5 ms·
> ASL and other sign languages are literally languages 100% agree. > He wasn't talking in a non-spoken language; he was not talking ... that isn't nearly the
by mabbo 8y ago
> ASL and other sign languages are literally languages
100% agree.
> He wasn't talking in a non-spoken language; he was not talking ... that isn't nearly the same thing as speaking a sign language
I disagree.
ASL 1000, first class, my professor was telling us elaborate, hilarious stories without ever speaking and none of us "knew ASL" the language. But he was communicating to us using a plethora of skills that a person fluent in Signing knows how to use.
When we say that ASL is a language, that doesn't mean standing statically and one sign at a time signing each one like a pictograph. A huge proportion of the language is in the nuance, the non-words, the expression, the acting and movement. That doesn't mean ASL is just that acting part, but pretending that what Francis was doing has no relation to ASL is a stretch in my mind.
What he was doing while 'not speaking' has a lot in common with what I'm doing when I'm signing with Deaf people.
- solipsism 8y agoHuh? How was he communicating if he wasn't speaking and wasn't signing? You never say.
- shard 8y agoI expect it was through pantomime, common gestures, and facial and body expressions.
- mabbo 8y agoIf I wink at you then raise my eyebrows suggestively, was I using English? No, English is a spoken language. Yet if you didn't know ASL, you'd know what I was saying, right? So which language was I using? Much of ASL communication- but not all by any means- uses this sort of communication that is very language agnostic. To really get good at Signed languages, you need to use a lot of these skills. That's what I mean when I say that ASL isn't a list of specific signs matching to words, it's a very complex system of communicating ideas. My professor, one of the most wonderful teachers I've ever had, was a master of communication. He could tell us hilarious stories without speaking English and without us knowing ASL because he could communicate without language. And my point to all of this is that saying that what Francis was doing isn't Signed Language misses some nuance in what Signed Language is.