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From: alderson@netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: sci.lang FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
In-Reply-To: trey@lurch.BRS.Com's message of Mon, 14 Nov 1994 23:30:09 GMT
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References: <CyE34D.n2J@spss.com> <39jj4b$8ct@mother.usf.edu>
	<1994Nov14.233009.27405@lurch.BRS.Com>
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 18:34:23 GMT
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In article <1994Nov14.233009.27405@lurch.BRS.Com> trey@lurch.BRS.Com
(Trey Jones) writes:

>In article <39jj4b$8ct@mother.usf.edu> millert@grad.csee.usf.edu
>(Timothy Miller) writes:

>>It is a living language that follows the "Language Universals" just as
>>well as any other, aside form the fact that it has no phonology. 

>First, ASL does have a "phonology".. sometimes called other things.. but if
>you define phonetics and phonology not as the study of speech sounds and their
>internal representations, but rather as the study of the articulations of
>language and their internal representations, the ASL has as much phonology as
>you could want..

Please expand upon this.  Leaving aside the issue of whether or not phonology
should be restricted to the study of *sound* patterns, how do the articulations
you mention correspond to phonological concepts?  That is, to what extent are
you talking about non-meaningful, conventionalized units of language?
-- 
Rich Alderson   You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
                of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
                logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
                know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
                as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
                what not.
                                                --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@netcom.com                               _The Notion Club Papers_
