What is American Sign Language? Is it signed English?

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Sign Language Linguistics

American Sign Language (ASL) is a complex visual-spatial language that is used by the Deaf community in the United States and English-speaking parts of Canada. It is a linguistically complete, natural language. It is the native language of many Deaf men and women, as well as some hearing children born into Deaf families. ASL, takes years to master, just as French, German, Russian, or other world languages.

ASL shares no grammatical similarities to English and should not be considered in any way to be a broken, mimed, or gestural form of English. In terms of syntax, for example, ASL has a topic-comment syntax or Object-Subject-Verb, while English uses Subject-Verb-Object. In fact, in terms of syntax, ASL shares more with spoken Japanese than it does with English. Additionally ASl is a conceptual language. For example, the word RAN would be signed in several ways based on the concept of the word. Look at these examples: he ran, the car ran well, I ran out of food, my tights ran and now I have a hole, and I ran out of time. Wow, RAN sure has a lot of meanings doesn't it? He ran and I ran out of food will have completely different signs to convey the meaning.

Some people have described ASL and other sign languages as "gestural" languages. This is not absolutely correct because hand gestures are only ONE component of ASL (signs). Facial features such as eyebrow motion and lip-mouth movements as well as other factors such as body orientation are also significant in ASL as they form a crucial part of the grammatical system. In addition, ASL makes use of the space surrounding the signer to describe places, things and persons that may or may not be present.

Sign languages develop specific to their communities and is not universal. For example, ASL is totally different from British Sign Language even though both countries speak English. Many people consider it a shame that there isn't a universal sign language , however it's also a shame that there isn't a universal spoken language, right? I personally enjoy seeing the great variety and diversity of languages and the first topic of conversation when I meet a Deaf person from another country is an exchange of vocabulary: "How do you sign this? How do you sign that?"

Interesting, however, American Sign Language shares many vocabulary terms with Old French Sign Language (LSF) because a French Deaf man, Laurent Clerc, was one of the first teachers of the Deaf in the U.S. in the nineteenth century. So if you know ASL, you're better off taking a vacation in France than in England! But the French connection to America is rare, most sign languages develop independently and each country (and in some cases, each city) has their own sign language.


ASL Grammar and Linguistic Studies

As mentioned above, ASL has a very complex grammar. Unlike spoken languages where there is just one serial stream of phonemes, sign languages can have multiple things going on at the same time. This multiple segmentation makes it an exciting language for linguists to study and a frustrating language for hearing people to learn. ASL has its own morphology (rules for the creation of words), phonetics (rules for handshapes), and grammar that are very unlike those found in spoken languages. ASL and other sign languages promise to be a rich source of analysis for future linguists to come.

Myths

Probably the most important myth to debunk is that ASL is not a visual code for English, written or spoken. The differences are significant. ASL and English use different modalities (visual/gesture/as opposed to aural/oral), and have different phonology and grammar. For new students, it is important to avoid reliance on English syntax and usage while signing, since this will result in a poor command of ASL.

Another common myth to debunk is that ASL is a language of pictures and pantomime. If true, nobody would have problems understanding ASL. Although some signs in ASL appear to have features similar to actual things or actions, most ASL signs do not.

Another myth to debunk is that ASL is a universal language understood by all signers in the world. In fact, there are hundreds of identified sign languages in the world, most of them developed indigenously by deaf people in their countries.


There are no English equivalents. That means, while there are some signs that have a brief description in English to help you grasp the meaning, avoid "assigning" the meaning of an English word to an ASL sign. Many ASL signs simply are not directly translatable to English words. So if you develop a habit of seeing ASL signs and doing a mental run through of English, you will often make wrong choices. ASL signs are best learned through use and context. Often students are temped to hold onto the crutch of English by speaking while signing. This is not a good idea. Trying to speak and sign results in bad ASL syntax and grammar. The faster you can develop a complete reliance on ASL only when signing, the more quickly you will progress.

Music and ASL

We discussed two powerful videos in class today. Once again, these videos have strong language usage, so please be advised if you decide to watch them again. I expressed why I wanted to use music as the basis of my class discussion. I think it is a very good medium to use since people feel so passionately about music and connect with it so well. Music lyrics are often full of similes and metaphors, Simile and metaphor have much in common. In both cases, something is described using terms that do not literally refer to that thing. In simile, the description takes the form of a comparison between two things that are not literally alike; in a metaphor, something is simply described as if it were another, different thing.

Information below taken from:http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr01/articles/lyric.asp

Simile And Metaphor In Pop Lyrics

"Dolly Parton's 'Love Is Like A Butterfly' and Bob Dylan's 'Like A Rolling Stone' are both examples of simile. Love does not, in any literal sense, resemble a large flying insect. What the comparison does, however, is suggest that the two things share some of the same attributes — the connotations most of us associate with butterflies. Similarly, The Sweet's 'Love Is Like Oxygen' does not intend to suggest that love is actually an invisible gas, but plays on the connotations most of us associate with oxygen: giving or supporting life, making fires burn, and so on. The country classic 'Love Hurts' compares love to a cloud and a stove(!); the Small Faces' 'Réne' compares love to a hole in the wall. 'The Windmills Of Your Mind' consists of a whole list of different similes for 'the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind': these circles are like 'a circle in a spiral', 'a wheel within a wheel', 'a clock whose hands are turning', and so on.


'The Windmills Of Your Mind' also illustrates the difference between simile and metaphor, for the title phrase is itself a metaphor rather than a simile. Nothing is being explicitly compared to a windmill: rather, the mind is being described as if it actually had windmills in it. In literal terms this is obviously nonsensical and wrong, for there are no windmills in anyone's mind. In the same way as a simile, however, the metaphor connotes a set of images or concepts that no literal description could do. The phrase, with its connotation of relentless, unceasing turning motion, is intended to suggest a mind in turmoil, while the similes mentioned earlier illustrate what this endless motion is like.

Other obvious examples of song titles that are metaphorical might include Neil Young's 'Heart Of Gold', Blondie's 'Heart Of Glass' and 'The Tide Is High', Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway To Heaven', The Jam's 'Going Underground', Roxy Music's 'Love Is The Drug', Bruce Springsteen's 'I'm On Fire', The Police's 'Walking On The Moon' and Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill'. A particular kind of metaphor that's worth noting is personification, whereby something inanimate is described as if it were a person or creature. The Stranglers' 'Golden Brown' and The Only Ones' 'The Beast', for instance, both describe heroin as if it were a conscious being, while The Beatles' 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' personifies George Harrison's favoured instrument. "


With this is mind, and our recent lesson on what ASL is and is not, signing the songs as they are written in English would not make any grammatical sense and must be translated using the correct concepts and meanings being portrayed. If you think about, ASL is creating a visual picture that matching the one that is in your mind when you listen to these similes and metaphors. That is the beauty of the language.

So this brings us to our class discussion. Some students thought that it was okay to change ASL to be a more "English Like" interpretation for the benefit and enjoyment of non-signers; while others thought that it was a misrepresentation and not respectful of the language itself. Communication with people should always be the reason to study a language, first and foremost. Creating those connections, respect, understanding, appreciation, and awareness results from our ability to communicate. Under the umbrella of communication there are several other perks or benefits.

Entertainment is just one of these perks. When using a language that is our second language to entertain, it is important to do our best to execute it as correctly as possible. You are ambassadors of that language if you will. A similarity that I can think of is in Spanish you must roll your "R". Would you ever decide when entertaining or singing in Spanish that it would be best to not roll your "R" for the benefit and ease of understanding for non-spanish speakers in the audience? How do you think the Latino Culture would react? Music translated in ASL is not meant to show what English words are being sung, but rather what the beat is, what the rhythm is and most importantly what is the meaning of the song. Brian Rivers, a Deaf man that enjoys music, states this beautifully. He says, "Don’t forget that there is something deeper involved in the music experience than only sound. Good music causes a person to conjure up a lot of visual imagery in their mind, for example, a breeze blowing the tree tops in the forest, or maybe visual imagery of childhood memories at the beach, etc, etc. This is kind of like “mental cinematography.” Really, the sound part of the music is not the fundamental thing. A deaf person who watches an artistic film or movie that was made with good cinematography and visual imagery is getting a very similar experience–or actually a cognitively identical experience, at the deep level of cognition".

ASL is cherished by Deaf people, they created it, used it, fought for it, and tried hard to keep it their own. They continue to fight today to keep it pure and true and to be used in its rightful form. The hearing world, historically, has tried to change it; created other signing systems (SEE, SEE2, Rochester Method, Cued, Pidgin, and Total Communication to name a few), added handshapes to signs that do not make sense, destroy it, and even outlaw it (during the dark ages of Deaf Culture ASL was strictly forbidden in Deaf Schools all over the United States as well as Europe). The are very protective of their language and frown upon anyone that threatens its existence or manipulates it.


BLog Discussion:

Watch this clip of Rosa Lee, a deaf woman signing a song she wrote. Notice how she signing in English order and changes it to ASL (the video will help you see this) When the words are across the screen she is signing exact English, later when the words disappear, she is using ASL to convey the true meaning of the song. Regardless of your knowledge of ASL, try to compare the two. What is different? What feelings (or not) did it evoke? Was one more entertaining to watch then the other? Why or why not? For those of you that do not know sign, your thoughts are equally important in discussing how the signing looked different when presented as a true language versus a signed form of the English language. Even though the words stayed the same, the signs are very different and even an untrained eye can see this. Finally, what are other thoughts, feelings, or opinions you have after our class discussion and blog posting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-9tBKf87qs

I would like you to also watch this video. I think it is a great example of ASL entertainment done correctly using ASL. Her expressions, body language, clarity and smooth execution of her signs, her use of space, beat, and rhythm all make this pleasing to the eye regardless of skill and knowledge of ASL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPGoH6iyJX4&feature=related