Chapter 13 talks about homesigning. I am completely amazed and really confused how these deaf children were able to invent their own language. But even more, how is it possible that even though they had absolutely no exposure or knowledge about spoken language, that their homesigning still followed the same rules? Especially when they were exposed to gesturing. Why didn't their signing become similar to the gesturing of their parents? The gesturing was the only kind of communication they were exposed to, so why wasn't it incorporated into their homesign? And lastly, after they established their homesign, how did the gesturing of their parents effect them? Would it confuse them, or would they somehow be able to differentiate beetween the two? I guess I'm just confused because I don't know if they would understand the concept of our gesturing as an addition to our language, because for them, the gesturing is their language.
Comments (1)
I totally agree that it's mindblowing that these children are developing their own forms of communication, and even more mindblowing that they end up creating similar systems even though they've never been exposed to one another. I think it would make sense if they incorporated a few of the more iconic gestures their parents used, but other than that, I think that gestures are too inconsistent and applicable to everything to really mean anything. Sure, things that are always used for the same thing...like quotation marks or a cupped hand behind the ear... might be used by children, but besides that, I think that gestures as meaningful communication might be a lost cause.
Posted by Jen Wilmore | April 24, 2008 5:06 PM
Posted on April 24, 2008 17:06