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Communicating with other people using a combination of handgestures and facial expressions is the basic premise of AmericanSignLanguage (ASL). Signs representing thoughts and expressions arecreated with hands and other movements such as facial expressionsandbody postures. Every word is not represented by a sign in ASL.Thereare different versions of sign language such as French signlanguageand British sign language. ASL is more closely related to Frenchsignlanguage, which is actually what it stems from. ASL is most oftenused in the United States, English-speaking parts of Canada, andMexico. It is considered the fourth most common language in theU.S,and is the primary language among deaf North Americans.

Language diversity and thought: A reformulation of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 'The status of linguistics as a science'. Reprinted in The selected writings of Edward Sapir in language, culture, and personality, ed. Mandelbaum, 160-6. There are many versions of the language-affects-thought claim. One version, most often associated with Whorf (1956) and Sapir (1921), is that differences between languages, such as between English and Hopi, lead to differences in thought.

History

American Sign Language has a long history filled withtransformations throughout the years. Many believe that ASL stemsfrom the very first sign language system created in France. Theinitial system was created by the deaf in France, and was referredtoas Old French Sign Language. Abbe de l'Epee, a French cleric,foundedan educational institution for the deaf in France in 1771. It wasthefirst of its kind that was free to attend. Abbe de l’Epee modifiedOld French Sign Language into a system of communicating exactwordsand referred to it as Old Signed French.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a congregational minister, had perhapsthe largest influence on sign language development in the UnitedStates. In 1816 he traveled to Europe and met Laurent Clerc, whowasa recent deaf graduate of l'Epee's school. Clerc taught Gallaudetabout sign language and deaf education methods. Gallaudetmotivatedand, ultimately, convinced Clerc to come to America with him andcreate the first American school for the deaf. Together GallaudetandClerc created Old Signed English from Old French Sign Language.Thepurpose of the transformation was to make the language easier forAmerican students to understand. Old Signed English was similar tol'Epee's system by having grammar and signs represent each word.

Gallaudet founded the American Asylum in Hartford, Connecticut inthe year 1817. It was the first school for the deaf in the UnitedStates. Clerc became the very first sign language teacher inAmerica.Students at the school were taught Gallaudet's version of signlanguage, but used a shortened version of it outside of class.Gallaudet considered the student's version their “naturallanguage.” Their version was free of grammar and condensedsentences into key phrases. The “natural language” is now knownas American Sign Language.

Why do people learn ASL?

American Sign Language is particularly important for deaf peopleto be able to communicate with others. Friends and loved ones ofdeafpeople often learn sign language in order to improve communicationwith the deaf person. Yet these are not the only reasons thatpeoplechoose to learn ASL. When you have a baby, it is typically quite awhile before the baby learns to verbally communicate with you. Youcan teach a baby to communicate utilizing ASL much earlier thanwiththe spoken word. You can also use sign language to communicatewithpeople who are much farther away than the loudest shout can carry.Underwater divers, who cannot speak to one another in the water,canuse ASL to communicate. If you need to have a very privateconversation with someone, sign language cannot be recorded with amicrophone. Video cameras will not be able to record theconversationeither if the people involved have their backs to the camera orareblocked by something. Becoming a sign language interpreter is agreatcareer option as they always appear to be in demand. Knowing signlanguage can also advance your career just like being fluent in aforeign language. Television stations are using sign language inadvertising and on programs. Finally, learning a new language isgoodfor your brain. Knowledge is power and exercising your brain ishealthy for you.

ASL Fonts

A font is a set of type that fits into a coherent style. A fontregarding American Sign Language is a graphical sign languagetypeface which represents the corresponding ASL alphabet for thedeaf. All of the letters of the alphabet and all numbers areincludedin the representations. Typically an ASL font has pictures ofhandsshowing how to form the letters of the alphabet. An ASL font canbeutilized to learn sign language or to correspond with signlanguage.The following fonts are all part of American Sign Language, andeachone has two links. The first link will provide you with an exampleofthe font while the second link will provide you with a freedownloadof the font.

Happy rider unblocked. Lifeprint is a website which not only has large, easy to seeexamples of the Gallaudet font, but it also has quite a few signlanguage wallpapers available as well. The Gallaudet font can beseenin the 4^th section. It is the first alphabet on thiswebsite which is not simply pictures of hand-signing.

Simply The Best Fonts provides you with free downloads of theGallaudet font for both the PC and the Mac.

AceFree Fonts

Ace Free Fonts is a website which has many different fonts,including Finger Alphabet Graffiti. This particular font isdifferentfrom others, because it is very stylized. The hands areexaggerated,and have elongated fingers.

FontDownload A to Z

The website is filled with downloadable fonts. The site offersa free download for Finger Alphabet Graffiti for Windows, MacandLinux.

Fonts

This website teaches you about type and fonts. It has a goodexample on it of the Hand Sign font for ASL. All hands in thisfonttend to slant to the left.

The website is a great resource for free fonts. It providesyouwith a free download for the Hand Sign font for both Windows andMac.

Ffonts.net is a site that has quite a few different fonts onit, including Handstand for ASL. It also has a free download ofit.

The website has a free download for the Handstand font forASL.Letters, numbers and symbols are included in the download.

Narrative writing unitmrs. parker's 6th grade l.a. classroom. The original deaflinx.com site was written and authored by Amy Frasu.Deaf Linx is now run by Ericka Wiggins. Here are the Facebook and Twitter pages for Deaf Linx.

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The study of how language influences thought has a long history in a variety of fields. There are two bodies of thought forming around this debate. One body of thought stems from linguistics and is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. There is a strong and a weak version of the hypothesis which argue for more or less influence of language on thought. The strong version, linguistic determinism, argues that without language there is and can be no thought while the weak version, linguistic relativity, supports the idea that there are some influences from language on thought.^[1] And on the opposing side, there are 'language of thought' theories (LOTH) which believe that public language is inessential to private thought. LOTH theories address the debate of whether thought is possible without language which is related to the question of whether language evolved for thought. These ideas are difficult to study because it proves challenging to parse the effects of culture versus thought versus language in all academic fields.

The main use of language is to transfer thoughts from one mind, to another mind. The bits of linguistic information that enter into one person's mind, from another, cause people to entertain a new thought with profound effects on his world knowledge, inferencing, and subsequent behavior. Language neither creates nor distorts conceptual life. Thought comes first, while language is an expression. There are certain limitations among language, and humans cannot express all that they think.^[2]

Language of thought[edit]

Language of thought theories rely on the belief that mental representation has linguistic structure. Thoughts are 'sentences in the head', meaning they take place within a mental language. Two theories work in support of the language of thought theory. Causal syntactic theory of mental practices hypothesizes that mental processes are causal processes defined over the syntax of mental representations. Representational theory of mind hypothesizes that propositional attitudes are relations between subjects and mental representations. In tandem, these theories explain how the brain can produce rational thought and behavior. All three of these theories were inspired by the development of modern logical inference. They were also inspired by Alan Turing's work on causal processes that require formal procedures within physical machines.^[3]

LOTH hinges on the belief that the mind works like a computer, always in computational processes. The theory believes that mental representation has both a combinatorial syntax and compositional semantics. The claim is that mental representations possess combinatorial syntax and compositional semantic—that is, mental representations are sentences in a mental language. Alan Turing's work on physical machines implementation of causal processes that require formal procedures was modeled after these beliefs.^[3]

Another prominent linguist, Stephen Pinker, developed this idea of a mental language in his book The Language Instinct (1994). Pinker refers to this mental language as mentalese. In the glossary of his book, Pinker defines mentalese as a hypothetical language used specifically for thought. This hypothetical language houses mental representations of concepts such as the meaning of words and sentences.^[4]

Scientific hypotheses[edit]

• The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis in linguistics states that the grammatical structure of a mother language influences the way we perceive the world. The hypothesis has been largely abandoned by linguists as it has found very limited experimental support, at least in its strong form, linguistic determinism. For instance, a study showing that speakers of languages lacking a subjunctive mood such as Chinese experience difficulty with hypothetical problems has been discredited. Another study did show that subjects in memory tests are more likely to remember a given color if their mother language includes a word for that color; however, these findings do not necessarily support this hypothesis specifically. Other studies concerning the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis can be found in the 'studies' section below.
• Chomsky's independent theory, founded by Noam Chomsky, considers language as one aspect of cognition. Chomsky's theory states that a number of cognitive systems exist, which seem to possess distinct specific properties. These cognitive systems lay the groundwork for cognitive capacities, like language faculty.^[3]
• Piaget's cognitive determinism exhibits the belief that infants integrate experience into progressively higher-level representations. He calls this belief constructivism, which supports that infants progress from simple to sophisticated models of the world through a change mechanism that allows an infant to build on their lower-level representations to create higher-level ones. This view opposes nativist theories about cognition being composed of innate knowledge and abilities.
• Vygotsky's theory on cognitive development, known as Vygotsky's theory of interchanging roles, supports the idea that social and individual development stems from the processes of dialectical interaction and function unification. Lev Vygotsky believed that before two years of age, both speech and thought develop in differing ways along with differing functions. The idea that relationship between thought and speech is ever-changing, supports Vygotsky's claims. Vygotsky's theory claims that thought and speech have different roots. And at the age of two, a child's thought and speech collide, and the relationship between thought and speech shifts. Thought then becomes verbal and speech then becomes rational.^[3]
• According to the theory behind cognitive therapy, founded by Aaron T. Beck, our emotions and behavior are caused by our internal dialogue. We can change ourselves by learning to challenge and refute our own thoughts, especially a number of specific mistaken thought patterns called 'cognitive distortions'. Cognitive therapy has been found to be effective by empirical studies.
• In behavioral economics, according to experiments said to support the theoretical availability heuristic, people believe events that are more vividly described are more probable than those that are not. Simple experiments that asked people to imagine something led them to believe it to be more likely. The mere exposure effect may also be relevant to propagandistic repetition like the Big Lie. According to prospect theory, people make different economic choices based on how the matter is framed.

Studies concerning the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis[edit]

Counting[edit]

Different cultures use numbers in different ways. The Munduruku culture for example, has number words only up to five. In addition, they refer to the number 5 as 'a hand' and the number 10 as 'two hands'. Numbers above 10 are usually referred to as 'many'.

Perhaps the most different counting system from that of modern Western civilisation is the 'one-two-many' system used by the Pirahã people. In this system, quantities larger than two are referred to simply as 'many'. In larger quantities, 'one' can also mean a small amount and 'many' a larger amount. Research was conducted in the Pirahã culture using various matching tasks. These are non-linguistic tasks that were analyzed to see if their counting system or more importantly their language affected their cognitive abilities. The results showed that they perform quite differently from, for example, an English speaking person who has a language with words for numbers more than two. For example, they were able to represent numbers 1 and 2 accurately using their fingers but as the quantities grew larger (up to 10), their accuracy diminished. This phenomenon is also called the 'analog estimation', as numbers get bigger the estimation grows.^[5] Their declined performance is an example of how a language can affect thought and great evidence to support the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

Orientation[edit]

Language also seems to shape how people from different cultures orient themselves in space. For instance, people from the Australian Aboriginal community Pormpuraaw define space relative to the observer. Instead of referring to location in terms like 'left', 'right', 'back' and 'forward', most Aboriginal Nations, such as the Kuuk Thaayorre, use cardinal-direction terms – north, south, east and west. For example, speakers from such cultures would say 'There is a spider on your northeast leg' or 'Pass the ball to the south southwest'. In fact, instead of 'hello', the greeting in such cultures is 'Where are you going?' and sometimes even 'Where are you coming from?' Such greeting would be followed by a directional answer 'To the northeast in the middle distance'. The consequence of using such language is that the speakers need to be constantly oriented in space, or they would not be able to express themselves properly, or even get past a greeting. Speakers of such languages that rely on absolute reference frames have a much greater navigational ability and spatial knowledge compared to speakers of languages that use relative reference frames (such as English). In comparison with English users, speakers of languages such as Kuuk Thaayorre are also much better at staying oriented even in unfamiliar spaces – and it is in fact their language that enables them to do this.^[6]

Color[edit]

Language may influence color processing. Having more names for different colors, or different shades of colors, makes it easier both for children and for adults to recognize them.^[7] Research has found that all languages have names for black and white and that the colors defined by each language follow a certain pattern (i.e. a language with three colors also defines red, one with four defines green OR yellow, one with six defines blue, then brown, then other colors).^[8]

Other schools of thought[edit]

• General semantics is a school of thought founded by engineer Alfred Korzybski in the 1930s and later popularized by S.I. Hayakawa and others, which attempted to make language more precise and objective. It makes many basic observations of the English language, particularly pointing out problems of abstraction and definition. General semantics is presented as both a theoretical and a practical system whose adoption can reliably alter human behavior in the direction of greater sanity. It is considered to be a branch of natural science and includes methods for the stimulation of the activities of the human cerebral cortex, which is generally judged by experimentation. In this theory, semantics refers to the total response to events and actions, not just the words. The neurological, emotional, cognitive, semantic, and behavioral reactions to events determines the semantic response of a situation. This reaction can be referred to as semantic response, evaluative response, or total response.^[9]
• E-prime is a constructed language identical to the English language but lacking all forms of 'to be'. Its proponents claim that dogmatic thinking seems to rely on 'to be' language constructs, and so by removing it we may discourage dogmatism.
• Neuro-linguistic programming, founded by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, claims that language 'patterns' and other things can affect thought and behavior. It takes ideas from General Semantics and hypnosis, especially that of the famous therapist Milton Erickson. Many do not consider it a credible study, and it has no empirical scientific support.
• Advocates of non-sexist language including some feminists say that the English language perpetuates biases against women, such as using male-gendered terms such as 'he' and 'man' as generic. Many authors including those who write textbooks now conspicuously avoid that practice, in the case of the previous examples using words like 'he or she' or 'they' and 'human race'.
• Various other schools of persuasion directly suggest using language in certain ways to change the minds of others, including oratory, advertising, debate, sales, and rhetoric. The ancient sophists discussed and listed many figures of speech such as enthymeme and euphemism. The modern public relations term for adding persuasive elements to the interpretation of and commentary on news is called spin.

Popular culture[edit]

The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is the premise of the 2016 science fiction film Arrival. The protagonist explains that 'the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is the theory that the language you speak determines how you think'.^[10]

See also[edit]

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• Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition by Umberto Eco

References[edit]

1. ^Kaplan, Abby (2016). Women Talk More than Men: … And Other Myths about Language Explained. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781316027141.011. ISBN978-1-316-02714-1.
2. ^Gleitman, Lila (2005). 'Language and thought'(PDF). Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning.
3. ^ ^abcdBirjandi, Parvis. 'A Review of the Language-Thought Debate: Multivariant Perspectives'. Islamic Azad University (Science and Research Branch) – via EBSCOhost.
4. ^Pinker (2007). The Language Instinct (1994/2007). New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
5. ^Gordon, P., (2004). Numerical Cognition Without Words: Evidence from Amazonia. Science. 306, pp.496-499.
6. ^Boroditsky, L. (2009, June 12). How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think? . Edge.org. Retrieved March 18, 2013, from http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html.
7. ^Schacter, Daniel L. (2011). Psychology Second Edition. 41 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010: Worth Publishers. pp. 360–362. ISBN978-1-4292-3719-2.CS1 maint: location (link)
8. ^Berlin, Brent; Kay, Paul (1969). Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.
9. ^Ward, K. (2012). General Semantics. Retrieved March 31, 2013, from http://www.trans4mind.com/personal_development/KenGenSemantics.htm.
10. ^'The science behind the movie 'Arrival''. Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-04-23.

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