Historical Change in Signed Languages

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherman Wilcox ◽  
Corrine Occhino
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Linguistic Study ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
The World

Signed languages are natural human languages used by deaf people around the world as their primary language. This chapter explores the linguistic study of signed language, their linguistic properties, and aspects of their genetic and historical relationships. The chapter focuses on historical change that has occurred in signed languages, showing that the same linguistic processes that contribute to historical change in spoken languages, such as lexicalization, grammaticization, and semantic change, contribute to historical change in signed languages. Historical influences unique to signed languages, such as the educational approach of borrowing and adapting signs and an effort to create a system of representing the surrounding spoken/written language and of the incorporation of lexicalized fingerspelling are also discussed.

Multimedia Dictionary and Synthesis of Sign Language

2011 ◽  
pp. 268-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franc Solina ◽  
Slavko Krapez ◽  
Ales Jaklic ◽  
Vito Komac
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
Basic Meaning ◽  
The World

Deaf people, as a marginal community, may have severe problems in communicating with hearing people. Usually, they have a lot of problems even with such—for hearing people—simple tasks as understanding the written language. However, deaf people are very skilled in using a sign language, which is their native language. A sign language is a set of signs or hand gestures. A gesture in a sign language equals a word in a written language. Similarly, a sentence in a written language equals a sequence of gestures in a sign language. In the distant past deaf people were discriminated and believed to be incapable of learning and thinking independently. Only after the year 1500 were the first attempts made to educate deaf children. An important breakthrough was the realization that hearing is not a prerequisite for understanding ideas. One of the most important early educators of the deaf and the first promoter of sign language was Charles Michel De L’Epée (1712-1789) in France. He founded the fist public school for deaf people. His teachings about sign language quickly spread all over the world. Like spoken languages, different sign languages and dialects evolved around the world. According to the National Association of the Deaf, the American Sign Language (ASL) is the third most frequently used language in the United States, after English and Spanish. ASL has more than 4,400 distinct signs. The Slovenian sign language (SSL), which is used in Slovenia and also serves as a case study sign language in this chapter, contains approximately 4,000 different gestures for common words. Signs require one or both hands for signing. Facial expressions which accompany signing are also important since they can modify the basic meaning of a hand gesture. To communicate proper nouns and obscure words, sign languages employ finger spelling. Since the majority of signing is with full words, signed conversation can proceed with the same pace as spoken conversation.

Co-forming real space blends in tactile signed language dialogues

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Mesch ◽  
Eli Raanes ◽  
Lindsay Ferrara
Keyword(s):  
Body Part ◽  
Real Space ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Linguistic Study ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Cognitive Linguistic ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Semiotic Perspective

AbstractThis article reports on a linguistic study examining the use of real space blending in the tactile signed languages of Norwegian and Swedish signers who are both deaf and blind. Tactile signed languages are typically produced by interactants in contact with each other’s hands while signing. Of particular interest to this study are utterances which not only consist of the signer producing signs with his or her own hands (or other body parts), but which also recruit the other interactant’s hands (or another body part). These utterances, although perhaps less frequent, are co-constructed, in a very real sense, and they illustrate meaning construction during emerging, embodied discourse. Here, we analyze several examples of these types of utterances from a cognitive linguistic and cognitive semiotic perspective to explore how interactants prompt meaning construction through touch and the involvement of each other’s bodies during a particular type of co-regulation.

scholarly journals Advances in the study of signed languages within a cognitive perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 29-56
Author(s):  
Rocío Martínez ◽  
Sara Siyavoshi ◽  
Sherman Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Symbolic Structure ◽  
Pointing Device ◽  
The World ◽  
Using Data

In this paper we describe a cognitive grammar approach to the study of signed language grammar. Using data from different signed languages, we explore three broad topics. First, we examine pointing, Place, and placing. We analyze pointing as a construction consisting of a pointing device, a symbolic structure which directs the interlocutor’s conceptual attention, and a Place, a symbolic structure consisting of a spatial location and a meaning, the focus of attention. Placing is a construction in which non-body anchored signs are placed at a location in space, thereby creating or recruiting a Place structure which can be used in subsequent discourse. We examine how these structures work in nominal grounding and in extended discourse. Second, we examine a cognitive grammar approach to grammatical modality. Our analysis is based on the cognitive model called the control cycle, which posits two types of control: effective, which describes our striving to influence what happens in the world, and epistemic, which concerns how we make sense of the world. We explore how effective and epistemic modality are expressed in facial displays, focusing on the brow furrow and a display with down-turned corners of the mouth we call the horseshoe mouth. Finally, we offer a brief account of a cognitive grammar approach to the relation between sign and gesture.

Sign Language Contact

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Quinto-Pozos ◽  
Robert Adam
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Signed Languages

This chapter argues that language contact is the norm in Deaf communities, and that deaf people are typically multilingual. They use signed, written, and, in some cases, spoken languages for daily communication, which means that aspects of the spoken and/or written languages of the larger communities are in constant interaction with the signed languages. If one considers the contact that results from users of two different signed languages interacting, various comparisons can be made to contact that occurs across two or more spoken languages. The term unimodal contact, or that which comes about because of two languages within the same modality, can be used to characterize such contact. However, if one considers the contact that results from interaction between a signed and a spoken or written language, the term bimodal (or even multimodal) contact is more appropriate.

finishvariation and grammaticalization in a signed language: How far down this well-trodden pathway is Auslan (Australian Sign Language)?

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trevor Johnston ◽  
Donovan Cresdee ◽  
Adam Schembri ◽  
Bencie Woll
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Main Verb

AbstractLanguage variation is often symptomatic of ongoing historical change, including grammaticalization. Signed languages lack detailed historical records and a written literature, so tracking grammaticalization in these languages is problematic. Grammaticalization can, however, also be observed synchronically through the comparison of data on variant word forms and multiword constructions in particular contexts and in different dialects and registers. In this paper, we report an investigation of language change and variation in Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Signs glossed asfinishwere tagged for function (e.g., verb, noun, adverb, auxiliary, conjunction), variation in production (number of hands used, duration, mouthing), position relative to the main verb (pre- or postmodifying), and event types of the clauses in which they appear (states, activities, achievements, accomplishments). The data suggest ongoing grammaticalization may be part of the explanation of the variation—variants correlate with different uses in different linguistic contexts, rather than social and individual factors.

scholarly journals In Search of ISL's Pre-History

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bosco Conama ◽  
Cormac Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
On This Island ◽  
History Of

Irish Sign Language (ISL) became a recognised language in the State with the passing of the 2017 Irish Sign Language Act. It is a language that has been shown to not only be a fully-fledged language, but one that exhibits complexity and significant variation by gender and age. Research into the linguistics and sociolinguistics of ISL has been carried out over more than thirty years, and it is almost twenty years since the establishment of Trinity College's Centre for Deaf Studies, source of much of this research. But an examination of the historical records reveals an even greater complexity. Modern day ISL is descended, in the main, from the signed languages that were used in Cabra's Catholic Deaf schools from the 1840s, but little is written about other signed languages, and variations thereon, that have existed on this island over the last 200 years. This article attempts to show that the history of Irish signed language(s) used by Deaf people is neither the story of signing systems invented by hearing people, nor of a single genesis leading in a straight line to modern ISL - but a layered and diverse account of social, historical, educational, and language change.

scholarly journals Advances in the study of signed languages within a cognitive perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 29-56
Author(s):  
Rocío Martínez ◽  
Sara Siyavoshi ◽  
Sherman Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Signed Language ◽  
Symbolic Structure ◽  
Pointing Device ◽  
The World ◽  
Using Data

In this paper we describe a cognitive grammar approach to the study of signed language grammar. Using data from different signed languages, we explore three broad topics. First, we examine pointing, Place, and placing. We analyze pointing as a construction consisting of a pointing device, a symbolic structure which directs the interlocutor’s conceptual attention, and a Place, a symbolic structure consisting of a spatial location and a meaning, the focus of attention. Placing is a construction in which non-body anchored signs are placed at a location in space, thereby creating or recruiting a Place structure which can be used in subsequent discourse. We examine how these structures work in nominal grounding and in extended discourse. Second, we examine a cognitive grammar approach to grammatical modality. Our analysis is based on the cognitive model called the control cycle, which posits two types of control: effective, which describes our striving to influence what happens in the world, and epistemic, which concerns how we make sense of the world. We explore how effective and epistemic modality are expressed in facial displays, focusing on the brow furrow and a display with down-turned corners of the mouth we call the horseshoe mouth. Finally, we offer a brief account of a cognitive grammar approach to the relation between sign and gesture.

scholarly journals FOREIGN EXPERIENCE IN THE PREVENTION OF YOUTH INTERNET DEPENDENCE

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (194) ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
Alla Ryzhanova ◽  
◽  
Nanuli Potomkina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Internet Addiction ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Foreign Experience ◽  
The World ◽  
Professional Information ◽  
Virtual Shopping

The article analysis the world experience of the negative impact of Internet on young people. Summarizing foreign experience of Internet dependence prevention, we note that the most dangerous impact of Internet dependence on the socialization of young people in the world are: deteriorating relationships with family and friends, mood swings, aimless cyber surfing, «toxic communication», virtual shopping and virtual shopping. In turn, the analysis and further systematization of foreign experience of preventive and corrective measures in different countries and regions of humanity that first entered the information society, gave grounds to identify such areas as: preparation of the social environment for preventive work (national preventive and educational approach (USA, Japan); creation of specialized centers for comprehensive prevention through professional information, counseling social institutions and establishments that are forced to participate in prevention (USA, Netherlands, Taiwan), preparation for prevention of the family, which is perceived as capable of overcoming or, accordingly, preventing Internet addiction in all its manifestations (Japan, Taiwan), preparation for prevention Teachers of schools (Russia) Direct prevention of Internet addiction of young people, which is realized through the general development of human personality, spiritual improvement, intellectual dynamics, psychological education for self-regulation of youth, diversification of leisure (Canada, Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan).

scholarly journals INFORMAÇÃO PARA E PELOS SURDOS: SOBRE TRANSMISSÃO AUDIOVISUAL EM LIBRAS E DESENVOLVIMENTO DA CRITICIDADE

polemica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
Jaciara Sá Carvalho ◽  
Rita de Cássia Martins da Costa Brito
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Deaf People ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Sign Language Interpreters ◽  
Transmission Of Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Brazilian Sign Language

Resumo: Cerca de 5% da população brasileira possui algum grau de perda de audição (IBGE, 2010). São dez milhões de brasileiros com dificuldades de acesso às informações sobre as realidades de seu país e do mundo, ao conhecimento sistematizado pelas ciências etc. Alguns programas audiovisuais recorrem a legendas em Português e/ou intérpretes da Língua Brasileira de Sinais – Libras, atuando nas chamadas “janelinhas”, sendo exceção os produzidos por profissionais surdos e apresentados por eles em primeiro plano na tela. Sob tal contexto de discussão, e partindo da premissa da formação humana ao longo da vida, este artigo apresenta uma problematização acerca das diferenças entre a transmissão de informações por surdos e por intérpretes a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica. O trabalho sugere que uma informação transmitida de surdo para surdo, em audiovisuais, estaria mais próxima ao conteúdo original da mensagem e ao universo linguístico e cultural das comunidades Surdas. Também expõe uma reflexão sobre a necessidade de ampliação do repertório informacional para o desenvolvimento (permanente) da consciência crítica (FREIRE, 1979) pelos surdos que anseiam “ser mais”.Palavras-chave: Surdez. Libras. Acesso à informação. Abstract: About 5% of the Brazilian population has some degree of hearing loss (IBGE, 2010). There are ten million Brazilians who have difficulty accessing information about the realities of their country and of the world, knowledge drawn up by the sciences, etc. Some audiovisual programs use Portuguese subtitles and/or Brazilian Sign Language interpreters (Libras) acting in their little "windows" as they are called, with the exception of those produced by deaf professionals and presented to them in the foreground of the screen. Under this context of discussion, and based on the premise of human lifelong training, this article presents an examination of the differences between the transmission of information by deaf people and by interpreters, based on bibliographic research. The paper points out that information transmitted from deaf to deaf in audiovisuals would be closer to the original content of the message, and to the linguistic and cultural universe of the deaf community. It also presents a reflection on the need to expand the informational repertoire for the (permanent) development of critical consciousness (FREIRE, 1979) by deaf people who yearn to "be more."Keywords: Deafness. Libras. Access to information.

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