By Betsy Hicks McDonald of Georgetown University
I am a CODA linguist , born into a Deaf family in 1950 . My home was a fascinating place that was filled with Deaf and hard of hearing people from my family and the community , communicating in a myriad of languages and methods : signed ASL , spoken English , Rochester-method fingerspelling , and mouthing . At that time , many Deaf families were encouraged not to sign to their children and our language did not yet have the name of American Sign Language . Luckily , I have lived long enough to re-claim the language of my home and hold it close throughout my personal and professional life .
While I only realize this looking back , my early bi-culturalism gave me a love for learning about other languages and cultures . In high school , I spent a summer in Finland , learning as much about the language and culture as I could . In college , I learned French and Russian . It was natural to me to open-mindedly observe how other cultures organized their thoughts and communities . I was delighted at the different ways they expressed their thoughts . I was a cultural traveller , but not yet bilingual in ASL and English .
That all changed when I discovered Linguistics , the science of language , in the early 1970 ’ s . In addition to studying language after language , I could apply my knowledge to studying the nature of language : what it is , how we learn it , how languages vary , and what counts as a language . This study thrilled me to my core . Early on , I wondered out loud about how sign language fit in the recently outlined design features of language by Hockett ( 1960 ). “ Oh ,” a professor told me , “ sign language is the same as English , except you use your hands .” I immediately recognized that this was wrong : If it were the same as English , why couldn ’ t I follow Deaf conversations fluently ? I leapt onto my own personal sign language bandwagon , reading the very early work circulated from the Linguistics Research Laboratory of William C . Stokoe , and the Salk Institute of Ursula Bellugi and William Klima , and published in the Sign Language Studies Journal that was first released in 1972 . At the same time , I also encountered very different ideas claiming that due to the lack of auditory input , deaf people would never achieve the higher aspects of syntax . As a linguist and CODA , I knew that the syntax of all languages was equally functional for the community ’ s purposes , and that Deaf people using ASL were not limited in their expression . To refute this inaccurate statement , I realized that I needed and wanted ASL fluency so home I went .
“ Take me to the Deaf Club !” I demanded of my father . I was aiming for immersion in the language and culture . After a very weak protest of “ But you ’ re hearing !” he took me . As I lay in bed afterwards , I could feel my hands and eyes throbbing . I quickly learned to fill in the holes in my ASL vocabulary , as the foundation had already been laid from my hours of watching the fascinating people in my home .
For me , my developing ASL fluency has provided non-stop learning about Deaf culture and our community . Let me give some examples . I learned that the concept of LIE is different across Deaf and mainstream American English cultures . In the hearing world , you don ’ t lie if you just leave something out . In the Deaf community , not telling everything you know is a serious offense . I learned that Deaf conversation includes numerous , very detailed stories that are really tutorials , shared for the collective good of the community . This realization came to me after a 45-minute story about buying insurance ! I learned that in the Deaf community , both members of a conversation have equal responsibility to explain and understand . The statement : SORRY +++, NOT UNDERSTAND / “ I ’ m
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The Power of ASL |
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Spring 2017 – Issue 5 |