American Sign Language (ASL)

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that American Sign Language (ASL) involves home signs that resemble the objects, which they are meant to indicate. The author points out that, like any other language, ASL has its abbreviations, slang and contractions, often used by omitting full signs when fluent persons are conversing, especially in groups of persons known to one another. The paper stresses that ASL is a dynamic, evolving language that responds to cultural and environmental changes. The author underscores that the inventors of the prime ASL symbols and gestures could not imagine the impact of the Internet or various technology-assisted devices now available to persons who cannot hear or speak as others do.

From the Paper:

"ASL includes symbols and actions that are just as arbitrary as spoken language. When consulting a person fluent in ASL, she noted that with many people having become fluent in the language over time and with the particular ways in which ASL was taught, some 'shortcuts' or abbreviations had become usual, understood by deaf persons with whom she spoke or when observing third persons communicate in ASL who were not deaf. Some symbols refer obviously to the objects or actions they represent but others are just customary, ... "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Algeo, J. (1988). British and American Grammatical Differences. International Journal of Lexicography. 1: 1-31.
• Capelle, B. (2001). Is out of always a preposition? J of English Linguistics. 29: 315-328.
• Ellis, N.C. (1996). Sequencing in SLA - Phonological Memory, Chunking and Points of Order. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 18: 91-126.
• Kegl, J. Et Al. (1999). Creation through Contact - Sign Language Emergence and Sign Language Change in Nicaragua, in M. de Graff. Ed. Language Creation and Language Change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Whitney, P. (1998). The Psychology of Language. New York and Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

More papers on American Sign Language (ASL):

• Persuasive Essay # 144618 : "Teaching American Sign Language"
• Persuasive Essay # 93825 : "Oralism vs. American Sign Language"
• Research Paper # 23629 : "American Sign Language"

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