The Future of British Sign Language

The Future of British soft touch wordsThe future of British subscribe to nomenclature Towards unmatchable class or a transmutation of lectures.When discussing the future of British squeeze Language we must firstly define press delivery and British menage Language (BSL). indication run-in is a visu in ally based wrangle that affairs condenses to represent specific words or phrases. on that point atomic calculate 18 m some(prenominal) distinguishable types and varieties of property speech communication based around the world, some ar rudimentary bit opposites atomic number 18 cast true into advanced languages. British foretoken Language is the to the highest degree developed and widely utilise process of sign language apply in Britain. It is estimated that 50, 000 mint deep down the UK use BSL.BSL is the natural language of signs that has developed in Britain everyplace centuries. It is the language use by the British Deaf residential area. (Su tton-Spence Woll 2004, p. 13).Similar to spoken and pen languages BSL has liberal and evolved since its inception, further unlike more spoken or written languages is non universal proposition. BSL users are restricted to communicating indoors Britain, or with early(a) signers acquainted(predicate) with BSL, as BSL does non ex operate beyond Britains borders, even to other(a) slope speaking populations. Indeed BSL, Ameri apprize Sign Language (ASL), Irish Sign Language (ISL), have all developed distinguishable signs for different words and have different structures, thus, some bingle and only(a) sign language with ASL bequeath not be able to communicate cl untimely with someone subscribe with BSL. In addition to variations from country to country, thither are dialect variations at heart from each one embodiment of sign language.BSL, like spoken language, has evolved through the subscribe tos of its users in spontaneous and natural ways. There are wide regional di fferences in some signs numbers and colours are notoriously variable, however around signs are the same. Many of the variations stem from the schools Deaf people at lamed impertinently signs are being coined, and more established signs changing with time and use. earshot look protrudeers whitethorn find this a problem in the early stages, but it doesnt present a problem to native signers. Variations are for the almost part in the lexicon of signs the words of the language the grammatical structures that hold it unitedly and give meaning, vary very little. Language has a life of its own, and most attempts to interfere or understand it tend to fail. (DeafSign.Com, 2000)Admittedly, it is the nature of language to spring up and change, and many dialects and variations have emerged within ideal incline. But composition dialects in amount incline sometimes lead to confusion if two speakers of different dialects communicate, these differences seldom make it impracticable for English speakers, or writers, to communicate with one another.Where as, with come on a universal form of sign language it makes it difficult for the sign language population to communicate with people subscribe with different variations. This mutual ununderstandably within variations and dialects of sign language leads to deaf populations being not just now removed from hearing populations, but in addition from one another.Because deaf communities tend to be smaller and more contained than other minorities within the hearing community the differences that emerge in sign language are more defined. Where as dialects in spoken English tend to emerge in areas or social communities, there are many more factors that influence dialects in sign language. Sutton-Spence Woll (2004, p. 13) explain that a signers age, class, gender, ethnicity, religion, and locale give notice all effect the way in which they sign. This leads to many different variations within one var. of sign lan guage totally. Thus, even a design effort to unify sign language, whether it be the unification of BSL from the current number of dialects and variations within BSL, to a uniform use of the language, or an even great attempt to unify the varieties within countries, or even worldwide allow be an extremely difficult task.There are so many external forces on the development of sign language that it is difficult to control its use and development. The age at which a someone learns to sign and whom they learn it from effects the way in which they sign. This is especially notable when comparing the differences amongst the children of deaf and hearing parents.Exposure to sign language at an early age is different to the children of deaf parents and the children of hearing parents. Those born to deaf parents are more belike to have had early exposure to a melted model of cock-a-hoop BSL. Those born to hearing parents practically only scram to learn BSL when they start school. Re search comparing adult signers from deaf and hearing families has shown that their signing differs significantly. (Sutton-Spence Woll 2004, p. 23-24).One of the reasons that signing in BSL differs so dramatically from one mortal to another is that BSL is a complex, to the full developed language, which is extremely different from Standard English. BSL has its own grammar, syntax, lexicon, and has many other droll features.BSL evolved naturally, as all languages do. It uses both manual and non-manual components handshapes and movements, facial expression, and shoulder movement. BSL is organise in a completely different way to English, and like any language it has its own grammar. Linguists generally agree that BSL is a topic gossiper language. For example, the question in English What is your name? becomes the sequence Your name what? in BSL. (RNID 2004, p. 4).Anyone already fluent in Standard English, or any other language, that give carees to learn BSL must learn a complete ly new language structure and way of communicating to be able to sign in BSL. Like with Standard English there is a dictionary and many other texts to assist BSL users. The British Deaf Associations mental lexicon of British Sign Language (1992) is 1084 pages long and complicates both pictures of each sign in the language, as well as, English word definitions. Yet people wishing to learn BSL cannot do so from text book alone as there are many features of BSL which must be seen or described to understand, such as, nods of the head, shoulder shrugs, facial expressions and lip patterns. There are many mouth patterns that convey grammatical and phonological in formation in BSL. (Sutton-Spence Woll 2004, p. 81).In addition, to knowing the intricacies of each sign, as well as, the structure and vocabulary of BSL, signers must overly become known with other unique features of BSL. Features include the ability to express metaphors, poetry and humour using signs. Signers must also become familiar with BSL idioms, euphemisms, expletives / insults, as with any language BSL contains exceptions to the language rules and accredited taboo words, such as, ORAL-SIGNER (Sutton-Spence Woll 2004, p. 245). This insult, which is unique to the signing community, reveals the effect of the divide surrounded by different varieties and dialects of sign language on the signing community and signing individuals opinions of other signers.Furthermore, because signing languages are completely visual and do not have a written component, like Standard English, this forces people who wish to communicate through both BSL, or other forms of sign language, and also written English to learn two completely different languages. epoch BSL is before long the most commonly used variety of sign language in Britain, with the internet and email becoming more dominant intercourse tools by the day. Younger users of sign language may start to tend towards a variety of sign language that incorporates Standard English into its boilers suit format. Currently there are a number of varieties of sign language used in Britain that use Standard English reprove pull and grammar, but these varieties have long been second to BSL.While the reason for the edifice of BSL is quite simple and logical, this does not make the language any easier to use. BSL uses signs that often encompass a few words or a phrase, while the grammar and sentence structure work to create shortened sentences. All of these features allot to shorten BSL sentences, and are necessary to ensure timely converse, as it takes long-acting to form signs than to speak words.There are a number of other forms of sign language and signing used in Britain, these include Cued Speech, the Paget-Gorman Sign System (PGSS), write English, Sign Supported English (SSE), and Fingerspelling. All of these visual languages are largely dependent on Standard English. Some users of sign language use BSL in conjunction with these other forms, while others may choose to stick with one variety.Sign Supported English (SSE) is belike the most popular alternate variety of sign language currently used in Britian. This variety of sign language uses BSL vocabulary and Standard English sentence structure and grammar. In Sign Supported English (SSE), the key words of a sentence are signed while the person speaks. (Sutton-Spence Woll 2004, p. 14). SSE is an advanced variation of Signed English, which uses BSL to sign all of the words in a sentence, using Standard English sentence structure and grammar.There are problems with the use of Signed English. It is very slow, and a message takes longer in Signed English than in every BSL or Standard English. This means that spoken English accompanying Signed English becomes unnaturally slow, and many English speakers let speech take over and drop some signs. Many BSL signers using Signed English enter features of BSL grammar so that the grammar is not pure English any more. (Sutt on-Spence Woll 2004, p. 16).Just as SSE and Signed English depend on Standard English so too does the Paget-Gorman Sign System (PGSS). But whereas SSE and Signed English use BSL signs and incorporate Standard English form, PGSS uses signs that do not come from any sign language, but have been created to represent English words and English grammar (Sutton-Spence Woll 2004, p. 14). Because of its focus on Standard English PGSS is informal for native English speakers to learn, but it is not a language used by the deaf community. Similarly, cued speech, which is a system that does not use signs at all, rather hand cues are made near the mouth to constitute different speech sounds. (Sutton-Spence Woll 2004, p. 13). Cued speech is a verbally dominated form of visual language and is thus not commonly used within the deaf community.One of the most basic and widely used forms of signing if fingerspelling, which has one sign for every letter of the alphabet and requires users to spell ou t the letters in a word or sentence. Fingerspelling is not a language in itself but is often incorporated into sign languages. Most commonly fingerspelling is used to spell words for which there is no sign, such as, names of people or places. Alternately, fingerspelling can be used to draw attention to a word in a sentence or phrase. Although fingerspelling may be the most simple and basic form of signing, it fails to be universal because different countries have different signs for each letter in the fingerspelling alphabet, making it impossible for signers from different countries to understand the words that are being spelt.Edward Finegan (2004, p. 19-20) identifies three modes of linguistic communication in Language Its Structure Use. He defines these as speaking, piece of writing and signing, yet signing at this point is not a fully developed universal mode of communication as a resolving power of the restrictions the different varieties of sign language put upon their users . Because sign languages have developed and evolved naturally within the relatively small communities within which they are used around they have developed independently and created mutually exclusive varieties. There have been attempts in the past to create or nominate one universal sign language, but up until this point no one variety of sign language has succeeded in dominating the international signing community.In Britain because BSL is the official language of the deaf community, with approximately 50, 000 people within the UK using BSL, it will continue to be the dominant sign language in Britain. Although, with the rise of internet technology and written electronic communication the jr. signing community may start to tend towards a Standard English based form of sign language, such as, SSP. The use of SSP would enable signers to communicate in the same language in person and in writing, rather than communicating with BSL sign language in person and Standard English in writin g.The current dominance of British Sign Language can be attributed to the same factor which has led to the formation of the so many different varieties of sign language, in Britain and around the world, because signing communities tend to be quite small and isolated from one another, adult signers pass on the language they are familiar with ti younger signers. As a result, younger signers may not be sensitive of other sign languages available to them. But with the influence email, and the rise of written communication as a result, younger singers will beging to seek out a variety of sign language that incorporates the Standard English conventions they will become more familiar with as they become more familiar with writing. Indeed this may simply lead to the transformation of the current BSL variety into a variety of sign language, which incorporates rather than excludes Standard English conventions. Alternately, the language we currently know as BSL could be replaced by another va riety of sign language, such as Sign Supported English (SSE), or another variety altogether.In a world dominated by travel and technology signing communities, both within Britain and around the world, need a language through which they can successfully, and clearly, communicate with one another. The first step towards universal communication between signing communities is to ensure that the sign languages used are simple for hearing people to learn, and that there is as little variation (and as a result confusion) within the varieties. By encouraging hearing people to learn sign language the signing community would broaden the language base and thus provide perceptual constancy to the language. And although it is difficult to control the growth and evolution of any language, by adopting a sign language which follows Standard English conventions, the language would have to stick with to Standard English and thus evolve with it, creating a more universal and less confusing language. By adopting or creating a sign language based on Standard English, the variations of that sign language would tend be restricted to the variations of Standard English.The evolution of language is a gradual process, then the future of British Sign Language will most likely see the continuation of BSL as the dominant language, with the growth of a Standard English based language. The two languages will coincide for a boundary before the modern Standard English based language gains control.BIBLIOGRAPHYBritish DEAF ASSOCIATION, Brien, D. (ed.), 1992. Dictionary of British Sign Language. London Faber and Faber.CRYSTAL, D., 2003. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language. second edition. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. (p. 222-227)DEAFSIGN.COM, 2000. Is British Sign Language standardised? online. Available from http//www.deafsign.com/ds/index.cfm?scn=articlearticleID=6 Accessed 25 June 2005FINEGAN, E., 2004. Language Its Structure and Use. 4th ed. Boston Thomson Wadsworth.RNID, Apr il 2004. Introducing British Sign Language. London RNIDSUTTON-SPENCE, R., WOLL, B., 2004. The Linguistics of British Sign Language An Introduction. Cambridge Cambridge University Press.