Hello everyone! My name is Khadija. I am Canadian and Morrocan. I like to play the violin, learn new languages and watch anime on my free time. I would like to travel, learn new cultures, languages and meet new people. I hope we all get along! 😄
1. Sign Language:
I was always fascinated by sign language and how it is learned, processed in the brain, and constructed linguistically. This is why I choose this topic and to do my research on it. In this book, the author takes different examples from more than thirty different sign languages and compares them to explain the different constructions they have.
Works Cited:
Baker, Anne. The Linguistics of Sign Languages : An Introduction. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2016. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=e000xna&AN=1258953&site=eds-live&scope=site.
2. Translation Effects in Canada:
Translation has a meaningful impact on the Canadian culture. Canada is a bilingual country with two official: English and French. However, many other languages are spoken in the country like Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc. Foreign authors, writers, movie makers living in Canada translated their work into Canadian idiom. This book explores how the translation affected the Canadian culture and the constant exchanges across and with many languages.
Works Cited:
Kathy Mezei, et al. Translation Effects : The Shaping of Modern Canadian Culture. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=nlebk&AN=827399&site=eds-live&scope=site.
The topic that I have decided to write my essay on is Sign language, how it is processed by the brain, its linguistic construction, phonology, the different sign languages that exist in the world, and why it is not universal. Because I want to learn more about it since it is a very interesting topic and I want my classmates to learn about it and be informed as well. In addition, this topic has a lot of research made on it and I thought that I would find more sources relating to it than the other topic.
This is an academic book that I have found in Dawson's resources written by the author Anne Baker and was published in 2016 by John Benjamin's publishing company. The purpose of it is to explain how sign languages are structured linguistically and how it is used. Also, a lot of people are not aware that it has a grammar, I personally did not know until I had started reading this book. This is not the only prejudice that sign languages have, many persons think that it is a universal language and is the same everywhere however, it is not true because various other sign languages exist. For example, there is the American sign language, Nicaraguan sign language, British sign language, Chine sign language, and many others. In this book, the author talks about the relationship between signed and spoken languages, the history of sign linguistics, the acquisition, syntax, morphology, phonology, and language variation and standardization of sign language. Also, it talks about when the linguistics started to do in depth research on Sign Language and to know how it was structered, I find this source very interesting, I am very excited to learn more about the topic, it is also easy to understand and it will be helpful for my reasearch.
Works Cited:
Works Cited: Baker, Anne. The Linguistics of Sign Languages : An Introduction. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2016. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=e000xna&AN=1258953&site=eds-live&scope=site.
This is a book that I have found on the Oxford Academic site, it was published in 2008 by Ruth Campbell, Mairéad MacSweeney, and Dafydd Waters. The part that I will be focusing on mostly is ''Exploring the Brain, the Rirst Discoveries About Language.'' Even though it does not relate too much to sign language I found it really intersting to learn about it. In the mid-19 century, scientists began their research about the language and the brain. The French neurologist Paul Broca (1824–1880), discovered that in hearing people lesions of the lower part of the lateral left frontal quadrant of the brain often give rise to difficulties in speaking. This part of the brain was named after him (see Figure 1 under text). The patients with lesions problems do not just have an articulation issue. A person with injuries to Broca's area can say a well-learned phrase perfectly (“Excuse me, please!”), but if they want to say how they fell they will find it difficult to build up an appropriate phrase or word to describe what they want to say. Sometimes they may be unable to produce a word at all, especially if it is a function word, such as “the,” “unless,” or “if.” To show what they want when they can not express it, they use body gestures: they may nod (yes) or shake their head (no) correctly in response to questions and can sometimes use their left hand. Because after the injury, the control of the right hand is also affected by damage to prefrontal regions of the left hemisphere [LH]) to make an appropriate gesture or to write a word or two. Although the person is injured in this region, it does not destroy the individual's ability to communicate. To be able to produce speech, it requires the left frontal regions. However, the perception relies more on regions further back in the LH, within the temporal lobe. The neurologist Carl Wernicke established he role of the upper left temporal cortex in speech comprehension in the 1870s and this region of the brain was later named after him (see Figure 1 under text). In contrast to patients with damage to the left frontal lobe (Broca's aphasics), patients with left-sided temporal damage (Wernicke's aphasics) can often speak fluently, but fail to understand speech Wernicke's.
I learned about how the two parts of the brain in how they work in relation to the language and if there is an injury what are the consequences that it can cause. I found this article really compelling and informative even though it was long and I only focused on one part mostly.
Works Cited:
Ruth Campbell, Mairéad MacSweeney, Dafydd Waters. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, Volume 13, Issue 1, Winter 2008, Pages 3–20. https://academic.oup.com/jdsde/article/13/1/3/500594
This article from the site Brain Facts, it was written by Michael W. Richardson and was published in October 2018. The two main points that I wanted to focus on is to know if spoken and Sign languages rely on the same parts of the brain, and if the brain processes signes and spoken languages the same way. I was curious to know if that was the case. Richardson wrote in his article that the areas of the brain that handle sign language are extremely similar to those that process spoken language. There is significant overlap in the brain scans of deaf people viewing sign language and hearing people listening to speech, especially in the core areas. This shows that these areas are unable to distinguish between the information received through the eyes and information received through the hearing. Naturally, there are some distinctions. Hearing people who listen to speech use their auditory cortex, whereas deaf persons who see sign language use their visual motion processing areas more. Beyond those sensory processing systems, there are also slight but substantial changes in how the brain analyses signed and spoken languages. Signed languages are more easier to express spatial relationships than spoken ones. If you wanted to express that "the cup is on the table," you'd have to use words. Signers use their left parietal lobe's spatial processing capabilities more than when hearing people listen to them, to be able to observe these types of sentences. Subsequently, the author of the article explains if sign and spoken languages are processed similarly by the brain. Which is the case, experts believe these regions perform the same linguistic calculations. However, it may not be that simple. The quthor; Richardson and his collegues notice that the intensity of activation in these areas is similar, and their present research is to focus on the pattern of activation in these specific areas. He said, ''We hope that this will provide further information regarding the representations utilised in these areas. My colleagues and I are still in the early stages of this inquiry, but it's possible that we have less in common than we anticipated. '' (Richardson)
The purpose of this article is to explain if the brain process signed and spoken languages in the same way and if these to types of communication rely on the same areas of the brain to those interested in sign language like me or curious people. The article was really understandable, the author used technical and specific words that are easy to understand and do not need you being an expert in the topic.
Works Cited:
Richardson, Michael W. ''Does the Brain Process Sign Language and Spoken Language Differently.'' Brain Facts, 9 October, 2018.https://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/language/2018/does-the-brain-process-sign-language-and-spoken-language-differently-100918
This is an article written by pritikamehta and posted on April 2021 that I have read and it untitles reasons why is sign language Universal and why it isn't. There are many different sign languages and sign language families all throughout the world, and there is no official sign language. New sign languages emerge at a rapid rate, similar to spoken languages, making it challenging to maintain track of multiple sign languages. Despite this, no single sign language can be regarded a universal language that can be used to communicate with all Deaf and hard of hearing individuals around the world. Even though English is the worldwide language of spoken language, sign language does not have universal language and ASL can not be considered as one. Sign language cannot be termed a universal language for various reasons. One of them is that, like any other spoken language, there are various varieties depending on geography and culture. Each region has its own Sign language that it had developed and its adaption to it.
This a question that I was asking myself as well and this article answered it perfectly. Also, the article was really easy to understand.
Works Cited:
Pritikamehta. ‘’Reasons Why Is Sign Language Universal And Why It Isn’t’’. Icy Tales, 27 April 2021, https://icytales.com/reasons-why-is-sign-language-universal-and-why-it-isnt/. Accessed 28 April 2022.
This article is written by Rachel Storer with the mentorship of Sarah M. Tashjian and was published in 2018 on Psychology In Action 's website. Sign language was only considered a language seperate from spoken languages in 1860. Linguists began to realise that it has its own structure, grammar, and each sign has its own meanings that are independent from that of spoken language. They began studying how language develops in deaf children and this article explains it. B.F. Skinner and Noam Chomsky, two linguists had competing theories on contemporary language development. ''Skinner argued that language was developed through environmental input, where children would be positively reinforced when they made a correct word-meaning association.'' (Tashjian) They analyzed the learning of sign language by observing the stages of language production in the child's first year. And they have found that deaf children go through the same stages go through the same stages of language acquisition as hearing children, whe learning sign language from a young age. Deaf children even make the same errors that hearing children do at or around the same age that they occur in hearing children. This finding prompted researchers to examine several elements of language development in deaf children and compare them to similar correlates in hearing children. Academic performance, reading competency, speech acquisition, vocabulary breadth, and conception of mind are some of the cognitive and accomplishment outcomes that are correlated. Which is the ability to attribute '' mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge, etc.—to oneself, and to others, and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own.'' (Tashjian) Because deaf children do not acquire language skills in the traditional way (hearing), and they thought that deaf children would have a difficulties with these skills as they developed. Moreover, findings from studies of language skills in hearing and deaf children show that deafness has no impact on the above characteristics of language development and interpretation. Researchers want to know if processing sign language is represented differently in the brain than processing spoken language, in addition to studying the relationships between language acquisition and performance results.This source was easy to understand and it gives a good and very detailed explaination on how deaf children aquire sign language as a way of communication.
Works Cited:
Tashjian, Sarah. ''Language Development in Deaf Children: What You Should Know.'' Psychology in Action, 1 May 2018.https://www.psychologyinaction.org/psychology-in-action-1/2018/4/28/language-development-in-deaf-children-what-you-should-know
I was looking for another topic that I could talk about in my essay and I found this interesting 7 minutes long youtube video about sign language phonology. It was made by ASL linguistics and was posted in 2016. The person speaking in the video first explains the spoken languages phonemes that we saw together last semester: location of tongue, nasalization, voicing, and manner of articulation. In sign language, Stokoe, the sign language linguist noticed that each sign had parameters that are: handshape, palm orientation, location, movement, and mouth mouvement. The parameter on its own does not mean anything. Only when combined they have a meaning. I will talk about each one of them further in my essay. He also explains that sign laguage has a sequence, signs start at a place and often end at a different place and Liddel and Johnson developed the Movement-Hold theory of signs to describe it. It is a theory that says that you can break signs up into individual parts.
The purpose of this video is to explain the phonology of Sign Language to everyone that is interested in the linguisits of this way of communication. I found it really interesting and a helpful source that I will link to my first source about linguistics by Baker. The person speaking explained it well and I did not have difficulty understanding the topic.
Works Cited:
Dr. Surrency. “#7 Sign Language Phonology” YouTube, uploaded by ASL Linguistics, 21 July 2016,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUze_NgTBak&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 28 April 2022.
Sign language is not a universal language like many people think. Like American sign language, different sign languages are developped in different regions all around the globe, just like spoken languages. This is an article written by Lucy Rockwell that I have found in the website takelessons.com and it was published on March 7th 2021. The author of this article explains why American sign language is not universal and she mentions that there are many deaf people in different parts of the world and they created their own sign language. She also says that: ''Each place that has a unique sign language is completely separate from both other types of sign languages, and the spoken language of that region. There are just as many sign languages as there are deaf communities, some are national and some are regional.'' And I found that it is an interesting way to explain why it is not a universal language. Lucy Rockwell explains the difference between different types of sign languages by saying that every sign has 5 parameters, handshape, location, movement, palm orientation and non manual signals. Handshape, and movement of the handshape are fairly self explanatory. Location refers to where on the body or in space the hand is located. Palm orientation has to do with the direction your hand is facing. And finally, non manual signals are facial expressions, movement of the body, and anything that isn’t the hand itself. These things can actually change the meaning of a whole sign, and if any of these are different in these between different signed languages the meaning completely changes. And this is something that I have learned about in a videa about Phonology and it kind links with it.
The things that I have learned from reading this source are why sign languages are not universal and about the 5 parameters in sign language. Yes, I found this source really interesting and helpful for what I want to talk about in my essay. And the information about the 5 parameters links and completes with the video that I watched on the phonology of sign language. This source was really easy to understand and I got the main ideas from it.
Works Cited:
Rockwell, Lucy. ''What are the Different Types of Sign Language.'' Take Lessons, 7 March 2021.takelessons.com/blog/2021/03/what-are-the-different-types-of-sign-languages
I found this essay on Oxford's Handbooks Online's site and found it really interesting because it talks about sign language acquisition as firts languages. It was published by the author Richard P. Meier in 2016. The author made a research on how young deaf children learn sign language and the process they go through, especially those that have hearing parents. Deaf children of deaf parents receive early access to a conventional sign language, compared to deaf children who have hearing parents. The time course of acquisition in these children is compared to the developmental milestones in children learning spoken languages. There are two language modalities—the oral-aural modality of speech and the visual-gestural modality of sign—place. They give different constraints on languages and offer differing resources to languages. Many deaf infants born to hearing parents have had limited exposure to ordinary language in the past. These children, on the other hand, occasionally devise intricate "home sign" systems. Finally, the importance of early language experience is discussed. Hearing parents' deaf children are immersed in a first language at various ages, allowing the critical-period theory to be tested. I read other articles on Sign Language acquisition but this one is even though it was very long to read I found it more I found it more compelling to read and learned a lot about the subject.
Works Cited:
Meier, Richard P. ''Sign Language Acquisition.'' Oxford Handbooks, 7 March 2016. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935345.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935345-e-19
Martha's Vinyard is an interseting story that I have found while I was looking for other sources to add to my google site. The article is from the website The Atlantic and it was written by Cari Romm on September 25, 2015. The story happened in a rural fishing village Chilmark also called Martha’s Vineyard located in Massachusetts, United States. Two of the residents who lived there were the children of a man who moved from England, Kent to Chilmark in the 1600s. His name was Jonathan Lambert. He was Deaf and his children also, being the first congenitally deaf residents of that village. The village was isolated from the other towns on the Island and there was only a small community that lived there. Because of that, there were not many visitors or foreigners who came to the village. Therefore, the residents got married and had children with each other. Most of the children were born deaf, one in every 25 people in Chilmark was deaf, by the middle of the 19th century.
Before he moved to Chilmark, Lambert used his region’s sign language in Kent and years later, the residents on the Island learned it also. Closer to 25 in 25 persons knew how to sign. Even before the development of the English Sign Language. Between deaf people, between deaf and hearing, and even from one hearing person to another. ‘’The language didn’t belong to the deaf community; it belonged to the town.’’(Romm) They gave birth to a language and deaf culture on the island. Unfortunately, it is now extinct.
Nowadays, there are no records left that can tell us anything about Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language. The only resources provided were oral histories from those who lived during the peak of the island's deaf population. Katie West, the last Deaf person on the island died in 1952. There are no documents by photographs, videos, or diagrams left. “That’s the problem with the history of sign language: It’s ephemeral,” said Nora Groce, a medical anthropologist at University College London. “It’s not like a written language where you can go back 3,000 years.” (Romm) It is sad that there is not any source that documents or preserves the Sign language of this island.
This article was written to inform those interested in the roots of Sign Language, their different and how they were transmitted from a person to another. The main idea is that there one was a sign language that was used by the community who lived in Chilmark and this sign language is extinct now because it was no longer used since the 1950s, and there were no records left of its existence. I learned from reading this article the story behind Martha's Vineyard and that it did increase my interest in the topic and it made me want to learn more about it. I read to other articles on this story and this one was more understandable than the others because the terms used were easier to understand, it was not vague and kind of went straight to the point.
Works Cited:
Romm, Cari. ''The Life and Death of Martha's Vineyard Sign Language.'' The Atlantic, 25 September, 2016. www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/09/marthas-vineyard-sign-language-asl/407191/
This is an article written by Herzo José, in the website towards datat science, which is a website with a lot of scientific expersiences, tools, discoveries,etc. He wrote on August 1st, 2020 this article to present a dual-cam first-vision translation system using convolutional neural networks. A prototype that was developed to recognize 24 gestures. It is a project that he developed as part of his thesis work in university and he was motivated by the feeling of working in something new. Sign Language recognition has been an issue for a long time and they wanted to find a way to facilitate its recognition and the communication. The dual cam vision has a head-mounted camera and a chest-mounted camera. Which gives two different views of a sign, a top-view, and a bottom-view, that works together to identify signs. vision is an important factor in Sign Language, and very language is understood by having one person in front of another, they can see the gestures. However, if a person is not in the other person's field of vision it is harder to see the gesture. And sometimes it is difficult to understand a sign in a first-vision perspective and they end up looking the same, because has the same limitations and it can be confusing. The solution is to not put the cameras in the sames positions, but to locate them differently. The gesture that one camera can not see the other came will be able to see it and recognize it. This invention can be a possible solution in the future in translatiin the sign systems.
While reading this article, I have learned about a new technology that can be helpful in recognising some Sign Languages without having to learn them and it will be easier for those that do not have the possibility to learn it. This is the first source that I have read on this subject and I am happy that I found it. The source is well written and easy to understand.
Works Cited:
Herazo, José.''Sign Language Recognition using Deep Learning.''Towards Data Science,6 August, 2020.towardsdatascience.com/sign-language-recognition-using-deep-learning-6549268c60bd
This is an article written by John Miller on the website Signing Savvy, on Semptember 7th, 2010 to answe one of the questions that is asked a lot which is ''What is the difference between ASL and English Signs.'' I have learned that sometimes people are referred as deaf (little d) and other times as Deaf (big D). And the purpose is to distinguish between them. Peaple that are deaf have partial or complete hearing loss. Deaf ( Capital D) are people that are not deaf by auditory definition, but culturally as well. They are usually born deaf and they do not want to use hearing aides or any other sound enhacing devices, even if it can help them. Now lets move on the the main topic. ASL is a complete Sign Language developed by deaf people and for them in America. It has its own vocabulary and grammar also that differs from English. Signed Exact English is also a system to communicate in English through signs. It uses English grammar, in most cases and the vocabulary is a combination of ASL signs, modified ASL signs, or unique English signs. English signs and ASL are different because English signs give more clarity to make it more understandable in a discussion.
This source really helped me learn more about ASL because I was not really informed about it and did not know that English signed was different from it. This source was really understandable, the only issue I had was to access the website because it is not free and I had to be a memeber.
ASL
English Sign Language
Works Cited:
Miller, John. ''The Difference Between ASL and English Signs.'' Signing Savvy, 7 September, 2010.www.signingsavvy.com/blog/45/The+difference+between+ASL+and+English+signs
While I was surfing on the web to find other sources related to Sign Language that I could add to my blog, I found this wonderful website that presents different deaf artists and their works of art. And I thought that it would be nice to add a little touch of art in my blog. Some of these artists are know but others not so well. One of the art pieces that I really liked was made by Erik Jensen a graduate from Utah Valley Universit in 2017 with a BS in Art Education. He started doing art with computer keys in 2013. He starts by collecting computer keyboards and he recycles them. Then he removes them, cleanes them and dyes them in various colours, making the design, gluing it and framing it firmly . It takes him two to three months to complete his work. The writter's purpose on writting this article is to introduce these amazing artits to the persons that are interested in arts and even those that are not. I have learned that there are many The source was understandable, clearly written and the author did a great job. I really liked that he added some videos to show some of theses artists on live while they were doing their work like with Erik Jensen.
Here is a video link to watch him make recreation od Mark Zuckerberg in fast motion with glue or framing him, it is really fun and interesting to watch.
Works Cited:
Ferreiro, Emeilio. ''Amazing Deaf Artists.'' Unusualverse, 7 May 2020. www.unusualverse.com/2020/05/amazing-deaf-artists-1.html
Sign language is a way of communication that uses hand movements and is used differently all over the world. Like spoken languages, it has its own grammar and lexicon.
The main research question that I wanted to invistigate was why sign language is not universal, because I always thought it was until I started to search up this topic. I was really curious to learn more about sign language and I wanted to share what I learned with my classmates which is why I chose this subject. While doing my reasearch, I found out the reason why it is not universal and the many sign languages that exist in the world, that sign language has its own phonogy system and it has its own sentence structure. Also, I found out that sign art exsited and it suprised me because I never heard of it and so I did some research and found very interesting and talented deaf artists. I saw some really amazing pieces .
