READING COMPREHENSION REPORT – WEEK 9

THE DEAF/SIGN LANGUAGE

Name : Ananda Gunawan

NIM : 03020320041
Smt/Class : 5/A

At least, you have to cover these questions to complete your reading report:

A. What do you know about these? Please explain appropriately!

 Sign Language: A True Language Without Speech
 A sign language is a true language because the language
system allows a signer to comprehend and produce an
indefinitely large number of grammatical sentences in signs. a
signing person has a true language if that a person can
communicate by sign whatever can be communicated by
speech (Steinberg & Sciarini, 2006). Steinberg D, D., &
Sciarini V, N (2006). An introduction to psycholinguistics
(2nd ed.)
 Gestures Vs. Sign Language
 Gestures: Although gestures may be complex, they are only
collections of signs that are limited in scope and do not form a
true language Nevertheless, gestures do play an important
part in the communication of hearing persons and they occur
both with and without speech. We use gestures to
communicate a variety of types of messages (Steinberg&
Sciarini, 2006). Steinberg D, D., & Sciarini V, N (2006). An
introduction to psycholinguistics (2nd ed.)
 Sign Language: Sign languages use hand, face, or other body
movements in a three-dimensional space as the physical
means of communication. Principally, there are two types of
sign language: one that relates to ordinary speech-based
language and one that is independent of ordinary
language. These sign languages are independent of the
ordinary spoken language, having developed their own words
and grammatical systems for the production and
understanding of sentences. We shall call these Independent
Sign Languages (ISLs) (Steinberg & Sciarini, 2006). Steinberg
D, D., & Sciarini V, N (2006). An introduction to
psycholinguistics (2nd ed.)
 Sign Language Acquisition
 The acquisition of signed languages in infancy closely
resembles the acquisition of spoken languages. Some studies
suggest that signing children may acquire their first 10 signs
faster than hearing infants acquire their first 10 words, but
the differences in the timing of the one-word, two-word and
multi-word stages are about the same in both groups. A
minority of signers learn the language from birth, while many
 are exposed to standard ASL only after reaching school age or
beyond. In fact, only 3-7 % of ASL users are native signers.
Therefore, language outcomes for
non-native deaf signers reflect the delayed onset of learning,
rather than deprivation or other physical and cognitive
deficits that result from neglect
and abuse (Traxler, 2012). Traxler, Metthew J. (2012).
Introduction to Psycholinguistics Understanding Language
Science. UK: Wiley-Blackwell Publication
 Sign Language Processing
 In terms of the rate of speech versus sign, spoken language
comes at comprehenders a little faster than a sign: speech
rates among speakers differ, on average speech contains
about 10 to 15 segments per second, whereas sign language
contains about 7 to 11 segments per second. So, in terms of
perception, while speech has more low-level units to deal
with, the overall amount of information per second is roughly
equivalent (Cowels, 2011). Cowels, H. Wind. (2011).
Psycholinguistc 101. New York: Springer Publishing
Company, LLC.
 Characteristics of Signed Languages
 Sign languages have gestures that are the equivalent of root
morphemes in spoken languages, and the collection of
gestures in sign language comprises a lexicon. The sign
language lexicon is divided into subcomponents that reflect
different sign classes, such as nouns and verbs. Some signs are
produced with one hand, and some are produced with both,
but for one-handed signs, the meaning remains the same no
matter which hand is used. Sign language also has a syllabic
structure, because signs must incorporate an aspect of
movement to be well-formed, and this characteristic is lacking
in pantomime (Traxler, 2012). Traxler, Metthew J. (2012).
Introduction to Psycholinguistics Understanding Language
Science. UK: Wiley-Blackwell Publication
 Lexical Access in Sign Language
 Language scientists do not yet know how well standard
models of lexical access, such as FOBS, COHORT, and TRACE
apply to sign language comprehension. Phonological
neighborhoods in sign language consist of sets of signs that
share location, hand shape, or movement. Like spoken words,
some signs come from denser neighborhoods than others.
Studies of spoken language recognition show that
neighborhood density interacts
with word frequency or subjective familiarity. Low-frequency
words are harder to process when they have higher frequency
neighbors, but high-frequency words are less affected by the
presence of neighbors. Familiarity
also interacted with neighborhood density, but in different
ways for different sign parameters. Unfamiliar signs were
 harder to process than familiar signs when they came from
dense neighborhoods when the neighborhood was defined by
location, but unfamiliar signs were easier to process when the
neighborhood was defined by hand shape. Thus, while
familiarity effects in sign language are consistent with results
from spoken and written word processing, some of the
neighborhood effects are not. As a result, theories of lexical
access built from studies of spoken languages
may not be straightforwardly extended to sign language.
Instead, theories of lexical access in sign language may have to
take into account the unique
properties of signs (Traxler, 2012). Traxler, Metthew J.
(2012). Introduction to Psycholinguistics Understanding
Language Science. UK: Wiley-Blackwell Publication
 Sign Language Syntax & Morphology
 Sign Language Syntax
All languages have rules of syntax similar in kind, if not in
detail, to those of English, and sign languages are no
exception. Signed languages have phrase-structure rules that
provide hierarchical structure and order constituents. A
signer distinguishes the dog chasing the cat from the cat
chasing the dog through the order of signing. The basic order
of ASL is SVo. Unlike English, however, adjectives follow the
head noun in ASL. ASL has a category Aux, which expresses
notions such as tense, agreement, modality, and so on. In ASL
a similar reordering of signs
accompanied by raising the eyebrows and tilting the head
upward accomplishes the same effect. The head motion and
facial expressions of a signer function as markers of the
special word order, much as intonation does in English, or the
attachment of prefixes or suffixes might in other
languages (Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams, 2011). Fromkin F.,
Rodman R., Hyams N. (2011). An Introduction to Language.
Canada: Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning.
 Sign Language Morphology
ASL signs have a morphological structure, just as spoken
words do, and signers represent different components of
signs separately. ASL also combines roots and inflections to
produce morphologically complex signs. Unlike spoken
language, ASL root and inflectional morphemes are
produced simultaneously. The hand shape and the movement
contour overlap in time. As a result, ASL users might
represent morphologically complex signs as an unanalyzed
whole, keeping all of the different parts
tightly connected in memory. Alternatively, signers could
represent component morphemes of complex signs
separately, just as speakers separately represent the
component morphemes of complex words (Traxler, 2012).
Traxler, Metthew J. (2012). Introduction to
 Psycholinguistics Understanding Language Science. UK:
Wiley-Blackwell Publication
 The ‘Phonetic’ of Sign Languages
 Signed languages, like all other human languages, are
governed by a grammatical system that includes syntactic and
morphological rules. Just as spoken languages distinguish
sounds according to place and manner of articulation, so
signed languages distinguish signs according to the place and
the manner in which the signs are articulated by the hands
(Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams, 2011). Fromkin F., Rodman R.,
Hyams N. (2011). An Introduction to Language. Canada:
Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning.

B. What knowledge or new information did you get and learn the best from your
reading this week?
 In this lesson, the knowledge that I got from deaf or sign
language is how to use symbols for people with deaf or sign
language, we can see this symbol is very important because
with this symbol we can communicate with people who are
deaf. And during the presentation, the presenter explained the
types of sign language, how to gesture, and also explained what
American sign language and British sign language are.

C. How many references did you read this week? You have to prove it by stating
or citing the references in your reading report.
 Steinberg D, D., & Sciarini V, N (2006). An introduction to
psycholinguistics (2nd ed.)
 Traxler, Metthew J. (2012). Introduction to
Psycholinguistics Understanding Language Science. UK:
Wiley-Blackwell Publication
 Fromkin F., Rodman R., Hyams N. (2011). An Introduction
to Language. Canada: Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning.
 Cowels, H. Wind. (2011). Psycholinguistc 101. New York:
Springer Publishing Company, LLC.

Important Notes:
 Don’t forget to insert correct in-text citation in your report to prove that
you’ve read and got the information or knowledge from the references or
books that u cited.
 You also have to mention complete references including the chapter and the
page at the end of your reading report. For example:

References

1. Traxler, Metthew J. (2012). Introduction to Psycholinguistics Understanding

Language Science. UK: Wiley-Blackwell Publication. (Chapter 2; Page 2)

2. Fromkin F., Rodman R., Hyams N. (2011). An Introduction to Language.

 Canada: Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning. (Chapter 6; Page 284)

3. Cowels, H. Wind. (2011). Psycholinguistc 101. New York: Springer Publishing

Company, LLC. (Chapter 5; Page 93)

4. ………???????