Sociolinguistics of sign languages

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The sociolinguistics of sign languages is the application of sociolinguistic principles to the study of sign languages. The study of sociolinguistics in the American Deaf community did not start until the 1960s. [1] Until recently, the study of sign language and sociolinguistics has existed in two separate domains. Nonetheless, now it is clear that many sociolinguistic aspects do not depend on modality and that the combined examination of sociolinguistics and sign language offers countless opportunities to test and understand sociolinguistic theories. [2] The sociolinguistics of sign languages focuses on the study of the relationship between social variables and linguistic variables and their effect on sign languages. The social variables external from language include age, region, social class, ethnicity, and sex. [3] External factors are social by nature and may correlate with the behavior of the linguistic variable. [3] The choices made of internal linguistic variant forms are systematically constrained by a range of factors at both the linguistic and the social levels. The internal variables are linguistic in nature: a sound, a handshape, and a syntactic structure. What makes the sociolinguistics of sign language different from the sociolinguistics of spoken languages is that sign languages have several variables both internal and external to the language that are unique to the Deaf community. [3] Such variables include the audiological status of a signer's parents, age of acquisition, and educational background (home acquisition or residence schools). [3] There exist perceptions of socioeconomic status and variation of "grassroots" deaf people and middle-class deaf professionals, but this has not been studied in a systematic way. [3] "The sociolinguistic reality of these perceptions has yet to be explored". [3] Many variations in dialects correspond or reflect the values of particular identities of a community.

Contents

Variations in sign languages

Variation between sexes

In the Irish deaf community, there are several basic lexical items that are unintelligible between men and women. [4] The vocabularies used by men and women are so different that they have affected communication. The reason for variation was the creation of two sex-segregated schools for the deaf. [4] In this case sociolinguistic variation has been caused by isolation and segregation as implemented by the educational institution. These sex differences have had an effect on behavior in that they perpetuate gender images and relations. [4] The means in which institutionalized language socialization is occurring in Ireland is and has been changing drastically over the past 50 years. [4] This in turn is changing the way Irish sign language is being used and developed.

Ethnicity

In Black American Sign Language (Black ASL), there is linguistic variation which helps define individuals as members of both the Black community and Deaf community. [5] However, issues arise from the existent double immersion in the two communities. [5] Speakers, dependent on their language background, will identify themselves more strongly with either the ethnic or Deaf identity. The primary identity of the Black Deaf community is the Black community, but those born deaf in deaf families also identify with the Deaf community. [5] It is important to note that the Black Deaf community is distinct from both the black and deaf communities. Black ASL as a sociolinguistic variant of ASL is distinctly Black. [5] Speakers of Black ASL do code-switch to ASL when speaking with people outside the Black community. [5] This sociolinguistic variation is what defines the Black Deaf community.

Variations driven by contact

Children who go to hearing schools are faced with the need to learn to read and write the spoken language. Just like situations involving spoken languages having greater dominance over other languages, deaf people live in societies that are dominated in every aspect by hearing people and their values. [6] Most deaf people are bilingual to some extent in a spoken language, while hearing people are not bilingual in sign languages. However, in Martha's Vineyard there was a greater degree of deafness than compared to the national average; 1 in 155 people were deaf. [6] This encouraged hearing people to learn sign language in order to communicate with more people in the community. In Martha's Vineyard, much of the community, even hearing people, was using a sign language known as Martha's Vineyard Sign Language due to the high ratio of deaf people. The large population of deaf people in this community is an instance where deaf people are individuals within the entire community and not distinctly part of a Deaf ethnic group. [6] The extent of bilingualism in ASL and spoken English allowed for code switching from spoken to sign when in a group where most people were deaf.

Dialect contact leading to standardization

The advent of videophones has made it easier for members of the Deaf community to communicate with each other throughout the nation. Videophones allow members of the Deaf community to more easily interact with each other and to interact with people outside the Deaf community with the help of interpreters. The interpreters have to go through training programs and thus learn a standardized form of ASL. [7] This is in contrast to the vernaculars of members of the Deaf community that did not attend these residential schools. Historically, residential schools for the deaf were a huge proponent of the standardization of ASL as children would attend schools for the deaf and learn classes in ASL. However, recently there has been a shift to send deaf children to hearing schools where they learn standard American English and actually have no formal instruction in ASL. [7] Thus, interpreters are exposed to more standardized variants of ASL, whereas members of the Deaf community are more likely to learn home signs and nonstandard version of ASL. The interpreters therefore try to incorporate the Deaf consumers' signs into their interpretation, but this is not always possible to do so. Statistically, it seems interpreters have a strong resistance to incorporating signs into the conversation that were seen as non-ASL. [7] This leads to some exposure of standardized signs from the interpreter to the Deaf callers, but also leads to less use of regional signs by the interpreters, aiding with the standardization of ASL.

Contact between spoken and sign languages

Contextualization strategies

Communication strategies are used in language with both adults and children in situations with different degrees of formality. Two common strategies are connecting-explaining and chaining. Chaining is a technique to connect texts such as a sign, a print, a written word, or a fingerspelled word. [8] Explaining by examples is important for interpreters to understand and master in order to produce voice-to-sign interpretations that are closer to native signs and are comprehendible to Deaf users of ASL. The setting and audience changed the manner of speech of the interpreters. In an informal situation with adults, brief explanations tend to be used, and in formal settings, the appropriate terms and jargon tend to be used, and chaining is uncommon, if not totally absent, in adult settings. Communication strategies to support comprehension have been attributed to language directed at children (mostly within the classroom), but also appear within the language directed at adults across different settings and degrees of formality.

Fingerspelling

The manner of speech changes based on the audience. Speakers tend to change the proportions of different elements of ASL; the degree of codeswitching is based on audience. For children, to help them understand new topics, fingerspelling is used. Fingerspelling is essentially an English event. [6] This is additional evidence that shows how spoken language influences ASL. The contact of sign languages and spoken languages affect the acquisition of sign language as well as the method of teaching sign language to children. In a study where a child at age two began fingerspelling, the child invented a name for her doll at 30 months. The child recognized lexicalized forms which were fingerspelled but she did not necessarily understand the same words when they were just fingerspelled. This shows that fingerspelling is an important component of language acquisition as a bridge between spoken languages and sign languages. [6]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sign Language</span> Sign language used predominately in the United States

American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expressed by employing both manual and nonmanual features. Besides North America, dialects of ASL and ASL-based creoles are used in many countries around the world, including much of West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. ASL is also widely learned as a second language, serving as a lingua franca. ASL is most closely related to French Sign Language (LSF). It has been proposed that ASL is a creole language of LSF, although ASL shows features atypical of creole languages, such as agglutinative morphology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sign language</span> Language that uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning

Sign languages are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign languages are full-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and lexicon. Sign languages are not universal and are usually not mutually intelligible, although there are also similarities among different sign languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Sign</span> Sign language, used particularly at international meetings

International Sign (IS) is a pidgin sign language which is used in a variety of different contexts, particularly as an international auxiliary language at meetings such as the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) congress, in some European Union settings, and at some UN conferences, at events such as the Deaflympics, the Miss & Mister Deaf World, and Eurovision, and informally when travelling and socialising.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Sign Language</span> Sign language used in the United Kingdom

British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom and is the first or preferred language among the deaf community in the UK. Based on the percentage of people who reported 'using British Sign Language at home' on the 2011 Scottish Census, the British Deaf Association estimates there are 151,000 BSL users in the UK, of whom 87,000 are Deaf. By contrast, in the 2011 England and Wales Census 15,000 people living in England and Wales reported themselves using BSL as their main language. People who are not deaf may also use BSL, as hearing relatives of deaf people, sign language interpreters or as a result of other contact with the British Deaf community. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head.

Auslan is the sign language used by the majority of the Australian Deaf community. The term Auslan is a portmanteau of "Australian Sign Language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the 1980s, although the language itself is much older. Auslan is related to British Sign Language (BSL) and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL); the three have descended from the same parent language, and together comprise the BANZSL language family. Auslan has also been influenced by Irish Sign Language (ISL) and more recently has borrowed signs from American Sign Language (ASL).

The American Manual Alphabet (AMA) is a manual alphabet that augments the vocabulary of American Sign Language.

Manually Coded English (MCE) is a type of sign system that follows direct spoken English. The different codes of MCE vary in the levels of directness in following spoken English grammar. There may also be a combination with other visual clues, such as body language. MCE is typically used in conjunction with direct spoken English.

Japanese Sign Language, also known by the acronym JSL, is the dominant sign language in Japan and is a complete natural language, distinct from but influenced by the spoken Japanese language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Sign Language</span> South African sign language

South African Sign Language is the primary sign language used by deaf people in South Africa. The South African government added a National Language Unit for South African Sign Language in 2001. SASL is not the only manual language used in South Africa, but it is the language that is being promoted as the language to be used by the Deaf in South Africa, although Deaf peoples in South Africa historically do not form a single group.

A contact sign language, or contact sign, is a variety or style of language that arises from contact between deaf individuals using a sign language and hearing individuals using an oral language. Contact languages also arise between different sign languages, although the term pidgin rather than contact sign is used to describe such phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing</span> U.S. non-profit organization

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Kata Kolok, also known as Benkala Sign Language and Balinese Sign Language, is a village sign language which is indigenous to two neighbouring villages in northern Bali, Indonesia. The main village, Bengkala, has had high incidences of deafness for over seven generations. Notwithstanding the biological time depth of the recessive mutation that causes deafness, the first substantial cohort of deaf signers did not occur until five generations ago, and this event marks the emergence of Kata Kolok. The sign language has been acquired by at least five generations of deaf, native signers and features in all aspects of village life, including political, professional, educational, and religious settings.

Bimodal bilingualism is an individual or community's bilingual competency in at least one oral language and at least one sign language, which utilize two different modalities. An oral language consists of a vocal-aural modality versus a signed language which consists of a visual-spatial modality. A substantial number of bimodal bilinguals are children of deaf adults (CODA) or other hearing people who learn sign language for various reasons. Deaf people as a group have their own sign language(s) and culture that is referred to as Deaf, but invariably live within a larger hearing culture with its own oral language. Thus, "most deaf people are bilingual to some extent in [an oral] language in some form" In discussions of multilingualism in the United States, bimodal bilingualism and bimodal bilinguals have often not been mentioned or even considered, in part because American Sign Language, the predominant sign language used in the U.S., only began to be acknowledged as a natural language in the 1960s. However, bimodal bilinguals share many of the same traits as traditional bilinguals, as well as differing in some interesting ways, due to the unique characteristics of the Deaf community. Bimodal bilinguals also experience similar neurological benefits as do unimodal bilinguals, with significantly increased grey matter in various brain areas and evidence of increased plasticity as well as neuroprotective advantages that can help slow or even prevent the onset of age-related cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimer's and dementia.

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Language acquisition is a natural process in which infants and children develop proficiency in the first language or languages that they are exposed to. The process of language acquisition is varied among deaf children. Deaf children born to deaf parents are typically exposed to a sign language at birth and their language acquisition follows a typical developmental timeline. However, at least 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who use a spoken language at home. Hearing loss prevents many deaf children from hearing spoken language to the degree necessary for language acquisition. For many deaf children, language acquisition is delayed until the time that they are exposed to a sign language or until they begin using amplification devices such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. Deaf children who experience delayed language acquisition, sometimes called language deprivation, are at risk for lower language and cognitive outcomes. However, profoundly deaf children who receive cochlear implants and auditory habilitation early in life often achieve expressive and receptive language skills within the norms of their hearing peers; age at implantation is strongly and positively correlated with speech recognition ability. Early access to language through signed language or technology have both been shown to prepare children who are deaf to achieve fluency in literacy skills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black American Sign Language</span> Dialect of American Sign Language

Black American Sign Language (BASL) or Black Sign Variation (BSV) is a dialect of American Sign Language (ASL) used most commonly by deaf African Americans in the United States. The divergence from ASL was influenced largely by the segregation of schools in the American South. Like other schools at the time, schools for the deaf were segregated based upon race, creating two language communities among deaf signers: black deaf signers at black schools and white deaf signers at white schools. As of the mid 2010s, BASL is still used by signers in the South despite public schools having been legally desegregated since 1954.

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References

  1. ↑ Lucas, Ceil (2001). The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0521-79137-5.
  2. ↑ Bayley, Robert, et al. "The Study of Language and Society." The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics, Jan. 2013, p. 2.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lucas, Ceil, ed. (2001). "Sociolinguistic Variation". The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-79474-9.
  4. 1 2 3 4 LeMaster, Barbara (1991). The Life of Language: Papers in Linguistics in Honor of William Bright. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter & Co. ISBN   978-3-11-015633-1.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Aramburo, Anthony (2000). Valli, Clayton; Lucas, Ceil (eds.). Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. ISBN   978-1-56368-097-7.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Ann, Jean (2001). "Bilingualism and Language Contact". In Lucas, Ceil (ed.). The Sociolinguistics of Sign Languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 33–60. ISBN   0521791375.
  7. 1 2 3 Palmer, Jeffrey Levi; Reynolds, Wanette; Minor, Rebecca (2012). "You Want What on Your Pizza". Sign Language Studies. Gallaudet University Press. 12 (3): 371–397. doi:10.1353/sls.2012.0005. S2CID   145223579.
  8. ↑ Quinto-Pozos, David; Reynolds, Wanette (2012). "ASL Discourse Strategies: Chaining and Connecting-Explaining across Audiences". Sign Language Studies. Gallaudet University Press. 12 (2): 211–235. doi:10.1353/sls.2011.0021. S2CID   143937631.
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