequency, but on dictionary entries.


Constraints on 2-handed signs

Type 1 Type 4

Type 2 Type 3

Two hands have the same shape?

Two hands both

moving?

Yes

Yes

No

No


Type 1

•  Two hands same shape

•  Both hands both move


Type 2

•  Two hands same shape

•  One hand moves


Type 3

•  Two hands different shapes

•  One hand moves


Type 4

? •  Two hands different shapes

•  Both hands move


Constraints on 2-handed signs

Symmetry Condition

32%

*(ill-formed in

ASL) 1%

Symmetry (shape) &

Dominance (relations)

11%

Dominance Condition

19%

Two hands have the same shape?

Two hands both

moving?

Yes

Yes

No

No


(at least) 5 Functions of the Face in ASL

1.  Affective •  speaker attitude toward utterance

2.  Intensifier; other adverbials •  RECENTLY •  THHH, tongue flap

3.  Lexical •  LATE vs NOT YET; PAH!

4.  Sentential intonation markings •  Q, REL…

5.  Backchannel •  one nostril twitch vs. two nostril twitch

Beyond Marlee Matlin


Beyond Marlee Matlin •  Marketing materials from companies

who know they have culturally Deaf customers –  http://www.goamerica.com/10digit/ (25 Sept 08) –  http://www.deafmd.org/

•  Deaf Folklore turns into mainstream ad “Bob’s House” (Pepsi Ad, SuperBowl08) –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffrq6cUoE5A


Research about New Technologies & Signing

•  Recognizing ASL for dictionary lookup –  http://www.thoughtware.tv/videos/show/2870

•  Signs webcast from home –  http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~ekeating/Publications/

ASLVirtSpace.pdf


Mobile ASL (U Washington) •  What is required to carry ASL

conversations over US cell phones? – SW: Appropriate frame rate, compression – Machine vision: Skin detection, activity

detection – HW: Camera on same surface as screen

http://mobileasl.cs.washington.edu/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaE1PvJwI8E



Online “Dictionaries” of ASL http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/bookpage/GDASLbookpage.html (this is where I took the 2-handed examples from) http://www.lifeprint.com/index.htm (this is the one that Language Files uses) http://www.handspeak.com/tour/index.php (yet another dictionary that shows examples from ASL and a few other sign languages)

Bibliography of Sign Language http://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/BibWeb/

sign languages for linguistics 1 (stanford)

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