Module 14

Question 1

Signed vs Spoken language

Answer 1

-Spoken and signed languages are equivalent in terms of structural, semantic, and discursive complexity
~They have the same features of languages
*Reflexivity, displacement arbitrariness, duality, cultural transmission, productivity
~They have the same structures of language
*Phonology, morphology, syntax, grammar, pragmatics, semantics, etc.
~They serve the same functions
-The difference between spoken and signed languages is their modality
~Spoken languages are primarily expressed using the vocal tract
~Signed languages are primarily expressed using the hands

Question 2

How does sign languages work?

Answer 2

-Articulatory parameters of speech sounds
~Place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing (consonants)
~Tongue height, tongue backness, and lip rounding (vowels)
-Articulatory parameters of signed languages
~Handshape
~Palm orientation
~Sign location
~Movement

Question 3

Handshape

Answer 3

-The hand can be configured in numerous ways

~Which fingers are used? Are they bent or straight? Is the hand cupped or in a fist?

Question 4

Palm Orientation

Answer 4

-The palm can face up, down, towards, or away from the signer

Question 5

Sign location

Answer 5

-The location of the hand(s) in relation to the head and upper body of the signer

Question 6

Movement

Answer 6

-The way the hand(s) move

Question 7

Sign languages

Answer 7

-Signers also use facial expressions to convey meaning
~Example
*Raised eyebrows and widened eyes indicate a question is being asked in ASL
~Facial expression are considered an additional articulatory parameter of sign languages by some researchers
-Signers also can use FINGERSPELLING, or hand configurations which represent letters of a spoken language alphabet
-Just as there are minimal pairs in spoken languages, there are minimal pairs in sign languages as well
~Consider “mother” and “father”

Question 8

How do sign language work?

Answer 8

-AS with spoken languages, there are ‘rules’ about how the sign language works
~Some signs work some don’t
~English (spoken language): *fgyultpo
~Sign languages
Dominant hand
**Some signs can only be made with the dominant hand
**Ambidextrous signers typically choose a dominant hand
-Like spoken languages, sign languages go through assimilation processes
~English: “Did you eat yet?” -> “Djeet jet?”
~ASL
*Movement closer to the body is reduced or deleted
*Common in informal contexts or when signing quickly
-Sign languages are not ‘pantomime’ or purely iconic- most signs are not easily identified based on their form
~Like the words in spoken language, signs in sign language are ARBITRARY

Question 9

Sign languages

Answer 9

-People often confuse SIGNS and GESTURES

~Both involve use of the hands

Question 10

Signs

Answer 10

-Are components of language comparable to speech, and are used instead of speaking
~Words, sentences, speeches, monologues, conversations can be produced in sign language

Question 11

Gestures

Answer 11

-Are part of communication, but are mostly used in addition to speaking
~They add meaning to spoken language rather than being the primary source of meaning
-We usuall use gesrures when we speak for emphasis or to add further meaning to our speech (or in some cases to communicate basic ideas when we cannot speak for whatever reason)
-Three main types of gestures
~Iconic gestures
~Deictic gestures
~Beats

Question 12

Iconic gestures

Answer 12

-Reflect the meaning of what is said
~For instance, if i hold my arms out wide when talking about how big something is
~Or holding a hand above my head to show how much taller something is than me
~Or use my finger to count if I’m describing a list of something
~Or pulling two fingers together to show how small something is
~Or mimic an action when talking about it (pretend to stir when talking about stirring, or mimic a specific movement you saw someone make, while describing it to someone else)
*Can be metaphoric (hands on heart when discussing affection)

Question 13

Deictic Gestures

Answer 13

-Point to things or people while talking
~Pointing at an object or person that you’re talking about
*May be accompanied by a statement like “that one” or “this one”
*May involve pointing in a general direction, even if the object or person is not in sight
~Can involve metaphoric pointing, such as pointing behind you when talking about something in the past

Question 14

Beats

Answer 14

-Short quick movements of the hands or fingers that accompany the rhythm of speech
~The different types of gestures can be combined
*You might make an iconic gesture, and then move it to the rhythm of your speech, like a beat

Question 15

Signs

Answer 15

-Gestures accompany speech, and don’t convey complex messages by themselves
~Although some gestures, called EMBLEMS, can convey a complete meaning
*In American culture: the thumbs up expresses agreement, acceptance, or readiness; head nods and shakes express affirmation or negation; and index finger held to lips expresses the need for silence
**A single gesture conveys a specific meaning
-When multiple hand movements are used to convey whole messages in the same way speech is used, that are called signs
-Signs are components of a sign language
-There are different types of sign languages
~Alternate sign language
~Primary sign language
-There are over 200 distinct primary sign languages in use around the world today
~Like spoken languages, all sign languages do not have the same signs, grammar, or syntax
*They are not mutually intelligible (unless they are dialects of the same sign language, EX: social and regional variation in ASL)

Question 16

Alternate Sign Lnaguage

Answer 16

-A limited system of hand signals used by speakers in specific contexts where speech cannot be used
~Among monks who took a vow of silence

Question 17

Primary Sign Language

Answer 17

-Naturally-occurring first language of a group of people who do not use spoken language (typically a Deaf community)

Question 18

How do sign languages develop?

Answer 18

-Primary sign languages arise naturally in Deaf communities
-Like spoken languages, the histories of signed languages are varied
-Importantly, primary sign languages and NOT gestured versions of the spoken languages around them
~They are independently of spoken languages in Deaf communities
~American Sign Language (ASL) is NOT a gestured version of English
*ASL developed through contact between indigenous American sign languages and French sign language

Question 19

Origins of ASL

Answer 19

-In the early 1800s, the education of Deaf students revolved around ORALISM
~Sign languages weren’t taken seriously as languages
*It was common practice to encourage signers to learn a spoken language
-A French Sign Language user and teacher (Laurent Clerc) introduced French Sign Language to Deaf students in America
~Signers incorporated their own indigenous signs into this French Sign Language, and it evolved over time into modern ASL
*ASL is not a signed version of English

Question 20

Oralism

Answer 20

-Required Deaf students to practice producing speech sounds and learn lip-read
~It doesn’t work very well

Question 21

ASL vs Signed English

Answer 21

-There is still a lot of pressure for Deaf students in America to learn English- although the emphasis is more on reading and writing English rather than speaking is
-Many institutions promote the learning of Signed English (or Manually Coded English- MCE)
~ASL and Signed English are NOT the same thing
*Signed English is a way of producing signs designed to correspond to the words in an English sentence, in English word order
*ASL is separate language with its own structure

Question 22

How are sign languages acquired?

Answer 22

-Like spoken languages, sign languages are acquired through input and use of the language druing the critical period of language acquisition
~Infants need exposure to sign languages to acquire sing language
*Deaf individuals who are not exposed to sign language often develop homesign
**Homesign does not have complex grammar and is not used interactively among a whole community
**Deaf individuals who homesign may struggle with acquiring a full-fledged language like ASL if they are not exposed until adolescence
**Ability to use a signed language is not ‘innate’ to Deaf people-cultural transmission is required

Question 23

Sign Lnaguages

Answer 23

-There is an increase chance of fluency in sign language if you are exposed to it as a chils
~Like spoken languages, learning a signed language is easier for children than adults
*Signed languages are not ‘easier’ for adults to learn that spoken languages
*Like with spoken languages, it is possible to become highly proficient in sign language as an adult with enough practice
-Children can and do acquire sign languages as native languages
~Infants pick up signs earlier that words- hands are easier to control that the vocal tract
~Both deaf and hearing babies can acquire sign language as a native language if they receive enough input and interaction
~But only 10% of deaf children have deaf parents
*For those 10 percent, there is usually no problem; they naturally acquire their parents’ native language
**Usually parents know a sing language and children learn it as easily as a hearing child would learn to speak
-On the other hand, deaf children of hearing parents who use spoken languages face more challenges
-Sometimes parents don’t know their child id deaf right away
~Child may go months without language exposure
~Some children don’t receive and sign language instruction or exposure until they start going to school
-Some parents make little or no effort to learn a sign language
~Some parents insist on their children using a spoken language
~They put their attention into trying to make the child learn how to speak, read lips, and read/write in their spoken language
~many hearing parents of deaf babies also opt for medical procedures to increase hearing in the hopes of facilitating spoken language use
*There has been increased focus on encouraging and facilitating sign language use in recent years
-Distinct sign languages are generally not mutually intelligible
~In the same way that we wouldn’t expect spoken languages like Russian and Zuni to be mutually intelligible
-Like spoken languages, sign languages do have social and regional variation
~In ASL, southern signers produce more two-handed signs that signers from northern regions
~There can be multiple ways of signing the same thing

Question 24

Sign Language Variation

Answer 24

-Factors that influence socialinguistic variation in sign languages
~Factors that are relevant in spoken language variation
*Region, age, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity
~Factors that are unique to Deaf communities
*Language policies implemented in deaf education
*The home environment (Deaf parents in an ASL- signing home versus hearing parents in a non-signing home)
-language contact is also a factor that influences sign language variation
~Nowadays, most signers are bilingual in their signed language and the local written language
*Which means there’s a lot of contact between sign languages and spoken languages
-Lucas et al 2013
~Analyzed one variety of ASL: Black ASL
*A variety of ASL used by African-American signers
*Commonly assumed to exist, but not thoroughly examined by linguists

Question 25

Lucas et al 2013

Answer 25

-Research goals:
~Empirical description of features of Black ASL
~Explore social and historical conditions which led to the development of this variety
*Consider potential contact effects between English and ASL
**2 different languages
*Consider potential contact effects between Black ASL and AAE
**“Non-standard” varieties of 2 different languages
**Using videotaped corpus of 96 African-American signers in the southern US
-Historical explanation for the existence of Black ASL
~”the prolonged segregation of Black and White students in the southern schools for the deaf, as well as the lack of educational opportunities for Black deaf students in some states, created the conditions for the development of separate variety of ASL”
*Anecdotal evidence of language differences from signers who started in segregated schools and transferred to integrated schools
-Contact between ASL and English
~Mouthing of English words while signing
~”mouthing” refers to mouthing words from the spoken language
*NOT the same as ‘mouth gestures’ (like frowns) which are meaningful components of the sign language
*Mouthing has been observed in many sign languages worldwide
*Mouthing is associated with focus on ‘oralism’ in education
-Mouthing variation
~Parts of words vs whole words
~Continuous vs intermittent
~Mouthing correlated with grammatical class
*Nouns, adjectives, and uninflected verbs seem to be mouthed more than other types of words
*Directional verbs, pronouns and classifiers are mouthed less
-Mouthing anecdotally associated with White signers
-Lucas et al considered
~Race/ethnicity: Black vs White signers
~Age: between older 9pre-intregration) and younger signers (post0intergration)
~Gender: male vs female
~Grammatical categories
-Findings
~Nouns most likely to be mouthed, function words least likely to be mouthed
~More ‘continuous’ mouthing in young females, young White males, and old White people
~More ‘intermittent’ mouthing in older Black people and young black males
*“age effect among the Black signers and a gender effect between the younger Black women and younger Black males”
*Unclear if Black signers mouth less the White signers, in general
*But “older Black signers of both genders mouth markedly less than other signers”
-Contact between AAE and Black ASL
~Focus on lexical items from AAE
*Discuss examples from younger speakers (post-integration)
**Younger speakers more likely to have access to AAE in the media than the older generation
~Incorporation of AAE lexical features into Black ASL
*TRPI/TRIPPING
*Same as regular sign for ‘trip,’ but made near the head
**Indicating mental ‘tripping’
~Incorporation of AAE lexical features into Black ASL
*Please
*Girl Please
~Incorporation of AAE lexical features into Black ASL
*My Bad
*“One participant contrasted this to how White signers might sign it, that is, the sign MY and the sign BAD in sequence, as opposed to the separate lexical item shown by the Black signer”
-Signers also noted that Black signers seem to use space differently
~”by shifting their bodies markedly one side, exaggerating the movement and expanding the size of the signing space”
-These were noted by signers when asked if their variety is different from ASL
~”Do Black people sign differently than White people?”
~So there signs were produced in a ‘meta-linguistic context’ rather than being spontaneously produced “folk” or “perceptual” sociolinguistics

Question 26

Writing

Answer 26

-Is the symbolic representation of language through the use of graphic signs
~A system in which visual symbol represent components of language: sound, morphemes, words, and/ or concepts
-Writing systems represent spoken language (and less commonly, signed language)
~Spoken and signed languages emerged long before writing systems were developed
~Spoken language likely developed between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago
*Lack of physical evidence for spoken language makes it hard to determine exactly when it first emerged
*We do have evidence of physical development of vocal tracts and evidence of groups of humans living together
-The first evidence of writing is found in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C. (about 5500 years ago) between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern day Iraq)
~This was CUNEIFORM, which was marked on clay tablets
~Wedge-shaped symbols used to represent trade goods and livestock
~Developed by the Sumerians
~Sumerians used lcay tokens of different shapes as part of a counting system for trade purposes as far back as 8000 B.C.
~Eventually, instead of using actual tokens, they just marked the shape of the token in clay, with different shapes having different meanings
*The development of writing coincided in time and location with the rise of urban centers such as Uruk, Nippur, Susa, and Ur
*Initially used primarily for record keeping and accounting, then was found to be useful in other ways
-By 2250 B.C., the priestess-post Enheduanna wrote her famous hymns to Inanna in the Sumerian city of Ur
~Cuneiform had advanced from simple record-keeping to being able to write poetry and refer to abstract concepts such as emotional states
-All of the major Mesopotamian civilizations (the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Elamites, Hatti, Hittites, Assyrians, Hurrians, and other) adopted and used cuneiform (sometimes in different forms)
~Cuneiform can refer to any wedge-shaped writing

Question 27

Writing Systems

Answer 27

-3000 B.C.: Egyptians developed writing systems
-1200 B.C.: Chinese developed writing systems
~Unclear if these were influenced by Sumerian writing systems, or if they developed independently
-300 B.C.: Evidence of writing in Mesoamerica (Mexico and central America)
~Believed to have developed independently from other writing systems
-Around 100 B.C. cuneiform is abandoned in favor of an alphabetic script
-Around 1000 A.D., a formal list of the Old English alphabet was created
-In the mid-1800s A.D., cuneiform was deciphered and translated

Question 28

Why did ancient cultures start using writing?

Answer 28

• To keep track and storage of goods
• To record important events in a way that was less likely to be forgotten or distorted than oral accounts
• To communicate across distances: a messenger would deliver a letter to an addressee
• To record rules and laws
• A human desire to have a more permanent record of things

Question 29

Unlike spoken or signed language, writing is not acquired- it must be learned through conscious effort

Answer 29

-Writing is not a fundamental part of language
~Literacy is a skill associated with language, but literacy is not required to use a language
~Many linguists focus on spoken/signed language rather than written language
-Not all languages have a written form
~In fact, many don’t!

Question 30

How many written languages are there?

Answer 30

-There are a little over 30 writing systems in regular use today
~Compared to the nearly 7000 languages in use today
*At least 3000 of these languages do NOT have writing systems at all
*Of those languages that do have writing systems, many of them aren’t widely used (have low literacy rate)

Question 31

Historically not everybody has been on board with writing

Answer 31

-During the Middle Ages the English were very suspicious of written land-sale contracts because they could be tampered with

Question 32

Writing is prohibited in some cultures

Answer 32

-Sometimes strong social pressures prohibit writing down certain materials:
~the Warm Spring tribe in Organ regard any attempt to make written records of their traditional religious songs as offensive. It would violate their sacredness
~There are similar beliefs regarding the Towa language spoken in Jemez Pueblo

Question 33

In some cultures, writing is not accessible to the masses

Answer 33

-A status symbol associated with wealth/ education
~Only the rich have the opportunity to learn to read and write
~This is true in American culture, even today
*There are barriers preventing people living in poverty and minorities from attaining literacy
**Literacy is an important factor in economic success

Question 34

Not all writing systems work the same way

Answer 34

-Types of writing systems
~Pictograms
~Ideograms
~Logograms
~Phonographic writing
~Syllabic writing
~Alphabetic writing

Question 35

Pictograms

Answer 35

-Early cave drawings are not considered to be linguistic in nature- they are more like art than language
~However, there is some evidence to suggest that conceptually, cave drawings are similar to writing
*Ancient humans may have drawn pictures that represented natural sounds, or abstract thought processes
**The same way writing represents speech sounds
*Ancient cave art is not considered writing because it does not seem to represent languages itself (which is what writing does)
-When pictures represent images or meanings in a consistent way
~Pictograms were used at least 3000 years ago
*Earliest form of cuneiform were pictograms
~Pictograms are generally language-independent and can be understood by people of different language backgrounds
*But they can be culturally-dependent, and so may not always be universally understood
~They represent the physical forms of objects, but we usually interpret them to mean more than the object itself
*pictogram of cigarette might mean “smoking is allowed”

Question 36

Ideograms

Answer 36

-When pictograms develop into more abstract, symbolic forms
~If the symbol looks like a picture of an object, it’s a pictogram
~If it’s more abstract, it’s an ideogram

Question 37

Writing

Answer 37

-Some scolars call pictographic and ideographic writing “proto-writing”
~Conceptual symbols rather than language-based writing
-“True” writing would correspond with the exact utterance in spoken language- represents exactly what is being side
~It is believed that many symbols in later writing systems evolved from pictograms and ideograms

Question 38

Logograms

Answer 38

-When symbols are used to represent words in a language
~The relationship between the symbol and the meaning is typically arbitrary (or at least abstract)
~The oldest evidence we have of logographic writing is CUNEIFORM, which evolved from pictographic writing to logographic writing over time
~We have logograms in modern-day languages
*In English
**&, %, $, @
**Each symbol represents a word in English
-Chinese has one of the oldest surviving writing systems in the world (as far as we know, about 3000-4000 years)
-Many characters in modern Chinese are logograms

Question 39

Phonographic Writing

Answer 39

Over time, in the development of many writing systems, symbols began being used in similar way if certain words had similar sounds, rather than similar meanings
~In this development, symbols began to be used to represent the sounds of words
~The symbol for an entity begins to be used as the symbol for the sound of the word (rather than the word itself)
~The symbol then comes to be used whenever that sound is used
*ti = arrow
*ti = life
*The symbol began to be used for both meanings (Sumerian)
-We see this process in modern English texting
~2 is used not only to mean the number 2, but other homophonic forms (to, two, too), and even as the same sound in other words
*Let’s go 2 the store 2gether 2dat
*In fact, many languages have elements of phonographic writing

Question 40

Syllabic writing

Answer 40

-When a writing system employs a set of symbols which each represent a syllable
~A syllabic writing system is called a SYLLABARY
~There are not purely syllabic writing systems in use today
*“pure: in the sense that every possible syllable in the language is accounted for
-Fun Fact: Hermione used a syllabary (Spekkman’s syllabary) to translate her copy of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard,” which was written in ancient runes
~Wizards in the Harry Potter universe also have personal runes, and we see them used to identify prisoners in Azkaban
~Runes were used by early Anglo-Saxons as a writing system (~500-1000 CE)
~Commonly associated with witches, wizards, magicians
~There are different types of runic writing systems which can be syllabic, alphabetic, or logographic
-Cosider the case of Cherokee
~Before the early 1800s, Cherokee was only spoken
~Sequoyah developed a syllabary around 1809-1820
~Each symbol represents a syllable
~Arabic numerals are used
-Some forms of cuneiform had syllabic elements (those used by the Sumerians and Akkadians
-Tamil (spoken in India) is written with a syllabic system of 246 symbols
-Chinese is sometimes called “logosyllabic,” as it has elements of logographic and syllabic writing, or “morphographic” as the symbols can be argued to represent morphemes rather than words or syllables
-The writing system for the ancient language of Mycenean Greek was syllabic
-Syllabic systems work well for some languages, not so much for others.
-Why would a syllabic system be problematic for English?
~English has over 15,000 syllables

Question 41

Cherokee Syllababry

Answer 41

-Sequoyah’s syllabary came to be widely used among the Cherokee and was formally adopted in 1825 (just 4 years after its invention)
~The symbols resemble letters from other alphabets, but the correspondence between symbol and sound is not the same
-Cherokee speakers’ literacy rate quickly surpassed their European-American neighbors
~Around 90% literacy among all Cherokee by the end of the 1800s
*Only white, upper-class, urban males had that high of literacy rate at the time
-Sequoyah’s invention of the Cherokee syllabary is one of the only known instances of a member of a pre-literate speech community independently inventing a writing system
~Shong Lue Yang was another; he invented the Pahawh script to write the Hmong and Khmu languages in the 1950s
*Spoken in China, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand

Question 42

Alphabetic Writing

Answer 42

-If symbols are used to represent single sounds (phonemes) in a language
~An ALPHABET is a set of writing symbols corresponding to a single sound
~In a CONSONANTAL ALPHABET, symbols represent consonantal sounds-readers supply the vowels through context
*Hebrew, Arabic
*Some argue this is more syllabic than alphabetic
-The earliest consonantal alphabet seems to have been developed 3000 years ago by the Phoenicians (around 1000 B.C.)
~The early alphabet is the basic source of most other alphabets in the world
-Greeks took the Phoenician symbols and added vowels
-From the Greeks, the revised alphabet passed to the rest of Western Europe through the Romans- hence the “Roman Alphabet” for the writing system we use in English
-The same basic Greek system passed to Eastern Europe and became the “Cyrillic Alphabet” used in Russia today

Question 43

Writing English

Answer 43

-In a ‘pure’ alphabet, each sound (phoneme) will correspond with a letter
~As in Spanish
-The English alphabet writing system is not as ‘pure’
~We often use multiple symbols to represent one sound
*Consider the English word “through”- there are 6 symbols but: [ðoʊ] sound
~Different symbols/ combinations of symbols are used to represent one sound
*Suger, tiSSue, spaniSH, emoTIon -> [ʃ]
~English words are not always spelled the way they sound
*“tough” vs “puff”

Question 44

Why is English spelling so hard?

Answer 44

-English is full of words that are borrowed, spelling and all, from other languages
~bEAU - French
~alPHabet, orthograPHY - Greek
*A combination of two letters consistently used for a single sound is called a DIGRAPH
**ph- [f], sh - [ʃ]
-Also, the spelling of english is largely fixed in the form that was used when printing was introduced into the 15th century England
~Many conventions were derived from other languages
*qu instead of cw because of French
*Doute became doubt because spelling reformers thought it was closer to Latin
-Many early printers were native speakers of Flemish, not English, so they did not make consistent judgments regarding pronunciation
~Old English: gast
~Flemish: gheest
~Modern English: ghost
-Writing conventions which are standard today were not always so
~For a long time, various spellings were used depending on who was writing
~Writing conventions weren’t standardized until after the advent of printing (~1500s)
-Most importantly, the pronunciation of spoken English has undergone significant change, while writing conventions have remained largely the same
~When the writing system was developed, the sounds in words often DID typically correspond to the way they were spelled
~We used to pronounce all of the sounds in words like “knight”