語言學dissertation——英國手語

 

在討論英國手語的未來時，我們必須首先定義符號語言和英國手語。手語是一種的語言,而符號可以來表示特定的詞或短語。在世界各地，有許多不同類型和品種的手語,有些是基本的而另一些則發展成高級語言。英國是手語最發達和使用形式最廣泛的國家。 據估計,50000人在英國使用手語。

 

英國手語是英國通過幾個世紀以來的發展跡象開發的自然語言。它是英國聾人社區使用的語言。(沃爾，2004)。

 

類似于語言、文字的手語自形成以來就一直在發展和演化,不像許多口頭或書面語言那么不普遍。使用手語的人被限制在英國,或者與其他熟悉英語手語的人交流，因為英語手語并不超越英國的邊界,甚至其他說英語的人群。事實上英國手語,美國手語,愛爾蘭手語，對于不同的單詞和不同的結構,都表現出不同的形式。因此,有人簽合同的時候會因為使用了美國手語，而無法清楚地與使用英國手語的人溝通。除了各國差異,在每個形式的符號語言都有方言變體。

 

英國手語,像口語一樣口語,已經以自發的和自然的方式演變來滿足用戶的需要。 在一些跡象-數字和顏色上有著廣泛的地域差異，但多數跡象都是相同的。 許多變化源于學校聾啞人的參加;隨著時間的推移，越來越多的證據表明，新的跡象正在創造并被使用。聽力學習者而造出新的跡象,隨時間變化和更成熟的標志和使用。 聽力學習者可能會發現在早期階段的一個問題，但沒有向本地人提出這個問題。詞匯在很大程度上的變化是符號上的，也就是語言的“單詞”;語法結構使它們結合并賦予意義,改變很少。語言有它自己的生命,而大多數試圖影響或控制它得行為都會失敗。

 

Linguistics Essays - British Sign Language

 

When discussing the future of British Sign Language we must first define sign language and British Sign Language (BSL). Sign language is a visually based language that uses signs to represent specific words or phrases. There are numerous different types and varieties of sign language based around the world, some are rudimentary while others are have developed into advanced languages. British Sign Language is the most developed and widely used form of sign language used in Britain. It is estimated that 50, 000 people within the UK use BSL.

 

BSL is the natural language of signs that has developed in Britain over centuries. It is the language used by the British Deaf community. (Sutton-Spence & Woll 2004, p. 13).

 

Similar to spoken and written languages BSL has grown and evolved since its inception, but unlike many spoken or written languages is not universal. BSL users are restricted to communicating within Britain, or with other signers familiar with BSL, as BSL does not extend beyond Britain’s borders, even to other English speaking populations. Indeed BSL, American Sign Language (ASL), Irish Sign Language (ISL), have all developed different signs for different words and have different structures, thus, someone signing with ASL will not be able to communicate clearly with someone signing with BSL. In addition to variations from country to country, there are dialect variations within each form of sign language.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

BSL, like spoken language, has evolved through the needs of its users in spontaneous and natural ways. There are wide regional differences in some signs - numbers and colours are notoriously variable, however most signs are the same. Many of the variations stem from the schools Deaf people attended; new signs are being coined, and more established signs changing with time and use. Hearing learners may find this a problem in the early stages, but it doesn’t present a problem to native signers. Variations are largely in the vocabulary of signs - the "words" of the language; the grammatical structures that hold it together and give meaning, vary very little. Language has a life of its own, and most attempts to interfere or control it tend to fail. (DeafSign.Com, 2000)

 

Admittedly, it is the nature of language to grow and change, and many dialects and variations have emerged within Standard English. But while dialects in Standard English sometimes lead to confusion if two speakers of different dialects communicate, these differences seldom make it impossible for English speakers, or writers, to communicate with one another.

 

Where as, without a universal form of sign language it makes it difficult for the signing population to communicate with people signing with different variations. This mutual unintelligibility within variations and dialects of sign language leads to deaf populations being not only removed from hearing populations, but also from one another.

 

Because deaf communities tend to be smaller and more contained than other minorities within the hearing community the differences that emerge in sign language are more defined. Where as dialects in spoken English tend to emerge in areas or social communities, there are many more factors that influence dialects in sign language. Sutton-Spence & Woll (2004, p. 13) explain that a signer’s age, class, gender, ethnicity, religion, and locale can all effect the way in which they sign. This leads to many different variations within one variety of sign language alone. Thus, even a concerted effort to unify sign language, whether it be the unification of BSL from the current number of dialects and variations within BSL, to a uniform use of the language, or an even greater attempt to unify the varieties within countries, or even worldwide will be an extremely difficult task.

 

There are so many external forces on the development of sign language that it is difficult to control its use and development. The age at which a person learns to sign and whom they learn it from effects the way in which they sign. This is especially notable when comparing the differences between the children of deaf and hearing parents.

 

Exposure to sign language at an early age is different to the children of deaf parents and the children of hearing parents. Those born to deaf parents are more likely to have had early exposure to a fluent model of adult BSL. Those born to hearing parents often… only begin to learn BSL when they start school…. Research comparing adult signers from deaf and hearing families has shown that their signing differs significantly. (Sutton-Spence & Woll 2004, p. 23-24).#p#分頁標題#e#

 

One of the reasons that signing in BSL differs so dramatically from one person to another is that BSL is a complex, fully developed language, which is extremely different from Standard English. BSL has it’s own grammar, syntax, lexicon, and has many other unique features.

 

BSL evolved naturally, as all languages do. It uses both manual and non-manual components – handshapes and movements, facial expression, and shoulder movement. BSL is structured in a completely different way to English, and like any language it has its own grammar. Linguists generally agree that BSL is a topic comment language. For example, the question in English ‘What is your name?’ becomes the sequence ‘Your name what?’ in BSL. (RNID 2004, p. 4).

 

Anyone already fluent in Standard English, or any other language, that wishes to learn BSL must learn a completely new language structure and way of communicating to be able to sign in BSL. Like with Standard English there is a dictionary and many other texts to assist BSL users. The British Deaf Association’s Dictionary of British Sign Language (1992) is 1084 pages long and includes both pictures of each sign in the language, as well as, English word definitions. Yet people wishing to learn BSL cannot do so from text book alone as there are many features of BSL which must be seen or described to understand, such as, nods of the head, shoulder shrugs, facial expressions and lip patterns. “There are many mouth patterns that convey grammatical and phonological information in BSL.” (Sutton-Spence & Woll 2004, p. 81).

 

In addition, to knowing the intricacies of each sign, as well as, the structure and vocabulary of BSL, signers must also become familiar with other unique features of BSL. Features include the ability to express metaphors, poetry and humour using signs. Signers must also become familiar with BSL idioms, euphemisms, expletives / insults, as with any language BSL contains exceptions to the language rules and certain taboo words, such as, “ORAL-SIGNER” (Sutton-Spence & Woll 2004, p. 245). This insult, which is unique to the signing community, reveals the effect of the divide between different varieties and dialects of sign language on the signing community and signing individuals’ opinions of other signers. 

 

Furthermore, because signing languages are completely visual and do not have a written component, like Standard English, this forces people who wish to communicate through both BSL, or other forms of sign language, and also written English to learn two completely different languages. While BSL is currently the most commonly used variety of sign language in Britian, with the internet and email becoming more dominant communication tools by the day. Younger users of sign language may start to tend towards a variety of sign language that incorporates Standard English into its overall format. Currently there are a number of varieties of sign language used in Britain that use Standard English sentence construction and grammar, but these varieties have long been second to BSL.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

While the reason for the construction of BSL is quite simple and logical, this does not make the language any easier to use. BSL uses signs that often encompass a few words or a phrase, while the grammar and sentence structure work to create shortened sentences. All of these features serve to shorten BSL sentences, and are necessary to ensure timely communication, as it takes longer to form signs than to speak words.

 

There are a number of other forms of sign language and signing used in Britian, these include Cued Speech, the Paget-Gorman Sign System (PGSS), Signed English, Sign Supported English (SSE), and Fingerspelling. All of these visual languages are largely dependent on Standard English. Some users of sign language use BSL in conjunction with these other forms, while others may choose to stick with one variety.

 

Sign Supported English (SSE) is probably the most popular alternate variety of sign language currently used in Britian. This variety of sign language uses BSL vocabulary and Standard English sentence structure and grammar. “In Sign Supported English (SSE), the key words of a sentence are signed while the person speaks.” (Sutton-Spence & Woll 2004, p. 14). SSE is an advanced variation of Signed English, which uses BSL to sign all of the words in a sentence, using Standard English sentence structure and grammar.

 

There are problems with the use of Signed English. It is very slow, ans a message takes longer in Signed English than in either BSL or [Standard] English. This means that spoken Englidh accompanying Signed English becomes unnaturrally slow, and many English speakers let speech take over and drop some signs. Many BSL signers using Signed English insert features of BSL grammar so that the grammar is not ‘pure English’ any more. (Sutton-Spence & Woll 2004, p. 16).

 

Just as SSE and Signed English depend on Standard English so too does the Paget-Gorman Sign System (PGSS). But whereas SSE and Signed English use BSL signs and incorporate Standard English form, PGSS uses “signs [that] do not come from any sign language, but have been created to represent English words and English grammar” (Sutton-Spence & Woll 2004, p. 14). Because of its focus on Standard English PGSS is easy for native English speakers to learn, but it is not a language used by the deaf community. Similarly, cued speech, which is a system that does not use signs at all, rather “hand cues are made near the mouth to identify different speech sounds.” (Sutton-Spence & Woll 2004, p. 13). Cued speech is a verbally dominated form of visual language and is thus not commonly used within the deaf commuity.

 

One of the most basic and widely used forms of signing if fingerspelling, which has one sign for every letter of the alphabet and requires users to spell out the letters in a word or sentence. Fingerspelling is not a language in itself but is often incorporated into sign languages. Most commonly fingerspelling is used to spell words for which there is no sign, such as, names of people or places. Alternately, fingerspelling can be used to draw attention to a word in a sentence or phrase. Although fingerspelling may be the most simple and basic form of signing, it fails to be universal because different countries have different signs for each letter in the fingerspelling alphabet, making it impossible for signers from different countries to understand the words that are being spelt.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Edward Finegan (2004, p. 19-20) identifies three modes of linguistic communication in Language: Its Structure & Use. He defines these as speaking, writing and signing, yet signing at this point is not a fully developed universal mode of communication as a result of the restrictions the different varieties of sign language put upon their users. Because sign languages have developed and evolved naturally within the relatively small communities within which they are used around they have developed independently and created mutially exclusive varieties. There have been attempts in the past to create or nominate one universal sign language, but up until this point no one variety of sign language has succeeded in dominating the international signing community.

 

In Britian because BSL is the official language of the deaf community, with approximately 50, 000 people within the UK using BSL, it will continue to be the dominant sign language in Britian. Although, with the rise of internet technology and written electronic communication the younger signing community may start to tend towards a Standard English based form of sign language, such as, SSP. The use of SSP would enable signers to communicate in the same language in person and in writing, rather than communicating with BSL sign language in person and Standard English in writing.