Figure 3.2 APPLE, POMME (French), ALMA (Hungarian)
Furthermore, different languages do not divide up the world in the same
way. In English there is a distinction between river and stream in terms of
the amount of water in each. In French the distinction is between 'fleuve'
which flows into the sea, and 'riviPref which does not. Thus, there is not a
one-to-one relationship between languages, each linguistic element of one
matching a linguistic element of another. Languages do not name already
existing categories, but create their own.
The second feature is that in an utterance (either signed or spoken) there is
a systematic relationship between the linguistic elements which are rule
governed. Meaning is conveyed not only by the linguistic elements, but by
the relationship between them in the utterance-the syntax or grammar.
For example, 'John hit Mary' does not mean the same as 'Mary hit John'.
Likewise, 'Sadly, John returned here' is different from 'John returned here
sadly'. The difference lies not in the words themselves, which are the same,
but in the order or the structure of the sentence. Before de Saussure, the
study of language was the study of the history and derivation of particular
words, but he emphasized the need to study a language as a system as it
exists at a particular time.
3 Visual-gestural
communication
Before going on to consider British Sign Language in some detail, we would
llke you to think about visual-gestural communication. Most of us have
gestures wlthin our repertoire-a wave for a 'good-bye', a beckoning for
'come here', a nod of the head for 'yes' and a shake for 'no'. These gestures
are cultural and not universal. For example, in Albania a shake of the head
means 'yes' and a nod 'no', the reverse of most Western European countries,
which can make declining or accepting the offer of food or drink an effort
in conscious control!
Figure 3.3(a)
There now follows a number of exercises to encourage you to start thinkmg
about visual-gestural communication. We strongly recommend that you do
these as a way of starting to think (or clarifying your thinking) about
visual-gestural communications. However, you should not be misled into
thinking that you are using a language, or that British Sign Language,
because it uses the visual-gestural mode, is simple. The point of the exercise
is to consider the effects of the modality.
4 Act~v~ty
1
Note You may be tempted to sk~pthese activit~es However, the attempt to do them
h
Language easler to understand and
w ~ l lmake the follow~ngsect~onon B r ~ t ~ sS~gn
You will need to work w~thsomeone else to do t h ~ s If you can slgn
partner should not be able to
ours elf,
youi
(a) F~rst,you must convey to your partner the follow~ng~tems-you may not use pen or
paper or other mater~al,or show the page, or po~ntto oblects In the room Those of
you who know the game 'Give us a Clue' should res~stthe temptat~onto use the
convent~onsof that game (e g to use f~ngersto ~nd~cate
the number of syllables, or to
'sounds I~ke')
break the word down Into const~tuentparts, or ~nd~cate
table
aeroplane
tea
woman
man
lealousy
sc~ssors
Paper
mother
sun
telephone
toy
photograph
apple
s~ster
(b) You
and your partner should now use the two ~dent~cal
p~ctures,wh~chare F~gure
3 3(a) In the text here and F~gure3 3(b) supplied at the end of the unit, and choose,
In turn, an oblect or person on the p~ctureand convey your cho~ceto your partner
Try this several t~mes
without po~nt~ng
(C)
Convey the f o l l o w ~ nstory
~ to your partner
by v~sual-gesturalmeans
the trees were small
Yesterday I went for a walk In the wood At the beg~nn~ng
and far apart As I went further In they were taller and closer together It was
I ran out I d~scoveredI had lost my watch Tomorrow I
dark I was fr~~htened
w ~ l go
l and look for ~t
You w ~ l lprobably find this Im oss~ble Stop and agree on some convent~onsfor
expressing some elements w ~ tout telling the story
R
Can you now convey the essence of the story2 It need not be word for word
4
4 Comment
(a) Some of the Items w ~ l lhave been easier to convey than others-that
could ~nd~cate
an oblect
A
A
A
A
A
is, when you
by ~ t sshape table
by ~ t smovement sclssors
by ~ t spos~t~onsun
as an act~v~ty
carr~edout w~th~t telephone
as one or more of ~ t sconvent~onalattr~butes man
Aeroplane could make use of several of these pos~t~on,
shape and movement Others
would have been more d~ff~cult,
particularly where ~t was harder to f~ndspec~f~c
attr~butes(apple, coffee) or where the not~onItself was more abstract (mother,
h
lealousy) For some you may have used signs s~m~lar
to those of B r ~ t ~ sS~gn
Language These are ~llustratedIn Figure 3 4 overleaf
MAN
TABLE
AEROPLANE
TEA
Figure 3.4
10
Even where this is the case i t is important to note that these signs may not be
universal, as Figure 3 5 illustrates
(b) You will probably find this easier than the previous activity You could have used
position (or placement) as a malor clue by drawing pictures in the air and indicating
the part you wanted to refer to You could narrow the search down by describ~ng
which room you were referring to before describing the particular oblect involved You
could specify not lust the item itself but its relationship to other items
(c) This exercise is very difficult You will probably have found you needed to change
the order of some elements to make it easier to convey the meaning for example, to
indicate 'wood' before describing going into it, to talk about the topic first If you
developed conventions, these may have particularly involved how to indicate time for
example, you may have ind~catedback in some way for the past, and forwards in
some way for the future Once you decided how to indicate 'tree', then 'taller' and
'close together' may have been easy 4
Many of the points emerging in these activities will be referred to later as
we examine BSL in more detail. It is important to be clear at this stage that,
while you were examining visual-gestural communication in some detail,
this was a system of communication but in no way a language. It should
have given you some ideas about the possibilities and constraints of gestural
communication, which will help in understanding how British Sign
Language works
Japanese
MAN
ASL
MAN
Paklstanl
MAN
,
\\l,,,
I
I
Japanese
ASL
Paklstan~
WOMAN
WOMAN
WOMAN
Figure 3.5