Chapter 6
Sign languages and spoken languages
Toward a new description
In recent years an increasing number of linguists have begun writing about the characteristics of spoken language (versus written languages) in a way that is very similar to how sign language researchers have for years described the elements that they viewed as being uniquely relevant to visual-gestural languages. Today, the semiotic properties and structural features, which seem to most characterize sign languages, often overlooked by early research, are in fact greatly relevant to spoken languages as well. Five main topics relevant in the cognitive and socio-semiotic description of signed and spoken languages are highlighted, pointing towards a new theoretical perspective that considers human language a multimodal phenomenon, and leading us to rethink the very notion of language.
Article outline
- 6.1Relevant topics arising from the description of LIS
- 6.2From action to language
- 6.3Rethinking linguistic components
- 6.4Iconicity and arbitrariness
- 6.5Linguistic typology
- 6.6A social vision of language
- 6.7Concluding remarks
-
Notes and suggested readings