Objectivity and commitment in ASL

Susan Schatz

Fri. 4:25-5:40 C

Wolfram argues that linguists should go beyond the two traditional roles that Labov identifies as the Principle of Error Correction and the Principle of Debt Incurred (Labov, 1982). He adds that linguists should seek a more positive active role within the community and he proposes the Principle of Linguistic Gratuity. Those communities have benefited greatly from Wolfram's language awareness programs. Labov's and Wolfram's principles have been addressed ins spoken language studies for some time now but what about sign language? Are those principles also an issue in sign language studies? I will argue that they are.

Just like spoken language linguists, sign language linguists have been active in serving Labov's two traditional principles since ASL was discovered as a true language in 1960. However, there is strong need for sign language linguists to practice Wolfram's principles of linguistic gratuity for several reasons. First, American Sign Language (ASL) used by Deaf Americans is subject to similar myths and beliefs about language variation found in spoken languages. Second, ASL have been plagued with many myths and language attitudes. As a result of those myths and language attitudes toward ASL have had profound effect on how the Deaf community members see themselves as ASL users. Third, ASL is a visual language. Therefore, data collecting in the Deaf community can be done only by videotaping. Unlike in spoken language studies, in which audio tapes are used, videotaping reveals Deaf participants' identities easily and the issue of sensitivity and trust arise. Fourth, there is the issue of hearing and Deaf researchers participating in data collecting. Researchers who are hearing can influence how Deaf ASL users use ASL, thus affecting the quality of data collecting.

This presentation will focus on the benefits of bring ASL linguistics and sociolinguistics studies into the Deaf community, deaf educational systems, teacher and interpreter training programs and this presentation will also present innovative ideas on how to implement sociolinguistic awareness programs within the Deaf community. In particular, this presentation will describe the development of a manual for high school Deaf students entitled "Questions and Answers on ASL Variation." This manual will serve as a model of how to bring sociolinguistic studies into the Deaf community.

References

Labov, W. (1982). Objectivity and Commitment in Linguistic Science: the case of the Black English trial in Ann Arbor. Language in Society 11. pp. 165-201.

Wolfram, Walt. (1993). Ethical Considerations in Language Awareness Programs. In Plummer, J. (ed.), Issues in Applied Linguistics: Vol. 4(2). pp. 225-255.