Language Continuum a Different Point of View

LANGUAGE CONTINUUM A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW' James C Woodward, Jr. One of the most hotly discussed issues in deaf education has been the oral-manual controversy. Members of both sides, however well meaning and fervent to their cause, have really been concentrating their efforts on a peripheral issue-communication channels. The more central issue in language education, the codes to be taught, has virtually been swept under the rug. Perhaps one of the reasons for this ignoring of language codes is the term "sign language." Sign language has been used to mean something that is signed rather than spoken. Many people believe that in America sign language is always a method of communicating English. If the signing approximates English grammar closely that is good sign language. If the signing does not approach English grammar, the signing is generally referred to as "deaf signing," "sign idioms," "poor English," "ungrammatical English," or "ungrammatical language." There have been other people, however, e.g., Stokoe and Fant, who discuss Ameslan or American Sign Language (ASL) instead of discussing "poor English," "deaf signing," etc. As Stokoe pointed out in "Sign Language Diglossia," there are at least two varieties of signed languages in America-Manual English and ASL-each with its own grammatical structure. In another recent paper, "Implications for Sociolinguistic Research Among the Deaf," I described the language situation as a continuum of language varieties between ASL and Manual English, with certain people being able to use more language varieties along the continuum than others. First published in The Buff and Blue 81.1, 3 (Gallaudet College. April 13, 1972). Sign Language Studies The idea of a language continuum within a community may sound like a nonsensical idea to anyone who has grown up in the American "melting pot" culture. But, as many sociolinguists have pointed out, language continuums do exist in many communities-in Jamaica between Jamaican Creole and Standard English, in Haiti between Haitian Creole and Standard French, etc. Some sociolinguists have suggested that there is a continuum in spoken English in America between what is thought of as Standard English and what is thought of as "poor," "ungrammatical," or "uneducated" English. Linguists have shown that these "non-standard" dialects have grammar rules. In the same way, ASL and all of the other varieties of signed languages have grammar rules, although there has not been a codification of these rules by grammarians. It must be remembered, however, that there has been a grammatical tradition of several centuries in IndoEuropean grammatical systems, almost none in American Sign Language. But, of course, there are people who refuse to accept the grammaticality of ASL-codification or no codification. Usually these people fall into two camps-one says that ASL has no grammatical structure; the other says that ASL is bad English. The first camp can be answered rather easily. ASL has a way to distinguish sentences like "I saw him" and "He saw me." Because ASL, like any other language has a way to distinguish these and other constructions, it certainly has rules that one must follow, although these rules may not be the same as English. It should also be pointed out that if there is a possibility of making mistakes, these mistakes must violate grammar rules. People can and do make mistakes in ASL. The other camp can also be answered, although the answer is a little more involved. Proponents of this camp claim that there is a sign or signs for every English word and that ASL translated sign by sign gives an ungrammatical English translation. Thus the combination of the ASL signs for "man" and "good" equals the English sentence "The man is good," but the ASL sentence is poor English. This same argument can be applied to Chinese (and every other language). Chinese (and every other language) has a word or words for Woodward English words, although there is seldom just a one-to-one correspondence. For example, ASL has one sign for English "please" and "enjoy." English has one word know for Chinese frdau "know a subject" and renshr "know a person." If Chinese is translated word for word into English, ungrammatical English results. Thus Chinese ren hen hau...