The Nature of Gesture and Language

8/7/2019 The Nature of Gesture and Language

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The Nature of Gesture andLanguage

David F. Armstrong, William C.

Stokoe, Sherman E. Wilcox


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Sherman Wilcox

Professor of Linguistics

Chair of Department of Linguistics at theUniversity of New Mexico

Studies Signed languages (mostly ASL) Author of books and scholarly articles on

linguistics, evolution of language, gesture, Deafculture, and signed language interpreting

Learning to See , American Deaf Culture , TheGestural Origin of Language , The Nature ofGesture and Language


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Can gesture be considered

independent of speech? some linguists think there is no relationship

Manual gestures serve referential functions:McNeill (1985)

Gestural primitives common to all people (and in somecases all primates/mammals)

bigness = sign of threat/intimidation = loudness

smallness = signs of submission = softness


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What are the different forms of

gesture? Salient gestures that are universally

understood

Gestural pool unique to but universalwithin a social group

Spoken/signed gestures unique to spokenand signed communities respectively(mutually unintelligible)


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Defining what is linguistic

We tend to consider linguistic what we can write down, andnonlinguistic everything else; but this division is a cultural artifact, anarbitrary limitation derived from historical evolution --McNeill, 1985

How is written communication different from gesturalcommunication (spoken or signed)?

words are complexes of muscular gestures which are temporallyordered, but not in the serial segmental fashion familiar fromclassical [linguistic] theory --- Mowrey and Pagliuca (1988)

Wilcox & co. argue against the assumption

that grammar is independent of meaninggrammar is based on body schema!


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Connecting our mouths to our

bodies The human vocal apparatus is capable of producing a vast array ofsounds, just as the body as a whole is capable of producing anenormous number of visible movements. --- Armstrong (1986)

Gesture and speech function as an inseparable unit --- McNeill

Evidence from childrens language acquisition supports this theory(especially from studies between a mother infant)

The study of both spoken and signed language production thesearch for the neural basis of human communication in general

Telling us something about the evolution of language looking atthe importance of hands, the visual system, and upright posture inthe development of language


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If we take this approach

We assume that the mental and the physical and

independent of one another (linguistic units are

therefore only mental things)

One linguist named Kendon

(1991) asks if language

began as gesture, why did itnot stay that way?

Wilcox & co. answer: It did stay that way!


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Is the organization of signed and

spoken language the same? Over the years there have been

assumptions that language cannotbe separated from speech.

However thats NOT True

by looking to vision as the

major primate and humanperceptual system, we mayescape the error of mistaking theacoustic manifestation oflanguage for language itself.


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It has its own rules ofgrammar and syntax.

Signed languages havebeen demonstrated to behighly constrained, followinggeneral restrictions onstructure and organization

comparable to thoseproposed for spokenlanguage H. Poizner, E.S.Klima, and U. Bellugi

Linguistic research has established

that ASL is a natural human

language.


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This also goes for other signed

languages: There are many different kinds of signed languages andeach are distinct and independent.

Each language has their own linguistic cultures.

If one wanted to be truly

proficient in signed language

then they should be immersed

in a community of deaf people

much in the same way

other foreign languages

are learned.


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Deaf Culture

There are people who prefer to refer to themselves asDeaf as opposed to hearing impaired

The bond between Deaf people does not arise fromthe same cultural norms as those in surroundingcommunities who hear

Deaf people from all over the world are also divided bylanguage barriers as there is no universal signlanguage. (Though there is Gestuno)


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Gaulldet University

University for the education of the deaf

and heard of hearing that is located in

Washington, D.C.

Bilingual community in which ASL and

English co-exist

Deaf President Now


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Language in general shares a

general cognitive substrate. Alphabetical writing, inventedlong after language began tobe spoken, produces theillusion that vocal gesturescan reveal whole structure of

language.

This is counter to thewidespread belief that thewords of languages must becomposed of vocal material,the material composing wordsin the primary sign languagesof deaf populations is visual.


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Primary sign language was not intended to

replace a spoken language, it is intended to beused as a means of communication for those

who cannot hear and may not be able to speak

Visible actions...can stand in the reinforce andduplicate and even substitute for vocal

messages; they can stand in the absence of

speech for the means of unspoken words they

can accompany speech and help to mark itsprosody and regulate its flow


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We should remember thatsound is an abstract

concept.

Ex: For instance theexample given in the bookstates that we as humans

ask for eyewitness and notearwitnesses.

Different organization ofspoken languages andsigned languages isinevitable, given thedifferences in the twoperceptual systems.


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Facts about ASL

Dominant sign language used by the DeafCommunity in the U.S.

It shares NO RELATION to British SignLanguage

It has its own grammar structure includingphonology, morphology, semantics, syntax,and pragmatics

Its a visual language thus uses complex

visual-spatial orientation

Also contains gestures, classifiers,fingerspelling, etc.

More related to FSL


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Baby Sign Language

Developed by professors LindaAcredolo and Susan Goodwyn

Joseph Garcia found thatbabies exposed to signsregularly at 6 to 7 months canbegin using them as early as 8months

Belief that young children havedesire to communicated butvocal ability and coordinationlags behind cognitive ability

Learn words such as eat,sleep, hug, play, etc.

Home based and ASL basedsigning


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Emotes: An example of Gesture

=)

=(

T___T

^^;;;

:0

:p


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Bibliography

Wilcox, Sherman; Armstrong, David;

Stokoe, William. Gesture and the Nature

of Language. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1995

http://www.deaflibrary.org/ by Karen

Nakamura

Documents

The Nature of Gesture and Language