Chapter 5

Silent Languages
Sign Language

• Deaf versus deaf

• Orality: The ideology that only spoken
language is “real” language
– Lipreading
– Fingerspelling
– Manually Coded English (Signed English)
The History of American Sign Language

• American Sign Language (ASL)

– Developed from French Sign Language, with
elements from indigenous languages
– As different from British Sign Language as
spoken English is from spoken Japanese
– Oral approach: Lipreading and fingerspelling
to communicate with hearing people in the
United States
• Deaf community kept ASL alive, teaching it to their
children
American Sign Language Structure

• ASL is very different from spoken American

English
– Vocabulary
– Syntax
• Time-Topic-Comment versus Subject-Verb-Object
• Question formation
– Facial gestures and handedness are factors
Manually Coded Sign Languages

• In contrast to natural sign languages,

Manually Coded Sign Languages are artificial
languages invented by hearing individuals to
teach deaf people a spoken language
– SEE1 (Seeing Essential English)
– SEE2 (Signed Exact English)
• Both require reproducing the exact structure of
spoken English
Describing and Analyzing Signs

• Language performed in 3D space, in a visual

rather than verbal, mode of communication
– Primes
• Basic elements of signs (correspond to phonemes?)
• Combine into morphemes
– Three kinds of primes
• Dez: Hand shape and orientation
– Flat hand, fist hand, index hand, cupped hand
• Tab: Hand placement
• Sig: Hand movement
– Minimal pairs p.123
• Apple versus candy (shape: fist hand versus cupped
hand)
• Summer versus ugly (place: forehead versus nose level)
Describing and Analyzing Signs
Change and Variation in Sign Languages

• Sign languages also change over time

• Regional variations of ASL also exist
• Also variation due to age, gender, and
ethnicity, formality
Ideologies of Signing

• Story of Joshua Davis: pp. 125-126

– Helps counter the dominant ideology of orality.
Joshua was able to communicate using fingerspelling with officer
to establish his membership and was saved from being hanged.
• Fluent signers often codeswitch between ASL
and Signed English
Does Modality Matter?

• Modality: The physical “channel” through

which a language is expressed
– Spoken languages use an oral (mouth)/aural
(ear) modality
– Sign languages use a visual/gestural modality

• Are languages that use different modalities

structurally or mentally different from one
another?
– For example, pronouns in spoken English and
ASL
Gestures and Nonverbal Communication

• Nonverbal communication: Transmitting

messages without spoken or signed words

– Learned in cultural groups

– Interpreted unconsciously
– Often overrides verbal language
– Over 60 percent of our messages get across
nonverbally
Smell, Taste, and Touch as Nonverbal Systems

• Smell
– And ethnicity, culture
– Cigars, perfumes, and status
• Taste
– And group membership
• Spicy foods
• Touch
– And gender and power
• Relation to proxemics
• Example Dr. Bell p. 134
Proxemics

• Proxemics: How people perceive and use

space
• Edward Hall,1950s: 4 kinds of proxemically relevant spaces (p.
136). See next slide.
Culture, Ethnicity, and Personal Space

• American use of space:

• Other cultures have different space allotments

(French, Japanese)
• Cowboy proxemics (6-8 feet: may be related to their lifestyles
being frequently seated on horses) p. 137
Gender, Status, and Personal Space

• The more powerful you are (offices in academia)

– The more space you can command
– The more easily you can enter someone’s
personal space without permission
• American homes illustrate this
– Parents usually have bigger bedrooms than
children
– Men are usually more likely to have a space of
their own than women
Kinesics

• Kinesics: The study of body movements,

facial expressions, and gestures
– Kineme with allokines
• Kinemorphs—meaningful units of visual
expression
• Later, kinemorphs abandoned as a concept,
kineme comes to mean both the minimal and the
meaningful units
Gestures

• Gestures add meaning or emphasis, but are

not essential elements of the message
 Emblems: Direct verbal translation (waving)
 Illustrators: Depict or illustrate what is being
said (steering)
 Affect displays: Convey emotion (smiling)
 Regulators: Control or coordinate interaction, for
example, indicating that it is someone’s turn to talk.
(pointing)
 Adaptors: Expressions of restlessness or unease,
facilitate the release of tension (wiggling)
Gestures across Cultures

• Gestures vary across cultures and change over

time
– Putting your thumb and forefinger together in a
circle and extending your other three fingers
upwards means
• “okay” in the United States
• “money” in Japan
• “worthless” in France
• an insult in Germany
– Non-verbal communication in the Arab World
• https://bbl.westfield.ma.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-1943
609-dt-content-rid-17787469_1/xid-17787469_1
Facial Expressions and Eye Contact

• Kinesics also includes the study of facial

expressions, gaze, head movements, and
posture
– Expectations about these aspects of
communication also vary by culture and ethnic
group
• For example, gaze used by European American and
African American speakers and listeners

• The best way to learn the kinesic and

proxemics systems of a culture is by observing
Simple Gesture Systems

• Developed where verbal communication is

difficult
• Topics and contexts are limited
– Simple alternative systems
• Little or no syntax
– Sawmills, baseball games, sailboat racing
Complex Gesture Systems

• Complex gesture systems: Can be used

almost as effectively as spoken language
– Complex alternative systems
• Syntax based on spoken language:
– Australian women mourners- giving up speech for a year
– Some monastic orders
• Syntax independent of any spoken language
– Native American Plains sign language
» Signs used in varying order
These systems are not complete SL. They are intended for
use by speakers of different languages who need to
communicate with one another.