James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (04/15/91)
Index Number: 14877
[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]
B bian was a hearing man who was born in Guadeloupe, a small
French island in the Carribean. When B bian was old enough to go to
school, his parents, who were quite wealthy, decided to send him to
Paris to be educated under Sicard, who was B bian's godfather.
B bian lived at the residential school for the deaf and grew up
learning to sign. As he interacted with the other deaf students
B bian became a fluent signer. When he was older, he became a
teacher of the deaf. He knew and coul d use both Natural Sign and
Methodical Sign but claimed that Methodical Sign didn't work. He
stated:
"Signs were considered only in relation to French, and great
efforts were made to bend them to that language. But as sign
language is quiet different from all other languages, it had to be
distorted to conform to Frenc h usage, and it
was sometimes so disfigured as to become unintelligible."
B bian said that as Natural Sign was bent to become more and
more like spoken French, the signs became so distorted that the sign
system broke down. The system couldn't be understood. It didn't
make sense. There was something strange about it. The answer as to
why Methodical Sign didn't work was never answered. In the midst of
all the debate and arguments among the manualists, the oralists took
over the field. The question as to why Methodical Sign didn't work
has remained unanswer ed for the past 200 years.
As I mentioned before there are two possible explanations for
why MCE and Methodical Sign failed: the quality of the input or a
problem inherent in the sign system. It is my position that the
second explanation is the one that answers the 20 0 year-old
question. But before I explain why I support the second explanation,
I will explain how MCE was developed.
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