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The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

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Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#181
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps there's a better way to characterize it? I'm talking about stuff like this for ASL: You look surprised => You look surprise They came here recently => Recent they come

You're asking about Subject-Object-Verb order.

No.

It's not about the order of words but that grandparent seems to have misunderstood something about glosses. He is thinking that grammar is simplified. It is difficult for written glosses to express the complete grammar spectrum of Signed Languages.

It's unfortunate and similar to the Blub paradox: some people will unavoidably believe that Signed Languages have a simple grammar similar to Chinese when looking at glosses.

Additionally, my local Signed Language (Swiss German Sign Language) has quite a free order. Often topic-comment is applied. An example:

[Concerning the] weather, [I] think [it's] quite fine.

As glosses: WEATHER THINK GOOD.

The word «quite» is omitted because it's an inflection. In SGSL I would make a slightly kissing mouth, lower the eyelids somewhat and make very small and fast nodding movements.

That's not Subject-Object-Verb order.

Additionally there is a slight shift between WEATHER and THINK, it's difficult to explain, but perhaps a colon after WEATHER would help. WEATHER: THINK FINE. This what I called «shift» is an inflection: it puts the word WEATHER in topic mode.

Caveat emptor: I am not a linguist, but always have been very interested in linguistics and talk SGSL every day.

Edit: many little things.

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#182
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the purpose of cued speech not to replace ASL/other sign languages, but to add some support for a person who does not know ASL to speak clearly to a deaf person? If you're a teacher or a police officer or someone who needs to talk to all people, including deaf people, wouldn't learning the eight cues be a useful tool, even if you're not going to fully-learn ASL?

If the signs are just small set of cues for the most common phrases a police officer needs to convey, then why not just teach this as an ASL subset?

Did you watch the video on Cued Speech? It's not a set of signs for common phrases at all. It's simply a small set of gestures that accompany some of the hard-to-lip-read sounds, like /m/ /p/ /b/.

So if you're saying "mat" "bat" or "pat" those all look the same to a lip-reader. With the cues, you have a small gesture that is distinct for /m/ /p/ /b/.

They combine together to make a total of about a dozen gestures that can be used to differentiate between any hard-to-understand English word.

So it's not a phrase book. It just allows you to say anything you want to say and be understood a little more clearly by a lip-reader.

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're asking about Subject-Object-Verb order.

No. It's not about the order of words but that grandparent seems to have misunderstood something about glosses. He is thinking that grammar is simplified. It is difficult for written glosses to express the complete grammar spectrum of Signed Languages. It's unfortunate and similar to the Blub paradox: some people will unavoidably believe that Signed Languages have a simple grammar similar to Chinese when looking at g…

Hi. Yes. Degree in American Sign Language. Lived at a deaf school two years. Fully aware of glosses, etc. OP was posting about Subject-Verb-Object order which changes based on the subject or object being the topic of the sentence or active/passive voice.

I appreciate your detailed response though.

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m heading but learned ASL at work. Ever since, I’ve tried to get my wife to learn because I’m always noticing times when it would be handy (pun not intended). Noisy places, when I’m brushing my teeth, when I want to be more discrete in public, communicating across a room without yelling.

when I want to be more discrete in public .. I think there is an unkindness here, though I do not think your intentions are unkind. I had very close Brazilian-internationals while a freshman in college who very deliberately chose not to speak their native tongue around Americans due to them thinking it unkind. My wife and I frequently do use some simple signs across the room, like "ready to go" (we are both hearing b…

Oh. I agree. I meant more like on public transit.
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