James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (04/15/91)
Index Number: 14879
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
If you compare the structures of ASL and MCE to see what the
differences are, one difference that can be seen is the difference in
the formation of nouns and verbs. ASL has a sign for the concept "to
improve" and a sign for the noun "improve ment". The signs are
similar except in movement. The noun uses a single continuous
movement in the shape of an arc and the verb uses a repeated
restrained circular movement. English changes the verb "improve" to
the noun "improvement" by adding "m ent". The inflectional
morphologies of English and ASL are different. MCE set up rules that
paralleled spoken English. Its inflectional morphology is
sequential. Two signs are used for the concept of "improvement" -
one for "improve" and one for "ment". In MCE morphemes are combined
sequentially like spoken English, not simultaneously like ASL.
Deaf children seem to have difficulty learning MCE signs such
a IMPROVE + MENT. Why? Could it be because sequential signs aren't
compatible with the natural neurological constaints imposed on
visual/gestural encoding and decoding of signs?
When researchers compared the acquisition of English
language structures in hearing children and the acquisition of ASL
language structures in deaf children of deaf parents, they found that
the developmental sequence of acquistion was essent ially the same.
Language structures were learned in basically the same sequence
whether the children were hearing and learning a spoken language or
deaf children of deaf parents learning ASL. Hearing children and
deaf children acquire language stru ctures in similar patterns. This
is true not only for spoken English and ASL, but also for foreign
languages and foreign sign languages.
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