Handwaving & headshaking? On the linguistic structure of sign languages

Abstract

Watching a group of signers in communication with each other, the naive observer may be tempted to assume that these people are basically waving their hands at each other while grimacing. From time to time, the observer may come across a hand movement the meaning of which he (thinks he) can guess and hence, he may conclude that this mode of communication is highly iconic, basically, an elaborate version of pantomime. The signers seem to understand each other well, they laugh and they nod, but surely, this sign language does not allow them to talk about abstract thoughts or highly complex theoretical topics. That’s a clear disadvantage, the observer may think, but on the other hand, isn’t this shortcoming made up for by the fact that deaf people can communicate with each other all over the world. After all, there is only one sign language, right? Reflections like these have given rise to numerous popular misconceptions about sign languages (SLs). It is my aim in this paper to convince the reader that all of these fairly widespread assumptions are wrong: SL is by no means a form of pantomime, it is not universal, and it does allow for the expression of abstract concepts and ideas. My focus will be on linguistic properties of SLs. Before turning to linguistic issues, however, in Section 2, I will say a few words about the linguistic environment in which deaf children grow up, about deaf communities, and the specific experiences of deaf people. I will then introduce selected aspects of SL typology, that is, areas where SLs have been found to differ from each other (Section 3). Sections 4 to 6 are devoted to the linguistic levels phonology, morphology, and syntax. In all three sections, I discuss examples from various SLs that show that languages in the visual-gestural modality exhibit complex and rule-governed grammatical structures at all levels of linguistic description. At various points in the discussion, SLs will be compared to each other and to spoken languages.