Ten Things You Should Know About Sign Languages

Abstract

The 10 things you should know about sign languages are the following: (1) Sign languages have phonology and poetry. (2) Sign languages vary in their linguistic structure and family history but share some typological features due to their shared biology (manual production). (3) Although there are many similarities between perceiving and producing speech and sign, the biology of language can impact aspects of processing. (4) Iconicity is pervasive in sign language lexicons and can play a role in language acquisition and processing. (5) Deaf and hard-of-hearing children are at risk for language deprivation. (6) Signers gesture when signing. (7) Sign language experience enhances some visual-spatial skills. (8) The same left-hemisphere brain regions support both spoken and sign languages, but some neural regions are specific to sign language. (9) Bimodal bilinguals can code-blend, rather code-switch, which alters the nature of language control. (10) The emergence of new sign languages reveals patterns of language creation and evolution. These discoveries reveal how language modality does and does not affect language structure, acquisition, processing, use, and representation in the brain. Sign languages provide unique insights into human language that cannot be obtained by studying spoken languages alone.

Chiroscript: Transcription System for Studying Hand Gestures in Early Modern Painting

“…It reflects the lack of scientific recognition of sign languages until the 1970s. Since then, an increasing number of linguistic studies have been dedicated to the grammar and syntax of these visuo-spatial dynamic languages, today accepted by the academic communities as equal to the auditory-phonetic languages (Stokoe 1972;Emmorey 2023). Consequently, art historians may want to update the semiotic framework of figurative art and include comparisons between static pictures and the imagery of visual languages.…”

Differences in biological motion perception associated with hearing status and age of signed language exposure

“…Theoretically, there could be a relationship between the mechanism involved in comprehending signed language movements and biological motion perception in sensorimotor cortices (Willis, 2023;Kubicek & Quandt, 2019;Leonard et al, 2020;Bosworth, Wright & Dobkins, 2019;Lammert et al, 2023). Indeed, evidence suggests that learning a signed language can have modality-specific effects that potentially alter signers' perception (Bosworth, Wright & Dobkins, 2019;Stoll & Dye, 2019;Emmorey, 2023). The visual and physical expertise acquired through signed language fluency could consequently impact the perception of biological motion in people who use signed language, regardless of their hearing status.…”

Rapid increases in children’s spontaneous and responsive speech vocalizations following cochlear implantation: implications for spoken language development

“…However, visual language input (from manual gestures to signed language systems such as American Sign Language, etc.) can be an important component of early linguistic development for children who are deaf; for example, early exposure and acquisition of American Sign Language can mitigate the very negative effects of language deprivation early in life (Emmorey, 2023) without negatively impacting later spoken language outcomes (speech articulation, expressive vocabulary) (L. S. Davidson, Geers, & Nicholas, 2014;Pontecorvo et al, 2023). (We refer readers to (Berger, Pyers, Lieberman, & Caselli, 2023) and (Pontecorvo et al, 2023) for a more holistic understanding of how early bimodal input can scaffold language development in children with hearing loss.)…”