American Sign Language Today
More Than Coded Gestures, ASL a Complete Language in its Own Right
Sep 25, 2008
A common misconception about American Sign Language (ASL) is that it is simply a visual representation of spoken words, phrases, and letters through hand gestures -- sort of a visual code for spoken English. According to Professor R. Thoryk, Coordinator of the ASL Program at Kent State University, this view of ASL couldn’t be farther from the truth.
American Sign Language is a True and Independent Language
Professor Thoryk [in a 2008 email interview] says that ASL “is not ‘like’ a foreign language, it is a language; and it is a language that is different from American English, just like Navajo is different from American English.” She references the work of the late Dr. William C. Stokoe, Jr., an internationally renown linguist at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., itself a leading institution in the teaching of American Sign Language and researching issues in deaf education.
Prior to the publication of Dr. Stokoe’s work in 1960 [in a monograph titled “Sign Language Structure”], the use of sign language by Deaf people was controversial and even censored in educational programs for deaf students where oralism and speech reading was favored. According to information on the Gallaudet University website, Stokoe’s seminal research on the structure of sign language as a linguistic system became quickly and widely accepted by the linguistic community and ultimately among educators of deaf students as an appropriate language of instruction for deaf students.
ASL is even accepted as an appropriate second language for hearing students in U.S. high schools and universities. Researchers Wilcox and Payton [1999] point to a growing number of colleges and universities that accept ASL classes in fulfillment of their foreign language requirements. And in fact, Professor Thoryk’s own ASL program is housed in the Modern & Classical Language Studies Department at Kent State University.
The Linguistic Structure of American Sign Language
Professor Thoryk asserts that ASL is neither gestures nor mime. Rather, ASL “is a polymorphemic language--a language that adds multiple morphemes onto a root or base.” The ASL symbol system includes specific rules as to how phonemes (the smallest units of a language) can be connected together. These rules tend to be related to general physical limitations of visual acuity and coordination; however, some of the phonemic rules are purely arbitrary. ASL also has morphemes (basic words or word elements, such as walk or -ing, -ova in Russian, or -ita in Spanish) which can be combined to add meaning, as well as syntactic rules, pragmatic rules, and more.
Thoryk stresses that, as with any other language, ASL has a mixture of iconic and arbitrary signs. “It is productive and changes over time due to [factors such as] displacement, iconic signs becoming more arbitrary, generational contact, language contact/language shift, and changes in society/technology.” The sign symbols can reference different time periods, discuss concrete or abstract ideas, be used to transmit culture, and to discuss the language itself.
“Sign language varies by country, just as spoken languages, clicked languages, or whistled languages do,” says Thoryk. “Just like American English, ASL has its roots in a combination of multiple other languages that mixed and mingled in America -- Formal French Sign (Sign Methodologique), Informal French Sign, Indigenous Sign (from Native Americans and home signs), and sign contributed by the Deaf colonies around Martha's Vineyard.” The development of sign language was also heavily influenced by the westward movement, in the same way American English experienced changes over location and time.
American Sign Language is one of several sign languages used throughout the world. It is complex and multidimensional. ASL can be learned as a first or second language. As the Western Oregon University website puts it, ASL/English interpreters are professionals who are proficient in both languages and who interpret between people who do not share a common language. As such, their work is utilized in a variety of settings including business, education, social service, government, the justice system, and medical/mental health environments, as with any foreign language.
Wilcox, S., & Peyton, J. (1999). American Sign Language as a Foreign Language (ERIC Digest). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics.
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