Chapter 6. Sign languages and spoken languages
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Virginia Volterra
Abstract
In recent years an increasing number of linguists have begun writing about the characteristics of spoken language (versus written languages) in a way that is very similar to how sign language researchers have for years described the elements that they viewed as being uniquely relevant to visual-gestural languages. Today, the semiotic properties and structural features, which seem to most characterize sign languages, often overlooked by early research, are in fact greatly relevant to spoken languages as well. Five main topics relevant in the cognitive and socio-semiotic description of signed and spoken languages are highlighted, pointing towards a new theoretical perspective that considers human language a multimodal phenomenon, and leading us to rethink the very notion of language.
Abstract
In recent years an increasing number of linguists have begun writing about the characteristics of spoken language (versus written languages) in a way that is very similar to how sign language researchers have for years described the elements that they viewed as being uniquely relevant to visual-gestural languages. Today, the semiotic properties and structural features, which seem to most characterize sign languages, often overlooked by early research, are in fact greatly relevant to spoken languages as well. Five main topics relevant in the cognitive and socio-semiotic description of signed and spoken languages are highlighted, pointing towards a new theoretical perspective that considers human language a multimodal phenomenon, and leading us to rethink the very notion of language.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- From spoken to signed languages back and forth, between cognition and semiotics 1
- Chapter 1. Historical steps towards a new description of sign languages 7
- Chapter 2. The community 35
- Chapter 3. The basic units of LIS 63
- Chapter 4. Constructing sentences 101
- Chapter 5. Variation and change in LIS 133
- Chapter 6. Sign languages and spoken languages 165
- References 191
- Index 217
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- From spoken to signed languages back and forth, between cognition and semiotics 1
- Chapter 1. Historical steps towards a new description of sign languages 7
- Chapter 2. The community 35
- Chapter 3. The basic units of LIS 63
- Chapter 4. Constructing sentences 101
- Chapter 5. Variation and change in LIS 133
- Chapter 6. Sign languages and spoken languages 165
- References 191
- Index 217
