“Sarkozy told Obama that he would be elected” is an ambiguous sentence. We don’t know exactly who “he” refers to. It turns out there is a “Super Language” that eliminates this confusion. That super language is none other than Sign Language, giving the Deaf yet another reason to be proud. By using corporal shifting, Sign Language can place, physical space, Sarkozy on one side and Obama on the other and point to one of them to indicate “he”, which makes it clear whether “he” refers to Obama or Sarkozy.
Researchers at NYU spent 8 years studying French and American Sign Language and discovered that Sign Languages can state more clearly meaning that is only implicit in spoken languages. It also uses “iconic modulations” and non-manual markers to more precisely indicate the degree of concepts such as signing “looonnnnng” to show how long, or signing “grow” in a way that can indicate the speed and/or amount of growth. These modulations are common in Sign Language but not so much in spoken languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, or Vietnamese to name a few.
The details have been published in Theoretical Linguistics and led the researchers to note that American Sign Language (ASL) can be richer by means of incorporating more information, and is in a way a “Super Language.”
Contact us today to book one of our “Super ASL Interpreters” by calling 855-562-7768 or emailing us at spotoninterpreting@gmail.com.
