Sign Language Structure
Stokoe, Jr.
cross terminated form is always used in a response-like way, at the beginning of a signer’s
utterance; but the double-bar form, question-like, may occur at the beginning or the end.
Differentiating these appearances of the sign AA v × is a kind of activity which would be
termed kinesic, if it accompanied speech, but here it must be linguistic in a strict sense because it
operates to distinguish morphemes which are identical cheremically, yet syntactically in sharp
contrast.
The sign ‘remember’ is signed with the hands identically by both informants, but the
portion of the utterance equivalent to ‘Remember?’ or 2 Re 3 mém ber 2 || is a combination of the sign
with a distinctive ‘look’. The signer looks directly at the person asked and slightly opens his face,
that is, his eyebrows raise as his chin lowers. There may also be a slight jerk of the head backward.
The portion of the utterance, however, which equates with: ‘Yes, I remember’; or ‘I
remember’; or . . . 3 Î 2 re 3 mém ber 1 #, consists of the sign accompanied by or even slightly proceeded
by a slight lowering of the eyes, or a tiny nod downward, or both these minute eye and head
movements.
The slightness of these movements cannot be over-emphasized. They are small and quickly
done and stubbornly remained outside the writer’s conscious observation until attention was
focused on them by the problem of the two ‘remembers’. Of kinesic behavior Birdwhistell (1952)
notes that the time for signal and for response may be of the order of 1/10 second; and in
conversation with the writer (1957) hazarded a guess that the deaf, communicating entirely through
vision, might actually signal and respond in this fashion with a speed and prolixity beyond the
ability of the untrained hearing person.
3.2. The writer is aware that the deaf are sometimes popularly supposed or even seriously
said to exaggerate facial expression. Here is Tomkins trying to make status for the Indian sign
language by disparaging the users of the sign language which may have supplied a large part of
the other system’s lexicon: ‘The deaf use a great deal of facial contortion and grimace’ (1958, p.
8). This is not even as accurate as a charge an Italian might make that ‘the English use a great
many consonant clusters and splutter’. The latter statement contains a partial truth about the
phonological structure of a language, but any truth the former has is confined to observation of the
style of ‘speech’ of atypical users of the language. Attempts to teach articulation in the past
sometimes led to strange or contorted facial movements, but speech therapists of today are as
careful to teach ‘normal’ appearance as right pronunciation to their deaf pupils. The filmed data as
well as all the communication behavior observed at Gallaudet College confirms the conclusion
that the kinesic behavior of the educated deaf in American culture is nowhere sharply separated
from the cultural norms. Indeed the dramatic productions of the college (presented entirely in sign
language with a spoken translation read in approximate synchronization for the non-deaf) have
shown large audiences that the appearance made by signers is not only ‘normal’ and pleasing but
intensely and effectively dramatic as might be expected when both dialogue and action are visibly
expressed in the body of the actor.
3.3. In this visual language system, facial activity need not all be employed on one level.
The eye lowering and head dip that signify the response, not the question, function of ‘remember’
are on the order of ‘suprasegmental’ signals. But in one or two occurrences of the response use
there is a smile visible for about the same time that the dip and the sig require. This smile which
clearly indicates that the signer’s memory is pleasant, even ecstatic, would seem to be
paralinguistic with respect to the sign language. Its presence is not called for each time the sign
SASLJ, Vol. 2, No. 2 – Fall/Winter 2018
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