engleski

Why natural sign language, and not signed systems? – The negative impact of modality interactions

The aim of this paper is to provide an explanation for the main features of natural sign languages that separate them from artificially created signed systems. Signed systems are often presented and labeled as sign languages because they are visually expressed but they are not languages. To study language, linguists approach the problem by asking questions such as: What do all languages have in common? What are the constraints on how languages may vary from each other?, and How can languages be learned by children particularly? The study of sign languages has made it clear that natural language is not the same thing as speech. To separate language from speech, sign language research focused on demonstrating the linguistic nature of sign languages (Wilbur 2010). Sign languages were regarded as exemplifying a primitive universal way of communicating through gestures. Early sign linguistic research from the 1960s onward emphasized the equivalences between sign languages and spoken languages and the recognition of sign languages as full, complex, independent human languages. Contemporary sign research explores the similarities and differences between different sign languages, and between sign languages and spoken languages (Pfau et al. 2012). The most striking difference between sign and spoken languages is termed the ‘modality difference’. It refers to a difference in communication channel that is often considered to be the ultimate cause for structural differences between spoken and sign languages. The structure of sign languages evolved in concert to provide natural language capability in the sign modality. The various forms of signed systems, that is, combined production of speech and signing, are artificially created for communication in pedagogical situations as an instructional communication method for deaf students. They are designed as a code to mimic the lexicon, morphology and syntax of spoken language. They are referred to as “systems” because they do not exhibit natural language properties (Wilbur &amp ; Petersen 1998). This paper specifically addresses what effects sign systems have on the speech, and what effects speech has on the sign language. Further, it also discusses the differences in the duration of signs, and the gaps between signs for signed systems. Finally, it provides research support for using natural sign languages in the early education of deaf children with the aim of ultimately developing sophisticated language and literacy skills, as well as highlights the major problem that linguistic, cognitive, and motoric complexity of simultaneous production of speech and signing is continually underestimated.

natural (sign) language ; signed systems ; modality

nije evidentirano