PSY274H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Spoken Language, Sign Language, Manual Communication
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It is important to consider sign languages to fully appreciate the mind and its capacity for language (considering language in all modalities) Imposing the sequential structure of spoken language onto a sign system does not produce a natural sl. Inefficient for communication: properties of sign languages that arise because of modality constraints, how learners spontaneously (unconsciously) add linguistic elements to communication systems that lack them, properties of languages that arise from internal constraints. **did not note the brief history of sign language. If languages were iconic, sl would have to be nonarbitrary: signs whose meanings have to do with physical objects whose shape the hand can reasonably assume with a stance or movement that the hand can easily mimic. Iconicity affects only a tiny part of vocabulary: we also (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t guess (cid:449)hat the (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:448)ersatio(cid:374) (cid:272)o(cid:374)sists of (cid:271)et(cid:449)ee(cid:374) t(cid:449)o deaf people.
