Sign Languages: Origin, Iconicity, Brain Processing, and Variation, Study notes of Sign Language

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Sign language

Ling 001 - Fall 2014

Jami Fisher - Beatrice Santorini

Sign languages

 Visual-spatial languages used by communities of Deaf people

 Ethnologue lists 130 Deaf sign languages throughout the world

 No universal sign language!

Iconicity and arbitrariness, 1

All human languages consist of

• Symbols (= form-meaning pairs)
• Rules for possible forms (= phonology)
• Rules for combining symbols into larger meaningful units (= morphology, syntax)

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Iconicity and arbitrariness, 2

 In spoken languages, the form of symbols is mostly arbitrary (onomatopoeia is marginal).

 In sign languages, iconicity plays a bigger role.

 But even here, iconicity has its limits.

• It underdetermines the form of signs.
• Over time, it is lost.

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TREE - Danish Sign Language

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TREE - American Sign Language

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Limits of iconicity - Diachronic

 Iconicity is lost over time.

• HOME was a compound of EAT + BED.
• In the current citation form, the handshape of BED has assimilated to that of EAT.
• Current vernacular forms exhibit further articulatory reduction, making them even less iconic.
• Comparable processes are found in spoken language.
• cup + board  cupboard (cubberd)
• some + thing  somethin  sumpm 10

Sign language and the brain, 1

 Brain studies provide incontrovertible evidence that sign languages are not pantomime.

 Visual and spatial functions are processed by the right hemisphere of the brain.

 But sign languages are processed by the left hemisphere, just like spoken languages.

Sign language and the brain, 3

 Damage to right hemisphere results in visual-spatial deficits.

• Inability to create or even copy recognizable drawings
• Failure to notice objects in the left part of the visual field (hemispatial neglect)

 But production and understanding of sign language is unaffected.

Sign language and the brain, 4

 Damage to the front part of left hemisphere results in Brocas aphasia.

 Production is labored, broken, and simplified.

 But comprehension remains intact.  No general motor control deficit (e.g., no difficulty drawing an elephant)

Sign language and the brain, 6

 Damage to back part of left hemisphere results in Wernickes aphasia.  Fluent but nonsensical production  Comprehension difficulties  Same symptoms for hearing and Deaf

American Sign Language, 1

 Not English expressed in signs!

 Used in U.S. and anglophone Canada

 Historically unrelated to British Sign Language, and completely distinct (no shared history)

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Linguistic levels

Signed languages exhibit the same patterning and level of complexity as other languages of the world.

 Phonology  Morphology  Syntax  Sociolinguistics 19

Phonology - Components of signs

 Handshape  Location  Movement  Palm orientation  Non-manual features