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Cross-Cultural Communication with Foreign Signers: Fact and Fancy
- Sign Language Studies
- Gallaudet University Press
- Volume 10, Spring 1976
- pp. 53-68
- 10.1353/sls.1976.0018
- Article
- Additional Information
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CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION WITH FOREIGN SIGNERS: FACT AND FANCY Robbin Battison & I. King Jordan According to popular belief, sign language is very different from spoken language in several ways. Many people believe that the signs of sign language are always iconic; i.e. that sign language is a "picture language". Others believe that sign languages have no grammar, no "proper" ways of expressing things, but merely "throw together" gestures and pantomimic actions; or they believe that sign languages abridge and corrupt correct spoken language grammar. These myths have been treated in recent years by other researchers, who find that the formal structures and communicative functions of sign languages used by deaf people are comparable to those of spoken languages used by hearing people (Stokoe 1960, 1970; Woodward 1973; Battison 1974; Bellugi & Klima 1975; Baker 1975; Frishberg 1975; Klima & Bellugi 1975; Liddell 1975; Padden & Markowicz 1975; Stokoe & Battison 1975). What we choose to examine in this study is the global and international nature of sign language. We shall examine briefly some popular beliefs or myths about sign language in the world, formulate some questions for study and research, discuss some past work, and present some of our own research findings relevant to these questions. We will deal with some very basic questions about the nature of sign languages used here in the U.S. and in other countries. We will certainly not exhaust the topic, since our own investigations are limited in scope and duration, and are still continuing. Popular beliefs. There are two related popular beliefs about sign languages on a global scale: (1) Sign language is universally the same throughout the world; (2) Deaf signers everywhere have little or no difficulty understanding each other. Naturally if the first statement is true, the second must be true also, but not vice-versa. What we would like to do is break down both these beliefs into statements which can be shown to be true or false. Sign Language Studies 10 These beliefs are directly evident in the things that people write and say when they discuss sign language, and indirectly in the manner of their discussions. Consider such innocent things as the word the. It was especially popular in the 19th century to include "the sign language" in titles of books and articles written on deaf communication, and the practice has even continued into the 20th century. We can cite Long (1918), The Sign Language, and Michaels (1923), A Handbook of the Sign Language of the Deaf. The misleading implications of these titles and many others like them is that there is only one sign language. A very observant writer of the 19th century, Garrick Mallery, even stated that the sign language of Indians and of deaf people and everyone else "constitute together one language--the gesture speech of mankind -- of which each system is a dialect" (1881: 323). Berthier, another 19th century writer, who was deaf himself, made a statement typical of his time: "For centuries scholars from every country have sought after a universal language, and failed. Well, it exists all around, it is sign language" (1854: 5). Michaels proposed a somewhat more moderate position: "The sign-language is universally used by the deaf people, and though all nations do not use the same mode of signs, one having a knowledge of the signs herein delineated will experience little, if any difficulty in understanding other modes, and of being understood by those who use a different mode" (1923: 6f). Even in very recent years, scholars have made proposals that sign language could become a universal language for all of mankind (Mead 1975), although no concrete analyses or proposals have recently been made. There is abundant evidence that deaf signers themselves believe in the universality of sign language or at least in its potential easily to become universal. One can cite the efforts of the World Federation of the Deaf in creating a 323-item list of signs, primarily designed for use during international meetings (Magarotto & Vukotic 1959), and the more recent international sign language Gestuno (1975). A list of signs designed by a committee, however, should not be confused with a sign language. There are also many stories circulating among deaf...