05Linguistics102SignLeighAndrewsHarris
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Waianae High School**We aren't endorsed by this school
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BUS 310
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Linguistics
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Dec 19, 2024
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jfe:peDt---Lc 15,4 /fi,/ bt4-0)1G00 IS, a tf--6 . „4 „, Vh J p y s . ►41-(io ? Q I N )CHAPTER 3 American Sign Language When hearing people first see American Sign Language (ASL), they often recog-nize its expressive beauty. With its flow of fingers, hands and arms, body move-ments, eye blinks, eye gazes, and facial expressions, ASL captivates. Is signing easy to learn? How long does it take to learn it? Who uses it, besides Deaf people? These are just a few questions that hearing people ask about signing. That sign language is universal is a common belief. In fact, each country has its own sign language (Brentari, 2010). And similar to the Spanish language and cul-ture, a few words can be picked up quickly to say hello or what's your name; however, it takes years of practice to learn its vocab-ulary and grammar and understand the culture of Deaf people (Rosen, 2105). In Chapter 1, you learned how ASL, the defining characteristic of American Deaf culture, is used by Deaf people to share their thoughts and feelings and pass down their values, traditions, his-tory, visual arts, ASL stories, plays, and poetry (Chapter 9). In this chapter, you will learn about the history of ASL, its structure, so very different from English and other spoken languages, and its uses in clinics, schools, hospitals, courtrooms, universities, and research labs. You will also learn about the many reasons why people want to learn it (Andrews, Leigh, & Weiner, 2004). BACKGROUNDOFASLAND OTHER SIGN LANGUAGES French Roots The history of ASL can be traced back to early Spain in the 1500s (Fraser, 2009). Signs and fingerspelling were harnessed to teach deaf children of nobility how to read and write, so they could become lit-erate. This was required by laws to keep property in the family (Lane, 1984; Sau-vage, 1970). From these Spanish roots, ASL spread to France and then to America (Brentari, 2010; Fraser, 2009). ASL is less than 300 years old (Brentari, 2010). Lin-guists have found ASL to be made up of Old French Sign Language, Native Amer-ican Sign Languages intermingled with the village sign languages of three New England American communities, home signs, and gestures brought to schools by
Deaf Culture: Exploring Deaf Communities in the United States young deaf children who lived in isolated parts of the country (Brentari, 2010; Davis, 2006; Lane, PiHard, & Hedberg, 2011). Sign language linguists are scien-tists who study signs, its grammar, its words, and how people use signs in conversations. A sign linguist may know several sign languages and sign dialects or sign variations. Do you know what sign language dia-lect is used in the Deaf community in your region? If not, do try to find out The historical Old French Sign Lan-guage (FSL) arrived on U.S. soil with Frenchman Laurent Clerc (1785-1830) and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851) (Lane, 1984). Clerc and Gallaudet were America's first Deaf-hearing bilingual team in deaf education. With Dr. Mason Cogswell (1761-1830), father of a deaf girl, Alice (1805-1830), providing financial backing with other wealthy citizens, Clerc and Gallaudet established the first school for the deaf, now known as the American School for the Deaf, in Hartford, Connecti-cut, in 1817 (see Chapter 1). See Figure 3-1 for a statue of Gallaudet and Alice. Previously, Gallaudet had traveled to England to visit leaders in schools for the deaf but was turned away. Thomas Braid-wood (1715-1806), a Scottish man who set up schools for the deaf in Scotland and in London, followed the oral approach. He kept his teaching methods secret, and Gallaudet was refused entrance to his school to learn the oral methods. By chance, Gallaudet watched an exhibition of French deaf students in London con-ducted by Roch-Ambroise Curran, Abbe Sicard (1742-1822), headmaster with his two Deaf teachers, Laurent Clerc and Figure 3-1. Picture of statue on campus of Gallaudet and Alice. Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives.Jean Massieu, who were visiting from the Institut Royal des Sourds-Muets in Paris (Andrews et al., 2004). More open than Braidwood, these Frenchmen invited Gal-laudet to visit their school in Paris where signs were used (Lane, 1984). Sicard was a former student of Abbe Charles-Michel de L'Epee (1712-1789), a French monk who opened the first public school for deaf youth in Paris. De L'Epee and Sicard both recognized teaching talent in their young deaf students and help to develop them into teachers after they graduated. Today, we know that preparing Deaf teachers to become teachers of the deaf provides role modeling in language and culture and taps into a rich vein of "Deaf cultural capi-tal" teaching strategies, which they have
In the 17th century, when accused of a crime, Deaf suspects used Signed French to defend themselves in court, due to the efforts of de L'Epee,who was a religious, educational, and legal advocate for Deaf people (Gaw, 1907). Chapter 3 American Sign Language always used in teaching Deaf children. But now these strategies are finally being documented and shared with hearing colleagues (Andrews & Franklin, 1997; Hauser, O'Hearn, McKee, & Steider, 2010). In Chapter 5, we return to the role of Deaf /hearing collaborative teams. We also highlight how Deaf teachers and teaching strategies, which include Deaf cultural capital and ASL, impact Deaf education (Hauser et al., 2010; Humphries, 2004; Nover & Andrews, 1998). Prior to Sicard's work, de L'Epee studied the natural sign language of the Parisian youth in the streets. He attempted to standardize this sign language to con-form to French grammar with invented signs for articles and grammatical mark-ers, and added them onto the French sentence in sign language (Lane, 1984). De L'Epee also used the Spanish manual alphabet that had been developed in the 15th century by Juan Martin Pablo Bonet (1573-1633) (Sauvage, 1970). De L'Epee's system became known as the "French Method" (Lane, 1984). See a picture of Abbe de L'Epee in Figure 3-2. De L'Epee's successor, Sicard, sim-plified de L'Epee's language teaching approach and continued the method of using manual signs following the gram-mar of spoken French rather than the nat-ural sign language grammar of the Deaf community. Roch-Ambroise Auguste Figure 3-2. Picture of Abbe de LEppe. Courtesy of Gailaudet University Archives.Bebian (1789-1839), deaf educator and former student of Sicard's, criticized the "French Method." He considered these "add-on" signs too awkward and instead recommended that teachers use the nat-ural sign language. Bebian's approach reflects the debate that still exists in deaf education today with some educators supporting the use of ASL, the natural sign language of the deaf, and other edu-cators supporting the use of the "method-ological signs" or manual codes of Eng-lish (Lane, 1984). Native American Roots French was not the only language that influenced ASL. While discovering Amer-ica, explorers from other countries (e.g.,
Deaf Culture: Exploring Deaf Communities in the United States Spain and France) recorded in diaries, books, articles, illustrations, dictionaries, and other historical documents how they met Native Americans who used sign language and gestures during hunting, at rituals, during trade, and during storytell-ing around the campfire (Davies, 2006). The Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL) used by the Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and Sioux tribes in the Great Plains region was most widely studied. There is also evidence that the Iroquois, Cherokee, and Eskimos used sign too. After schools for the deaf were established, deaf members left their tribes and subsequently dropped their Native American Sign Language to learn ASL and English. As populations of Native Americans shrank because of wars, disease, and being forced out of their homelands, Native American spo-ken languages and Native American Sign Languages began to die out because they were no longer used. Today, linguists try to save these Native American spoken and signed languages through scholarly stud-ies as well as by creating special libraries that record these languages in digital for-mat, so these archival libraries will be avail-able for future students and linguists for study (Davis, 2006). Although the structure of these Native American sign languages differs from ASL, they do share some fea-tures such as the use of iconicity (signs look like the object they represent), space, and movement (Davis, 2006). See Figure 3-3 for a graphic of the iconic sign, EAT. The Role of Gestures and Home Signs A third influence on ASL was the use of gestures and home signs brought to school by deaf children from rural areas. Before public schooling, deaf children used ges- Figure 3-3. Graphic of sign EAT. Courtesy of William G. Vicars, EdD. http://www.life print.com.ture and home signs with their hearing families to communicate (Brentari, 2010). Gestures are body language used to com-municate and label objects through mime or acting out movements. Different from gestures, home signs are created by deaf children to use with their hearing families members who don't know sign language (Goldin-Meadow, 2005). Home signs do not have a consistent meaning-symbol relationship or formal grammar and are not passed down from generation to gen-eration. Linguists are intrigued with the study of home signs as it helps them to understand how gesture systems and home sign systems are created without an adult language model in the home (Goldin-Meadow, 2005). When children meet peers and other deaf adults and con-gregate at a school for the deaf, their home signs evolve and a grammar emerges. A new language is born! However, this change takes time, maybe two or three generations, for standardization of the language to occur (Goldin-Meadow, 2005).
In Nicaragua, Central America, from their isolated farms and rural areas, deaf children brought their home signs and gestures to an establishe school and a new Nicaraguan Si language emerged (Coppola & Sen-ghas, 2010). This particular sign Ian guage, called= Nicaragua Sign L guage, is the youngest known si language as :its history only goes bac to the late 1970s (Meier, Cormier Quinto-Pozos, 2002). What would happen in the United tates todayif everyone learned o communicate with Deaf people? Chapter 3 American Sign Language New England Roots ASL was also influenced by historical changes brought on by the communi-ties of Deaf people and hearing persons who used signing as they coexisted in three towns in New England: Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; Henniker, New Hampshire; and Sandy River Valley, Maine (Lane, 1984; Lane, Pillard, & Hedberg, 2011). Due to a recessive hereditary trait that came from England and subsequent intermarriage in America, the numbers of deaf people increased in these three towns. Hearing families of deaf persons along with other hearing persons in these com-munities learned sign language to help deaf persons integrate into society. Nora Groce (1985) aptly titled her book, Every-one Here Spoke Sign Language, referring to Martha's Vineyard. From the early 18th century to the early 1950s, both deaf and hearing people used Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL). See Figure 3-4 for a picture of Nora Groce. Signing was used in the schools, in churches, and at the marketplace. These sign languages were brought to the schools Figure 3-4. Picture of Nora Groce. Used with permission of Nora Groce.and subsequently became standardized (Lane et al., 2011). The first school for the deaf in Hart-ford, Connecticut, and later other deaf schools were the storehouses of all of these sign language varieties of home sign, gestures, and village sign languages. Their sign varieties blended with the French signing used by their teachers at the school, and a language contact situa-tion occurred, leading to the evolution of ASL (Brentari, 2010). ASL spread through-out the United States when deaf students and teachers trained by Laurent Clerc went off to establish more schools (Lane, 1984). More and more students and adults began to use ASL.