Sign Language: Simplified Gestures?
Most people who have never had contact with sign languages assume that the varied hand movements are just simplified gestures. Point at someone? That means “you.” Push the first two fingers together in a slicing motion repeatedly? “Scissors.” Without exposure to sign languages, a person may believe that simply making gestures is sufficient to communicate. Point at someone, make the first two fingers alternate in a walking motion, and point somewhere else to say, “You go over there.”
While it is true that many signs may resemble the ideas they are describing, sign language is much more than simply trying to mimic objects and words using gestures. Sign languages are fully developed languages, and just like German, Japanese, or Tagalog, they follow clear linguistic rules.
The Linguistics of Sign
The world is made of multiple sign languages, but let’s take American Sign Language (ASL) as an example of the rich linguistic identity that sign can demonstrate.
Syntax
Syntax describes how signs (words) are formed into a sentence. It is a common myth that sign language always presents in an object-subject-verb order (e.g., “Last week, dog, I adopted!” as “I adopted a dog last week”). Instead, most sign language is conducted in subject-verb-object order.
However, sign syntax often has much more nuance. Many discussions center not on the parts of speech of their components but rather on the topic-comment format. In other words, a person begins the sentence with the topic to be discussed, then adds commentary about that topic. “You know that old blue car? Last week, someone stole it” becomes “Know car old-blue, last week steal.” The topic (the old blue car) is introduced, and then the speaker comments on it (it was stolen last week).
Additionally, sign languages often rely heavily on context, much like spoken conversations, which often unfold in the following way:
“That old blue car must be 20 years old by now.”
“I hear the neighbor bought it to fix it up.”
“Do they have the tools?”
“Maybe, but it was stolen last week!”
There is no need to continue to refer to the car as “the old blue car” because all participants in the conversation already know what they’re talking about. However, sign language does not typically use words such as a, the, or it. Sign language uses contextual clues, often using body language to clarify meaning. For example, “Car? [Leans forward, eyebrows raised] Last week steal! [Face relaxes, nodding]”
The addition of body language contributes meaning. Leaning forward and gesturing with the eyebrows adds “You remember that car we were talking about?” without the need for words.
Morphology
Morphology is another essential element of sign languages. It describes how words are formed. While spoken English might have separate and unrelated words for, “chair” and “sit,” sign uses their similar meaning to combine them into related signs. The sign for “chair” is the first two fingers draped downward, tapping repeatedly on the two extended fingers on the other hand. This looks like two legs hanging down from a chair. Similarly, “sit” uses the same general hand structure, but without the repeated tapping. This makes sense, because a person does not get up and down after they sit down!
Similarly, compounds in sign language are often made by combining two words to communicate a more advanced meaning. For example, “face-strong” means to resemble in American Sign Language, and “see-never” means a stranger in British Sign Language.
Another common strategy for creating words and meaning is numerical incorporation. Rather than signing the word “three” and the word “day,” a speaker may create the sign for “three” (three fingers) and use it while signing “day” to create the meaning of “three days” with one sign. This works for most signs that do not rely on explicit finger movements, and even these can still be understood contextually if the finger positioning changes to accommodate for numerical information. This phenomenon follows the Rule of 9, which means that numbers 1 to 9 can be incorporated in this way, while numbers 10 and above are added as a separate sign.
Sign Languages Around the World
Sign languages are often determined by geographical boundaries, just like spoken languages. You would not expect French to be spoken in China, nor should you assume American Sign Language would be spoken in Isreal. Israeli Sign Language, British Sign Language (BSL), Indo-Pakistani Sign Language, and more all have their own unique grammatical rules, morphology, and even cultural expectations. The world is richer thanks to the inclusion of these diverse and exciting languages and the many people who speak them!
