http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/ Blog entries for Language and Social Cognition en Copyright 2008 Sat, 03 May 2008 18:17:59 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss As I was skimming through the language log, I found an entry that caught my eye. It was “yeah no” by Mark Liberman. He discusses how people often say “yeah no” when answering questions. His example is, “Did you like Columbia?” “Yeah no I loved it.” The entry talks mostly about who uses this statement most. However, this is not he aspect I found to be most interesting. There was something that really surprised me. While I was reading the article I had the notion in my head that, “well, obviously people say ‘yeah no’ sometimes, when they are answering questions like: ‘Did you not like that food.’” The yeah is in immediate response, in an effort to quickly let the asker know that you did like the food, and the no is to indicate that there statement was wrong. As I read more of the blog entry I found my assumption was entirely off. I kept telling myself that these speakers, using “yeah no” were incorrect, that they should just be saying one or the other, for example, “No, I did like that food.” I was wrong however. As Liberman explains, “Here both yeah and no are independently appropriate – ‘yeah I loved it’ because the basic answer to the question is positive, and ‘no I loved it’ because love is being contrastively substituted for like. This may seem like a weird thing to blog about. I just thought it was interesting that for my last assignment for this class I was reminded one more time that I do not understand language. There are many misconception surrounding language and even after taking this class I am not immune to misconceiving. http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/05/yes_or_no.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/05/yes_or_no.html From the Field Pete Obourn-Psych 440-From the Field Entry Sat, 03 May 2008 18:17:59 -0500 Talking Hands talks about how signers make errors when signing due to single formational parameters. This is the same way that people who use verbal language can mistake one word for another because of simple sound based errors. When nondeaf people mishear words this can be attributed to them not paying attention, the speaker not annunciating clearly, or their being static in the conversation and simply not being able to hear the speaker. Do these same type of behaviors occur in deaf people when they misunderstand a sign? It might be because they were not paying attention or the signer was being lazy and not fully expressing the sign, but what might other reasons be as to why they might misunderstand such as in the way that we do when we mishear someone? Are the same reasons hearing people misunderstand the same way that deaf people do to?]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/hearers_misinterpret_and_so_do.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/hearers_misinterpret_and_so_do.html From Class Psych 440-Amy Graham-from class entry Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:46:58 -0500 http://www.essortment.com/lifestyle/signlanguageex_shrn.htm]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/signers_need_facial_expression.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/signers_need_facial_expression.html From the Field Psych 440-Amy Graham-from the field Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:18:23 -0500 Fox mentions several examples of recall errors that were made by hearing people and deaf people. The errors seemed to indicate that those who could hear encode language based on phonology and that deaf people encode language in a more visual-manual manner. This makes sense. But, what about those children who are bilingual in English and ASL, who learn both languages simultaneously in the critical period? How do they ultimately encode either ASL or English? This question is especially interesting when considering someone who speaks English while signing. Are they accessing a phonological or visual lexicon, or both at the same time? Is it possible to have two lexicons? If so, can someone access them both at one time? http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/encoding_language.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/encoding_language.html From Class Pete Obourn-Psych 440-From Class Entry Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:22:24 -0500 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. http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/homesign.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/homesign.html From Class Chapter 13 From Class Psych 440-Andrea Talking Hands - Fox Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:31:03 -0500 This article talks about how American Sign Language has shifted from being more iconic to consisting of more arbitrary gestures. It disproves many myths about ASL, for example that it is universal. But if this were the case, than the French and British would able to understand it. They have their own sign language and can't understand ours. The second myth is that ASL is simply pantomimic. But if this were the case, then wouldn't anyone be able to understand it? Even someone who has never come across it before should be able to understand what is being communicated if the signs exactly mimic the verbal words. And wouldn't this also make sign language universal for everyone? This article interested me because I remembered the class we had maybe a week or two ago when we were talking about Saussure. I don't think we every really came to a conclusion on whether we thought that sign language was more arbitrary or iconic. So I guess this article is just another viewpoint we can add into our debate about it. http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/arbitrariness_vs_iconicity_in.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/arbitrariness_vs_iconicity_in.html From the Field From the Field Psych 440-Andrea Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:05:03 -0500 In chapter 14, Fox mentions the question of how signed language is represented in the mind. This brings up a past question of mine that we have yet to discuss, and is of much interest to me. But first, it is mentioned on pages 219 and 220 the ways in which memory is encoded in the brain (long-term and short-term). Based on experiments, Klima and Bellugi state that for hearing people, short-term memory for words has a phonological basis, whereas “deaf signers of ASL used visual parameters of handshape, location, and movement” (p.224). With short-term memory being different for signers and hearing people, my first question is then; is long-term memory for words the same for both hearing people and deaf signers? Organized semantically? Not much was discussed about this pertaining to signers. Next, this is where I want to bring up the big question I have had. This chapter discusses structure. Therefore, do deaf signers with brain damage have sign language deficits? And if so, do the deficits resemble either Wernike’s aphasia or Broca’s aphasia, or both? Is there a more common area of damage where deficits are seen? Another question I have pertains to the area of damage, right versus left hemisphere damage. Would right hemisphere damage disrupt signing motions and interfere with the structure of the language; maybe producing more “slips of the hand”, or spoonerisms, or generate no specific pattern at all? http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/signing_in_the_mind.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/signing_in_the_mind.html From Class Chapter 14 From Class Michele Tanous Psych 440 Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:40:03 -0500 In the reading, Susan Goldin-Meadow discusses David, and other participants, in her study and how they use “homesigns.” She further discusses the types of gestures that these participants use. An example is how David signals the difference between nouns and verbs; using a twist gesture as a noun to mean jar. Susan points out that as the homesigners got older, their gesture strings grew longer and more complex which then involved multiple actors and actions. Maybe I am confused, but I had the understanding that these children developed the way they sign on their own and not in a setting where they were taught. So in thinking about this process of learning, I personally think it would be hard for those children to then learn “standard sign.” I just feel that often times, people who have repeatedly done something that works, are then set in their ways. They might not want to change how they communicate if what they had been doing worked well. Home words for us are used around the home and family and typically do not play into our social lives. But for these children, when they go outside of the home and need to be able to communicate on a different level than “home signs,” wouldn’t that be difficult since they are only accustomed to communicating with their close friends or family? I just feel that some of the children would be dead set on keeping their word or phrase and not the one that was taught to them. What are the challenges that they would face? If they go to school and learn sign, how would that affect the homesign that they used? How would that affect the way that they spoke? Would they know two different “languages” for the same word or phrase? I just feel that this would be very difficult for them to learn over what they already know and are used to. I can say as a athlete, I have certain tendencies as I play, some as good habits and some are bad. Could this be the case where they would then need to break that bad habit? http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/confused_about_sign.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/confused_about_sign.html From Class Chapter 13 From the Class psych 440 walsh Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:21:25 -0500 Click here to read more]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/superior_language_capabilities.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/superior_language_capabilities.html From the Field From the Field Michele Tanous Psych 440 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:00:14 -0500 On pages 54 and 55 Fox talks a little about Chomsky’s argument against language as a learned behavior. Chomsky makes a compelling case for the existence of an inborn linguistic blueprint. It seems almost impossible that language is strictly a learned behavior. Also, on page 63 Fox mentions, “no tribe of hearing people has been found in which a signed language has arisen as the primary means of communication.” To me this means that if one can hear and speak, then there is an innate tendency to develop language in the vocal-auditory channel. Yet, we cannot downplay the effect the environment will have on a developing child. So, my question is, if a child capable of speaking and hearing is born to deaf parents who communicate strictly through the manual-visual channel, will that child develop language through that same channel or will he/she use the vocal-auditory channel? http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/language_channels.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/language_channels.html From Class Pete Obourn-Psych 440 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:46:09 -0500 In chapter 5, it is explained that Bedouin Sign Language (and many other languages for that matter) only have two different color words. It is simply black or white. I understand grouping all the dark colors together under the name black to discern them from the light colors which are named white, but why wouldn't you want to distinguish between the differen colors. To me, blue is very different from green, even though they are both cool colors. Wouldn't having only two color words cause a lot of confusion in the language? On another note, I've also heard that if one sense is missing, then the others become stronger. So for someone not able to hear, it is probable that they're sight is probably pretty strong. So they would probably be more likely to be able to distinguish between different hues of different colors than we are, so why wouldn't they want to name them? http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/black_vs_white_1.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/black_vs_white_1.html From Class Ch. 5 Psych 440-Andrea Talking Hands - Fox Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:57:46 -0500 Chapter 4 discusses interesting views of modern linguistics and I found myself asking quite a few questions. To begin, on page 55 Fox discusses Chomsky’s argument for how speaking children are capable of testing, rejecting and revising their use of their native language, otherwise known as hypothesis testing, to determine what is correct and was is incorrect. However, Fox points out that nearly 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, so then, how would deaf children use hypothesis testing with gestures as opposed to sounds, words and phrases; especially if they are born to hearing parents who are not fluent signers? Another topic that was of great interest to me pertained to page 66, in which Fox discusses deaf native signers who suffer from strokes or other brain injuries. My question here pertains to differences among native deaf signers and hearing patients. Fox briefly describes that injuries to the brain have shown similarities between the dysfunctions seen in sign language and spoken-language, but provides little to no differences between the two, and that these similarities result from damage to the same part of the brain (left hemisphere). However, deaf patients sign using their hands so what would these findings imply about damage to motor areas of the brain? And how would that affect a deaf patient’s ability to communicate? http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/language_instincts.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/language_instincts.html From Class From the Class Michele Tanous Psych 440 Talking Hands - Fox Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:10:53 -0500 Chapter 4 (page 67) states that some deaf children born to hearing families may be exposed to no signing at all until they reach school age. Therefore they are unable to learn language in a natural way through absorbing it from their environment like other children are able to do. The book continued to say that children who are born to deaf parents and began signing early on did significantly better on false-belief tasks than deaf children who belonged to hearing parents. My question is, in addition to this particular task would deaf children who don't begin signing until later not have other activities that they don't perform as well in. Wouldn't they have many different impairments due to how late they are beginning to learn and understand language, which the book said, if they were lucky would be in preschool (where they still won't be at least 4 or 5)? In particular in the area of language, would these kids who have no exposure to language before not be extremely language impaired in some aspects? I would think that not being able to communicate for your beginning years and then learning to sign later would be a very difficult and harmful on children. http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/what_are_the_effects_of_learni.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/what_are_the_effects_of_learni.html From Class Psych 440-Amy Graham-from class entry Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:19:45 -0500 According to Morley, “Artists have sought different organizations of the spaces and contexts within which word and image appear.” Throughout the article, when discussing the four types of interactions of words and images, he gives examples of various art periods that have used the interaction. Overall, Morley discusses how artists use these relationships and interactions when creating their work. ]]> http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/interactions_between_words_and.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/interactions_between_words_and.html From the Field From the Field psych 440 walsh Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:23:11 -0500 In chapter 4 of Talking Hands, Fox discusses the way children acquire language. I guess I am confused about how this process works for both deaf and hearing babies. On page 65, she talks about between the ages of about six and ten months, hearing infants produce babble which we call baby talk. Then over time, as infants gain more exposure the babbling develops into adult language. She then continues to discuss how the exact same things happens with deaf infants exposed to sign as a first language. In this case, the babbling is manual. On page 68, Fox states, "For most deaf children, then, the experience of acquiring language is not at all comparable to that of hearing children." I understand that most deaf children are born of hearing parents so with this situation, sign would not be the first language. How then is language acquired for most deaf children? How is language acquired for deaf children with deaf parents? Is it very similar to hearing children with hearing parents? http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/how_is_language_acquired_for_c.html http://webpub.allegheny.edu/student/t/tanousm/weblog/2008/04/how_is_language_acquired_for_c.html From Class From the Class psych 440 walsh Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:36:57 -0500