Sign Language Linguistics Flashcards

Question

Audism

Answer 1

Atttitude based on **pathological thinking** that results in a negative stigma towards anyone who does not hear. * judges, labels and limits individuals depending on whether a person hears and speaks * manifests as a range of behaviours, actions and systems that function to oppress deaf people by vieweing deafness as a problem to be fixed. * interacts with other forms of oppression (eg Migrant backgrounds)

Answer 2

Key issue: deaf kids with implants treated as hearing --> occludes the fact that they can and will struggle with hearing. * gap between the two test demographics is widening * Future decline in comprehension ability, some plateau at low levels

Answer 3

* speech-only approaches do not guarantee deaf children will acquire a robust and resilient first language * no evidence that learning and using SL causes harm for deaf children * signing proficiency in a deaf signed language offers many benefits to cognitive, social and emotional wellbeing * challenge is how to support "health global lamguage" development in various contexts

Answer 4

Language is a cornerstone of neural development. * brain is not fussy about modality; it just needs early input from **accessible language** * SL can provide an accessible **first language** (even if families are focusing on spoken lang development, SL is a strong safety net) * status of SL and human rights * challenge prevailing audist ideologies

Answer 5

* accessibility options for different types of deaf people: interpreters, translation, captions * two key barriers: (1) service provision; (2) funding

Answer 6

A well-intended elegant, yet useless solution to a problem we never knew we had. * ususally the result of an able-centric techno-messiahnic complex * based on assumptons about disability rather than practical lived experiences * conceived and developed without talkng to or working with the actual disabled community * can be useless and even harmful in perpetuating false ideas about accessibility

Answer 7

* an issue for all minoritised / marginalised communities * reinforce stereotypes or obfuscate accurate depictions of lived experiences * issues range from a lack of representation through to even **unwanted representation** (or cultual appropriation)

Answer 8

The **othering** of deafness * medical perspectives of deafness are based on ableist standards of "normalcy" * deaf gain: reframing "deaf" not as "hearing loss", but as a form of sensory and cognitive diversity that has the potential to contribute to the greater good of humanity * emerge from the experience of deafness to also benefit the non-deaf

Answer 9

Sign --> Meaning * not all conventional meanings * may include non-linguistic elements

Answer 10

From Most to least conventionalised * Fully lexicalised manual signs * Fingerspelling * Mouthing of English words * Pointing actions * Depicting signs * Mouth gestures * Manual gestures * Enactment

Answer 11

1. Issues of theory 2. Issues in data collection 3. Issues in sign language description (phonology, morphology, lexicon, syntax)

Answer 12

A method for systematically investigating patterns of language variation and use across large samples of language users. Documenting, archiving and creating machine-readable data that is somehow representative of specific language users. Allows us to differentiate what is shared across social networks from what is specific to individuals within these networks. Method: Undergo a series of tasks --> archived + annotated ==> machine analysed

Answer 13

Useful and necessary for the documentation and description of SL, which are characterised by extensive variation Corpus methods developed to address issues with traditional grammaticality judgements Sign language corpora typically focuses on specific cohorts of signers (eg native signers) from different regions, doing different tasks. Capitalises on advances in digital technology

Answer 14

Digital video archive of Auslan used by deaf **native or early learner (near native)** users. [acquired before age of 1] Three hours of language-based activity including **interviews, narratives, responses to survey questions, free conversation** and other **elicitation stimuli** ~300 hours of unedited footage from 100 participants from 5 cities Uses ELAN= the signed version of PRAAT * time-by-time gloss [Metadata] = information about participants * geographical information

Answer 15

* Corpora are rarely not representative of entire signing communities (most signers in the Auslan Corpus are non-indigenous white deaf Australians, because **cultural and/or ethnic background was not used as a sampling variable**) = deficient metadata, sampling biases and missing information * Aspects of sociality of signers not central to data * Signers who learned Auslan later in life also not included, despite representing most of the signing community * A corpus can rarely if never, claim to be entirely balanced and representative: it can only be described in terms of how it is balanced and representative

Answer 16

Linguistic ethnography is an umbrella term for an **interdisciplinary community of scholars bringing together linguistic and ethnographic methodologies in the study of language use in social life** Range of disciplinary backgrounds and a wide variety of methodologies Allows researchers to 'open up' the complexities of the everyday communicative lives of individuals and 'tie down' those ethnograhic insights with detailed linguistic analyses of communicative practice **Understand language and communication in the real world**

Answer 17

* new platform to investigate the diversity of language practices within the global deaf population * also challenges **essentialist categorisations of deaf populations** and their signing practices = neglects the linguistic / physical varieties within the death population itself (deaf and deafblind) * expand our awareness of the languaging and translanguaging of deaf individuals * draw attention to aspects of the social ecologies in which deaf individuals live, such as existing language ideologies, that impact their communicative practices and everyday lives

Answer 18

Methods: Participant obsservation, interviews, fieldnotes and the collection of documents like policy documents and local flyers * can involve extended fieldwork with signing communities, learning as well as conducting research in the language of these communities * video recording is fundamental for capturing language data * can use elicited data, but many focus on capturing unprompted, naturally occurring interactions

Answer 19

LE research is designed through and with community engagement, but needs to be cognisant of the impact of the researcher of the community. * eg: LE may involve action-based and participatory methods that actively involve members of the community in data * tends to involve more reflexive engagement from researchers * Projects are often designed with the goal of producing resources for the community, such as language curricula, language planning documents, and deaf education programs. * Also prioritize sharing research with public audiences, such as by producing ethnographic films like Ishaare.

Answer 20

From most to least conventionalised: * fully lexicalised spoken words * fingerspelling? * mouthing of words? * pointing actions * depicting signs * mouth gestures? * manual gestures (usually follow some beat / cadence) * enactment

Answer 21

Is the term accurate since SLs do not use phones? Signs are governed by * handshape * location * orientation * movement