• Pantomime = iconic
• Signed languages = abstract
• Three levels of iconicity for signs
– Transparent: Understood by untrained
observers – eat, food
– Translucent: Easy to recognize when they are
explained – wonder (OSU LF, p. 405)
– Opaque: Have no recognizable relationship to
their referent – onion (OSU LF, p. 405)
SIGNED LANGUAGE
vs. MANUAL CODES
• Manual code: An artificially contrived system
for representing a natural language (e.g.,
Manually Coded English)
– Has no syntax or structure of its own
– Created by hearing people for the deaf
• Signed language: a natural language not based
on the spoken language used around it
– Has a distinct structure and syntax
– Is created by deaf people
ASL vs. PSE vs. SEE
• What’s the difference?
– Signed Exact English: “What is your name?”
– Pidgin Signed English: “What you name?”
– American Sign Language: “You name what?”
• From a deaf person on Ask Yahoo: If you're taking a class or using books,
the books will mostly be ASL. (Some will be SEE - Signing Exact English - but
I would avoid those like the plague.) As you use the signs, you will naturally
be using PSE - using ASL signs in English order - to communicate. As you
learn more about the linguistics of the language you can switch to more
ASL.… The signs would be similar, but the order would be different.
In terms of communication between PSE and ASL, I'm Deaf and I don't have
a problem with understanding PSE or using it myself with people who don't
always "get" ASL, but I've had a lot of English training. Some native ASL
users will have trouble understanding you if you're using PSE, but most are
used to it from hearing people, so you won't have a lot of difficulty.
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
• Used by the deaf in the U.S. and Canada
• Dates to 1815 – Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
• Influenced by
– French Sign Language (SLF)
– Deaf signs in use at the time
– Written and spoken English
• Not mutually intelligible with British,
Chinese, or Russian Sign Language
DICTIONARY OF ASL
• Sign structure consists of 3 formational
elements (Parameters)
• The shape of the hand used in the sign (which
fingers are used, whether fingers are extended or bent,
the general configuration of the hand; E.G., ‘apple’ vs.
‘candy’)
• The place of articulation of the sign in space or
on the signer’s body (temple, ear, chest, e.g.,
‘apple’ vs. ‘onion’)
• The particular movement associated with the
sign (repeated circular motion, slow elliptical motion,
e.g., ‘think’ vs. ‘wonder’)
PHONEMES, CHEREMES
• Alone they are meaningless (like letters)
• Together they form different words when combined in
different ways (like tan & pan)
• If I make the same movement at the same point of
articulation, but change the hand shape, the sign has a
different meaning (apple & candy, p. 405)
• If I make the same movement with the same
handshape at a different point of articulation, the sign
has a different meaning (apple & onion, p. 405)
• Think and wonder have the same handshape and point
of articulation, but differ in movement (p. 405).
PROSODY
In spoken languages, intonation affects
sentence meaning. Rising intonation often
indicates a yes-no question.
John fed the cat.
John fed the cat?
In signed languages, facial expressions have the
same function.
A yes-no question is accompanied by a
raised brow.
PRONOUNS
The signer first signs the person or object being
discussed, then points or gazes to a point in
space in front of his or her body.