18. Sign Language

更新时间：2023-08-26 08:36:01 阅读量：教育文库文档下载

说明：文章内容仅供预览，部分内容可能不全。下载后的文档，内容与下面显示的完全一致。下载之前请确认下面内容是否您想要的，是否完整无缺。

18.9升水是多少斤推荐度：
相关推荐

The Study of Language 《语言研究》by George Yule

18.1 Sign language

Alternate sign language

Primary sign language

18.2 Origins of ASL

18.3 The structure of signs

Shape

Orientation

Location

Movement

18.4 The meaning of signs

18.5 Writing in ASL

18.6 ASL as a linguistic system

18.7 Teaching methods in deaf education

Oralism

Signed English

18.1 Sign language

sign language1 手势语

Just as most children of English-speaking or French-speaking parents naturally acquire English or French at an early age, so the deaf children of deaf parents naturally acquire sign language.

If those deaf children grow up in American homes, they will typically acquire American Sign Language, also known as Ameslan or ASL.

With a signing population of almost 500,000, ASL is the third most commonly used non-English language (after Spanish and Italian) in the United States.

alternate sign language 交际手势语

-a system of gestures developed by speakers for limited communication in a specific context where speech cannot be used

In some religious orders, there are rules of silence and a very restricted alternate sign language is employed by the monks.

Among some Australian Aboriginal groups, there are periods (e.g. times of bereavement2) when speech is avoided completely.

In some special working circumstances (e.g. among book-makers at racetracks, traders in commodity exchanges, and sawmill workers)

In all these examples, the user of an alternate sign language has another first (spoken) language.

primary sign language 基本手势语

-the first language of a group that does not have access to a spoken language

ASL is a primary sign language

For a very long time, it was not considered to be a possible natural language at all.

18.2 Origins of ASL

Historically, ASL developed from the French Sign Language used in a Paris school founded in the 18th century.

During the 19th century, this imported version of Sign Language, incorporating features of indigenous natural sign languages used by the American deaf, evolved into what became ASL. ASL and BSL (British Sign Language) are separate languages and neither should be treated as

The Study of Language 《语言研究》by George Yule

versions of spoken English which happen to involve the use of the hands.

18.3 The structure of signs

In producing linguistic forms in ASL, singers will help themselves to fur key aspects of visual information.

These are usually classified as shape, orientation, location and movement.

In analogies3 with natural spoken languages these four elements are sometimes called the articulatory parameters4 of ASL.

These parameters can be illustrated by referring to the following representation of a clear, isolated use of the sign for THANK-YOU.

shape 形态

To describe the articulation of THANK-YO in ASL, we would start with the shape, or configuration5 of the hand(s), used in forming the sign.

In forming THANK-YOU, a flat hand is used and not a fist hand or cupped6 hand or other permissible7 shape.

orientation 方向

The orientation of the hand describes the fact that the hand is palm-up rather than palm-down. In other signs the hand can be oriented in a number of other ways, such as the ‘flat hand’, ‘palm towards signer’ form used to indicate MINE.

location方位

The location of the sign captures the fact, in THANK-YOU, it is first at the chin, then at waist level,

movement 移动

and the movement (in this case, out and downward) involved in the formation of the sign is the fourth parameter.

These four general parameters can be analyzed into a set of primes (e.g. flat hand and palm-up are primes in shape and orientation respectively) in order to produce a full feature-analysis of each sign.

important functions served by non-manual components: head-movement, eye-movement, a number of specific facial expressions

If a sentence is functioning as a question, it is typically accompanied by a raising of the eyebrows, widened eyes, and a slight leaning forward of the head.

If a new term or name is encountered, there is the possibility of finger-spelling8 via a system of hand configurations conventionally used to represent the letters of the alphabet.

basic features of ASL

It is a linguistic system designed for the visual medium.

Signing is done in face-to-face interaction.

The majority of signs are located around the neck and head, and if a sign is made near the chest or waist, it tends to be two-handed.

differences between a system using the visual as opposed to the vocal-auditory channel

The Study of Language 《语言研究》by George Yule

18.3 The meaning of signs

The signs of ASL are often, erroneously, thought to be clear visual representations or pictures of the objects or actions they refer to.

Indeed, the language of the deaf is still considered by many to be some type of pantomime9 or mime10 in which EATING is represented by mimicking the act of eating or TREE is represented by ‘forming’ a tree with the hands.

This misconception is usually accompanied by the myth that a sign language like ASL consists of a fairly primitive set of gestures which can only really be used to refer to concrete entities and actions, but not to anything abstract .

Such misconceptions may persist because the hearing world rarely witnesses conversations or discussions in ASL, which range over every imaginable topic, concrete and abstract, and which bear little resemblance to any form of pantomime.

A visual communication system can avail itself of forms of representation which have an iconic basis.

Icons are symbolic representations which are physically similar to the objects represented. (Pictograms and ideograms, discussed in Chapter 2,, are types of iconic representation.)

18.4 Writing in ASL

The fact that a sign language exploits the visual medium in quite subtle ways makes it difficult to represent accurately on the page

“strictly speaking, the only way to write Ameslan is to use motion pictures.” --- Lou Fant (1977) One particular solution is to produce one line of the manually signed words and over this line to indicate the extent and nature of the conventional facial expression which accompanies those word.

__________________

ME BORROW BOOK

The q in the following transcription shows that the facial expression indicated a question function and lasted throughout the word-signing of what would be translated as Can I borrow the book.

Other subtle aspects of meaning which can be conveyed by facial expression are still the subject of investigation.

In one study, it was noted that a signer, in the middle of telling a story, produced a signed message such as MAN FISH continuous, which we would translate as the man was fishing. However, other ASL users, watching the signer, would translate the message as the man was fishing with relaxation and enjoyment.

The source of this extra information was a particular facial expression in which the lips were together and pushed out a little, with the head slightly titled. This non-manual signal was clearly capable of functioning as the equivalent of an adverb in English and was an integral part of the message.

The notation mm was chosen as a way of incorporating this element and so a more accurate transcription of the message might look like this:

The Study of Language 《语言研究》by George Yule

____________________

MAN FISH [continuous]

18.5 ASL as a linguistic system

Any feature which is characteristically found in spoken languages has a counterpart in ASL. all the defining properties of human language which we considered in Chapter 3 are present in ASL;

there are equivalent levels of phonology, morphology and syntax;

children acquiring ASL go through many of the recognized stages of children learning spoken language, though the production of sign seems to begin earlier than the production of spoken words;

in the hands of witty individuals, ASL is used for a wide range of jokes and sign-play ;

there are different ASL dialects in different regions and historical changes in the forms of signs can be traced since the beginning of the century (older versions are preserved on old films).

In summary, ASL is a natural language which is quite remarkable for its endurance in the face of decades of prejudice and misunderstanding.

18.6 Teaching methods in deaf education

Oralism11 口语教学法

Many well-intentioned teachers genuinely believed that the use of sign language by deaf children, perhaps because it was easy , actually inhibited the acquisition of speech.

Since speech was what these children really required, a teaching method generally known as oralism was rigorously pursued. This method, which dominated deaf education for a century,

Signed English / Manually Coded English 手势英语

-emphasizing on the acquisition of English, written rather than spoken

-a means of producing signs which correspond to the words in an English sentence, in English word order

-designed to facilitate interaction between the deaf and the hearing community

Its greatest advantage is that it seems to present a much less formidable learning task for the language to use with the child.

them as they speak (known as the simultaneous method ).

public speeches or lectures for deaf audiences.

When used to produce an exact version of a spoken English sentence, Signed English takes twice as long as the production of the sentence in either English or ASL.

One of the major aims by teaching Signed English in deaf schools is to prepare students to be able to read and write English.

Underlying that aim is the principle that deaf education should be geared towards enabling the deaf, for obvious economic reasons, to take part in the hearing world.

The net effect is to make ASL a kind of underground language, used only in deaf-deaf interaction.

The Study of Language 《语言研究》by George Yule

1 sign language手势语

A language that uses manual movements to convey grammatical structure and meaning. 一种用手势表达语法结构和意义的语言

Historically, it developed from the French Sign Language used in a Paris school founded in the 18th century. Early in the 19th century, a teacher from this school, named Laurent Clerc, was brought to the United States by an

American Congregational minister called Thomas Gallaudet. Clerc not only taught deaf children, he trained other teachers. During the 19th century, this imported version of Sign Language, incorporating features of indigenous natural sign languages used by the American deaf, evolved into what became ASL. Such origins help explain why users of ASL and users of British Sign Language (BSL) do not, in fact, share a common sign language. ASL and BSL are separate languages and neither should be treated as versions of spoken English which happen to involve the sue of the hands.

任何用肢体语言代替口头语言进行交流的方式，尤指用手和手臂。这种方式很早以前就已经被相互之间语言不通的人们(例如：19世纪北美各个不同的大平原印第安人部落间)和聋哑人使用。C.米歇尔(1712～1789)在18世纪中叶为聋人制订了第一种手语，他的这一系统传入法国，发展出了法国的手语，至今仍在法国使用。1816年手势语被T.加拉德特(1787～1851)引进美国后，发展出了美国手语，现仍有超过50万人在使用。各国的手语大致都是表达某些概念，而不是语素，因此比起各国的口语，其共同点更多。

2 bereavement 丧亲，丧友

when someone loses a close friend or relative because they have died

3 analogy 类似

have an analogy with 具有与...相似之处

5 articulatory parameters 视觉要素 configuration轮廓

The form, as of a figure, determined by the arrangement of its parts or elements. See Synonyms at form 由其各部分或元素配置决定的外形，如图案参见 form

6 cup把…做成杯形

To shape like a cup:

cup one's hand. 把手掬成杯形

7 permissible许可的；可允许的

Permitted; allowable

permissible tax deductions; permissible behavior in school. 许可的税收扣除额；学校里允许的行为 8 finger-spelling手语交谈