Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: trey@lurch.BRS.Com (Trey Jones)
Subject: Re: sci.lang FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Message-ID: <1994Nov14.233009.27405@lurch.BRS.Com>
Organization: BRS Software Products
References: <CyE34D.n2J@spss.com> <39jj4b$8ct@mother.usf.edu>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 23:30:09 GMT
Lines: 27

In article <39jj4b$8ct@mother.usf.edu> millert@grad.csee.usf.edu (Timothy Miller) writes:
>I would just like to point out that ASL, or any other Sign Language for 
>that matter, is not PERIPHERAL to ordinary language.
  >>SNIP<<
>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. 
  >>SNIP<<
>Hearing babies learning a spoken language babble with their mouths.  Deaf 
>babies learning a sign language babble with their hands.


I missed the beginning of this thread (or it hasn't made it here yet)..
while I agree with the majority of this post (ASL and other SLs are as
real as they come - if you don't think so, study one for a little
while..), I have two tiny nits to pick:

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..

Second, all otherwise normal babies (deaf or hearing) babble both
manually and orally.. those language functions which are not reinforced
(by speaking or signing parents) gradually diminish and stop.

--Trey
