Historical Change In American Sign Language Summary

IntroductionThis report is based on the article Arbitrariness and Iconicity: Historical Change in American Sign Language (Language 51, 1975) by Nancy Frishberg. First we will summarise Frishbergs article and explain her objectives. In the second part we will elaborate over four different words and their reduction of iconicity over the years. The article explicitly describes the changes up till 1975 and the changes after this era as in the ASL dictionary of 1981 will have no effect on our description although may be named.

Most researchers of sign languages share the opinion that big parts of the sign interference of sign languages have gesticulate and iconic origin. Iconicity in sign language represents the signs where the signifier resembles
the signified, e.g., a picture. This means that the signer mimes a sign which resembles the real-world object relating to or having the characteristics of an image. Laymen in sign language are able to understand the signs when they are iconic, but have no clue about the meaning when the sign is completely arbitrary. Between these two extremes there are also half-transparent signs; signs that are not understood readily, but after knowing what it refers to causes an aha-erlebnis in which the link between the sign and the concept is recognised. Important is the observation of Frishberg (1975: 700) that attributable to historical evolution of the signs their iconicity evaporates partially; Signs change away from their pantomimic or imitative origins to more arbitrary shapes. The question is to what degree this iconicity fades away and, even more important, why. To find out more about this tendency, the way signs were produced in the past and the modern forms have to be compared and contrasted. The information about the signs is found in sign dictionaries. For this essay we have used Frishbergs descriptions, three different internet sign dictionaries and copies from a 1987 and a 1992 sign dictionary. We studied all sources carefully and drew conclusions.

Frishbergs ArticleIn her article Arbitrariness and Iconicity: Historical Change in American Sign Language Frishberg discusses the American Sign Language and the change throughout history. She especially indicates that the degree of iconicity in sign languages decreases and set off in the direction of arbitrariness. Before elaborating over this phenomenon, she reflects on several misconceptions about sign languages.

Sign language is a natural language just like spoken languages.
Unlike many people think, there is not just one sign language with which all deaf people from all over the world can communicate, however there are several different sign languages we can distinguish from each other. ASL is the language deaf people use in America and some English speaking parts of Canada. Deaf people from other countries will not be able to recognize this language since, like the spoken languages, these languages are different.

Another misconception is that sign language, in this case ASL, is a direct translation of the English language. Frishberg notes that not one sign language is a direct translation of the spoken language. Sign languages have their own phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic properties. The grammar of ASL differs from the English spoken language as much as every other natural language.

There are many people who think that sign languages basically are mime and therefore nothing but iconic. This means that signs convey the exact subject matter or idea of the involved acts. There are indeed signs that are iconic, yet there are more signs that do not suggest reality at
all.

A spoken word is based on different sounds and morphology.
Sign languages too are realised through several different simultaneously used parameters which are hand configuration, movement, location and orientation. Simultaneously use means that the hand or hands of the speaker move along with a certain configuration at a certain location, in a specific approach toward the body and move distinctively. Frishberg explains the forms that can show one single ASL morpheme with one hand and two hands:1. one handa. in contact with the bodyb. in a neutral space2. two handsa. both hands in contact with the bodyb. in a neutral space simultaneous symmetric movement varied symmetric movementc. a strong, or dominant, hand in action on a weak, rather basis, handThis means that a sign can only exist of one of these forms, or out of more, combined structures. Many signs underwent changes throughout history. The reasons for these changes according to Frishberg are that signs are more easily produced or understood when performed in a different manner. Frishberg argues that there are five ways in which the signs have changed, all of these made the signs more arbitrary than before. There is a tendency towards symmetry, which means that the two hands assume the same hand shapes and/or movement. The second evolutionary change is displacement. Head-displacement occurs with signs made in contact with the face, and includes two-handed signs becoming one-handed and the location on the face where the
sign is made changes from the centre to the perimeter. Body-displacement occurs when signs are performed below the neck, and includes adding the second hand in one-handed signs to make them two-handed and the location on the body where the sign is made becomes more centralised. The third development causing the sign to move away from iconicity is assimilation and fluidity in which hand shapes and configurations become more smooth and shorter. This occurs a lot in signs originally made out of two other signs, the so-called compound signs, but this development is seen in one-part signs as well. The fourth development Frishberg describes is that of the lexical content limited to the hands. This means that signs which were originally made with more of the body than just the hands, for example bowing the forehead, now are made only with the hands. The signs become less pantomimic and thus more arbitrary. The last explanation Frishberg gives for the changes in ASL involves morphological issues. In her article Frishberg refers to it as morphological preservation. With this she means that the signs, which are simultaneously realised, look like each other and carry the same meaning as well. She argues that these signs too get a more arbitrary appearance rather than an iconic one. Because there is no material of when and where sign language began, Frishberg uses the Old French Sign Language (OFSL) since the American Sign Languages derives from this.

After studying the facts and sources Frishberg concludes that the changes in sign languages go from iconic to arbitrarily. Because of these changes, the signs became easier to articulate as well as precepts. Frishberg explains all these tendencies in her article and uses illustrations to clarify these developments, however does not fully exhausts every sign. In the following paragraphs, there will be some further explanation of signs that deserve some more attention than Frishberg gives them.

SymmetryMany signs which first had different hand shapes or movements show a strong inclination towards symmetry. There are several ways in which symmetry can be achieved. Firstly the hand shapes of the dominant and the weak hand can become similar. More specifically, the weak hand adapts itself to the hand shape of the strong hand. Furthermore the movements of the two hands can become similar, resulting in unison or alternation. There are examples that lead in the way of category 2 C, meaning that a sign has a strong hand in movement and a weak one with a different configuration than the strong hand. These hands form the basis and they developed into a sign in which both hands took the same configuration. In other cases, single-handed gestures changed into two-handed signs in which the joined hand shape and movement takes the shape of the first hand. To illustrate the tendency towards symmetry, two signs that have changed are explained below.

In the article Frishberg explains that the weak hand in the realisation of the word WORLD in 1975 has taken the W-shape ( ) of the strong hand. We have found no references to what the sign looked like before the change. However; the 1987 dictionary describes that the sign sometimes is made with the weak hand fist shaped ( ), instead of W-shaped. The fist representing the sun, and the moving W-hand referring to the earth, or rather world, circling around the sun. One explanation could be that the change of the weak hand from fist into W-hand is not yet fully established and that it originally was the fist. However; we have no evidence for this. It is significant that there are two completely different hand shapes possible for the weak hand, which leads us to suggest that there still is some development going on and that it is in a sort of in between phase. The fact that there are two W-shaped hands now makes the sign less iconic than when there is one fist and one W-shaped hand, because it does not so clearly represent the earth circling around the sun. Furthermore, while the passive hand remained still before, the movement has changed from one hand to two. Both W-hands circle around each other now. This, too, makes it less iconic. Thus both movement and hand shapes became symmetrical, making it easier for the signer and the receiver to produce and understand.

The next example is that of the sign INSTITUTION. This sign originally had a fist as base hand shape and an I-hand as dominant hand. The dominant hand, as in the sign WORLD, acts upon the fist-shaped (S) base hand. The sign has developed into consisting of two I-hands, which means that the base hand adapted itself to the dominant hand. The two hands used in the sign are symmetrical now. Frishberg argues that this change in hand shape made the sign less iconic, but we do not really agree. The two I-hands represent the initial letter of INSTITUTION and, according to us, the sign becomes more iconic because of this than when there is only one I-hand and a fist shaped base hand. What we also observed was that when making the sign the base hand makes a rocking movement like the dominant hand. It may well be that this is insignificant and only the result of producing the sign. This movement is not described in the sign dictionaries but only seen when looking at video clips of actual signers. However; even though this is not described in the paper versions with pictures of the sign language, when this movement is made by signers it might be a further development into symmetry. In sum; the passive hand adapted itself to the dominant hand and there is a tendency towards symmetry in movement as well.

Lexical content limited to the handsFrishbergs sources show many examples of signs that are realised through body movement, facial expression and contact to the surroundings. Nowadays, only hand movement is used to show these signs. Limitation to hand movement shows that the signs develop from being iconic to more arbitrary. This does not mean that the face, body and surroundings are not being used at all anymore to make signs, moreover when there is a use of more than hands only, there is a special reason. One reason can be to emphasise or show information about the sentence, like a question, an uncertainty or confirmation.

The original form of COMPARE for example, existed out of two flat hands separated from each other directed with the inside, or palms, to the face pointing upwards. The eyes moved from one hand to the other and after that both eyes would look at both hands which moved alongside the face. The modern form that Frishberg describes in 1975 exists out of the same hands as starting position and move symmetrical or varied.

According to Frishberg, signs can nowadays be described by four parameters of hand configuration, location movement and orientation. According to Frishbergs description about the modern form of COMPARE, this is true. However, according to the ASL Dictionary of 1987 the eyes did move, which strikes with Frishbergs ideas. With less to focus, meaning only the hands and not the eyes, it is easier for the perceptive party to understand the sign and for the articulator as well.

Morphological preservationThere are signs that changed by means of morphologically grounds. Just as spoken words are formed from fractions, e.g. vowel sounds and consonant sounds, so are the signs sign languages. However, with sign languages the parts of a sign are specific hand shapes, movements of the hand, and specific locations of the hand. DONT CARE is a good example of this occurrence. Frishberg states that when two signs are morphological related when they are both in meaning as well as shape or production the same. This means that they can have different begin and endpoints or otherwise two different words can be signed likewise. DONT CARE changed from the forehead or temple, to the nose, which is shown in footnote number 3 below. The morphological aspect about this change is that these kinds of signs now indicate negativity the same as for example LOUSY and SCANTY which include the nose as well. To state whether it is less iconic or not, is quite difficult. It seems more iconic when it starts with the head because the word CARE actually does, however, when all these kind of negative words are signed from one place, it should be easier to identify for the receiver in some way. For the one that produces the sign, it is easier, because that person too knows that it is supposed to become a negative implication. All he or she had to do is produce a negative implication, beginning with the nose and follow with the rest of the sign. Frishberg in this case goes beyond the earlier described transformation which includes that the signs change from the centre of the face to the temple. In her example of DONT CARE however, the sign changes from the forehead to the nose which means that it changes to the centre of the face in stead of the other way around. Some of the negative signs thus also moved to the temple of the face and not all to the nose.

ConclusionThe deaf society populates about ten percent of the world, meaning that in America alone there are approximately ten million deaf people. With this great number of deaf people in society, we must try to understand the concepts of deaf cultures. According to our observations with research together with the Frishbergs article Arbitrariness and Iconicity: Historical Change in American Sign Language (Language 51, 1975), we come to the conclusion that there are several changes in sign language throughout the years that make signs less iconic, therefore more arbitrary. However, Frishberg based her conclusions upon 1975 without the prospect of further changes throughout the years.

To indicate why all signs are nowadays less iconic we dug further into research and came to the conclusion that it changed to make it easier to produce and understand. When signs are symmetric or have, for example, one sign for negativity it is easy to remember that particular part. If all are more diverse, you have to learn and remember more signs.

Works CitedFrishberg, N. Language Arbitrariness and Iconicity: Historical Change in American Sign Language iss. 51, 1975Proctor, C.L. NTC´s multilingual dictionary of American Sign Language. 1990. p. 115, 605Sternberg, M.L.A. American Sign Language Dictionary. 1981