# Signed Languages Languages I · Introduction to Linguistics · https://tryals.app/learn/languages-i/signed-languages ## Not Gesture, and Not English on the Hands Signed languages are natural languages, not pantomime or codes. Signs decompose into **contrastive, meaningless parameters**: | Parameter | What varies | |---|---| | **Handshape** | Finger configuration | | **Location** | Position on or near the body | | **Movement** | Path and manner of the hand | | **Orientation** | Direction the palm faces | | **Non-manual markers** | Facial expression, head, and body posture | Two signs differing in only one parameter form a **minimal pair**. This shows duality of patterning in a visual medium. **Non-manual markers** are **grammar**, not emotional colour. A raised brow can mark a question just as word order does in English. ### Key Properties - Signed languages are **not universal**. American Sign Language and British Sign Language are mutually unintelligible. - They are **not** manual encodings of spoken speech. American Sign Language does not use English syntax. - Children acquiring sign reach the **same milestones on the same timetable** as spoken language learners. ### The Natural Experiment **Nicaraguan Sign Language** shows how grammar emerges. Before 1977, deaf Nicaraguans were largely isolated from each other. When schools brought them together, the initial pidgin was transformed. It was **the younger cohort** who regularised the system into a full language. > **Common pitfall:** treating signs as transparent pantomime. While some signs are iconic, non-signers cannot reliably guess their meanings. ## Practice questions 9 of this lesson's 13 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app. ### 1. Why did Stokoe's analysis of ASL settle the question of whether signed languages are real languages? A. It proved that deaf children reach developmental milestones on the exact same timetable as spoken-language learners B. It demonstrated that non-manual markers serve a strictly grammatical function rather than expressing emotion C. It showed signs decompose into contrastive meaningless parameters, establishing duality of patterning D. It established that American Sign Language is an independent language rather than a manual encoding of English **Answer:** C. It showed signs decompose into contrastive meaningless parameters, establishing duality of patterning **Why:** Because decomposition into contrastive, meaningless parameters **is** duality of patterning, the feature that distinguishes a language from a stock of signals. Two signs differing only in handshape are a minimal pair in the same sense as *pat* and *bat*, which is what made the demonstration decisive rather than suggestive. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/why-did-stokoes-analysis-of-asl-settle-the-question-of-whether ### 2. Non-manual markers in sign are grammatical rather than merely expressive. What follows from this distinction when interpreting a signer's facial movement during an utterance? A. It acts as an emotional overlay on top of rule-based sign syntax B. It encodes structural features rather than purely affective states C. It renders iconic gestures into mutually intelligible visual forms D. It serves to clarify manual errors made during rapid sign delivery **Answer:** B. It encodes structural features rather than purely affective states **Why:** Confusing affective expression with structural non-manual markers treats sign as pantomime. In natural signed languages, facial postures function like intonation contours or syntactic particles, systematically marking clause types independent of the signer's personal mood. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/non-manual-markers-in-sign-are-grammatical-rather-than-merely ### 3. American Sign Language and British Sign Language are mutually intelligible, since both serve English-speaking countries. **Answer:** False **Why:** **False**, and the reason is the interesting part. Signed languages inherit from whoever taught whom, not from the surrounding spoken language: ASL descends in part from French Sign Language through the founding of deaf education in the United States, so it is closer to LSF than to BSL, and ASL and BSL signers cannot understand one another. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/american-sign-language-and-british-sign-language-are-mutually ### 4. Match each parameter of a sign to what varies in it. **Answer:** - Handshape → The configuration of the fingers - Location → Where on or near the body the sign is made - Movement → The path and manner of the hand - Orientation → Which way the palm faces - Non-manual markers → Face and head carrying grammatical information **Why:** The fifth is the one hearing observers systematically misread as emotion. A headshake scoping negation across a clause is doing the work English does with a word, and omitting it is a grammatical error rather than a flat delivery. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/match-each-parameter-of-a-sign-to-what-varies-in-it ### 5. Which are true of the emergence of Nicaraguan Sign Language? A. The younger cohort regularised the system the first cohort had assembled B. The regularisation included consistent verb agreement and systematic use of space C. Deaf children were brought together in numbers for the first time from 1977 D. The language was designed by hearing teachers and taught to the children **Answer:** A. The younger cohort regularised the system the first cohort had assembled; B. The regularisation included consistent verb agreement and systematic use of space; C. Deaf children were brought together in numbers for the first time from 1977 **Why:** The fourth is the opposite of the finding. The school was attempting Spanish and lip-reading; the signed system arose among the children in the playground and on the buses, and the grammatical regularisation came from the youngest arrivals. That is what makes it evidence about children rather than about instruction. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/which-are-true-of-the-emergence-of-nicaraguan-sign-language ### 6. How many parameters are conventionally used to specify a sign in ASL? **Answer:** 5 **Why:** **Five.** Stokoe's original analysis used three — handshape, location and movement — and orientation and non-manual markers were added as the phonology was worked out in more detail, which is a normal course of events for any newly described language. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/how-many-parameters-are-conventionally-used-to-specify-a-sign-in-asl ### 7. Arrange the stages by which Nicaraguan Sign Language emerged. **Answer:** 1. Deaf children use home-made gesture systems in isolation 2. A new school brings hundreds of deaf children together 3. A shared but irregular system develops among the first cohort 4. Younger children arriving later regularise its grammar 5. A full language with consistent agreement and spatial syntax is in use **Why:** The order is the argument. Had the first cohort produced the regular grammar, the case would show what adults can build; because the youngest arrivals did it, it shows what children do to an irregular input, which is why the case bears on acquisition rather than on invention. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/arrange-the-stages-by-which-nicaraguan-sign-language-emerged ### 8. Deaf children acquiring a signed language from signing parents reach acquisition milestones on roughly the same timetable as hearing children. **Answer:** True **Why:** **True**, including manual babbling at the age vocal babbling appears, first signs around the same time as first words, and a comparable two-unit stage. The match is one of the strongest arguments that what is being acquired is a language capacity rather than a speech capacity. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/deaf-children-acquiring-a-signed-language-from-signing-parents-reach ### 9. Complete the account of signed language structure. **Answer:** Two signs differing in exactly one parameter form a **minimal pair**, which establishes **duality** of patterning. Grammatical information carried by the face and head is called **non-manual** marking, and entities can be assigned **locations** in the signing space so that verbs move between them. **Why:** The spatial system in the last blank is the part with no close spoken analogue: once a referent has been placed at a point in space, the direction of a verb's movement identifies who acted on whom, doing the work of pronouns and case in a way no linear channel easily matches. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/languages-i/signed-languages/complete-the-account-of-signed-language-structure