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5/21/2018 Art. the Idea of Gesture as a Universal Language
1/15
The Idea of Gesture as a Universal Language in the XVIIth and XVIIIth CenturiesAuthor(s): James R. KnowlsonSource: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1965), pp. 495-508Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2708496.
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2/15
THE
IDEA OF
GESTURE AS A UNIVERSAL
LANGUAGE
IN
THE
XVIITH
AND
XVIIITH
CENTURIES
BY
JAMES
R. KNOWLSON
The idea that someone
unable
to
speak
or
understand another
person's
language
might
nonetheless communicatewith him
by
the
use
of
gesture
is one that has occurred
fairly
often from
classical
times to the
present day.
Personal
experience
has
usually
been
enough
to show that
gestures
may
sometimessucceed
when
words
have
failed.
On the other
hand,
one has
only
to think of the
misunderstandings
and
frustrationsthat can
result
from
efforts to
expressby
means of
gesture
anything
in the
least
complex
or
abstract
to
realize
very
clearly
the limitations
of
this
mode of communication.
It
is
scarcely
surprising,
then,
that those scholars who
have
ac-
claimed the
language
of
gesture
and commended t
to mankind as the
only
truly
universal
anguage
should
have
drawn
their
inspiration
ess
from
their
own
(or
someone
else's)
direct
experience
than from the
more
highly
developed
formsof
gesture
used
by
the mime
artist,
the
orator,
or the deaf man.
Lucian
recounted,
for
example,
in the dia-
logue
Of
Pantomime,l
how a
Prince
of
Pontus,
when
promised
a
gift
by
Nero,
requested
that
he
should be
granted
the
services
of
a well-
known
mimer,
who could
replace
the
various
interpreters
that he
neededto
employ
in
order o communicatewith
the
notablesof
neigh-
boring
ands.
At
the
beginning
of
the
XVIIth
century,
Giovanni
Boni-
facio,
in
l'Arte de'
Cenni,2
revealed
the
astonishingly
wide
range
of
ideas that couldbe
expressed
by
the orator's
gestures,
and
suggested
that these
gestures
could
in
fact
provide
a
highly
efficient
orm of
uni-
versal
language.
As
recently
as
1953
indeed,
Sir
Richard
Paget pro-
posed
that a
sign-language:
...
might
be
taught
as a form of
play
to all
children,
to
develop
their
powers
of
observation
and
expression.
f
this were
done
in all
countries
by
means
of
instructional
films,
there
would be
a
very simple
international
languageby
which the differentraces
of
mankind, ncluding
he
deaf,might
understand
one
another.3
1
The
Works
of
Lucian
of
Samosata,
trans.
by
H.
W.
and
F. G.
Fowler,
4
vols.
(Oxford,
1905),
II,
256. Classical
pantomine
was discussedon a number
of occasions
in
the
eighteenth
century,
referencesometimes
being
made to
Lucian's
story.
See,
for
example,
he Abbe du
Bos'
Reflexionscritiques
sur la
Peinture et
la Poesie
[1st.
ed.
1719]
6th
ed.
(Paris, 1755),
3
vols.,
III, 282,
and Thomas Reid's
Essays
on the
Intellectual Powers
of
Man in
The
Works
of
Thomas Reid
D.D.,
ed.
Sir William
Hamilton
(Edinburgh,
1846),
Essay
VI, 5,
Sec.
9,
449-50.
2
G. Bonifacio,L'Artede' Cennicon la quale formandosi avellavisibile,si tratta
della
muta
eloquenza,
he
non
e
altro che
un
facondo
silentio
(Vicenza,1616).
3
Preface
(xvi)
to
K.
W.
Hodgson,
The
Deaf
and
Their
Problems.A
Study
in
Special
Education
(London,
1953).
See also Nature
(Jan. 16, 1943), CLI,
80.
495
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3/15
496
JAMES
R.
KNOWLSON
Students of
the
universal
language
movement
have so
far
concen-
trated
their attention
only upon
schemes of
universal
writing,4
and,
to the
best of
our
knowledge,
have
ignored
entirely
the
suggestion
that gesture might provide such a language. It is clearly impossible
in
a short
article to
trace the entire
history
of
this
particular
idea.
Our intention is therefore to
examine here its
emergence
in
the
XVIIth
century
and to
show
particularly
how,
in
the
XVIIth and
XVIIIth
centuries,
it was related
to
the
development
of
gesture
as
a
method
of
teaching
the
deaf.
The notion that
gesture
could
provide
an
admirable
universal
language
for
mankind
was
inspired
first,
it would
seem, by
the
re-
markable
variety
and
clarity
of the
gestures taught
and used in Ren-
aissance
rhetoric.
It is
in
two
of the
best-known
manuals of rhetorical
delivery published
in
the first half of
the XVIIth
century-Giovanni
Bonifacio's l'Arte
de'
Cenni
and
John
Bulwer's
Chirologia:
or
the
Naturall
Language
of
the Hand
5-that we find
the
idea
most
clearly
expressed.
Referring
to
the barriers to
understanding
that have
been
raised
between
peoples
by
the
diversity
of
tongues,
Bonifacio
wrote:
E veramente l nostroparlare6 tanto vario, e diverso,e tante sorti di lin-
guaggi
si
ritrovano
al
mondo,
che
con
grande
incommodo
spesse
volte
non
intendiamo
a
favella
de'
nostri
vicini,
non
che
degli
stranieri,
e
de'
lontani,
il che
e
avenuto
perche
tralasciando
gli
huomini
questa
visibile
natural
favella
sono andati
inventando varii
artificiosi
modi di
favellare,
che
se
il
nostro
parlare
fosse
naturale,
tutti
gli
huomini con
un
solo
idioma
parle-
rebbono.6
Hence,
he
suggested,
a
language
of
gesture,
made
up
of that vast
repertoire of rhetorical signs used by the orator,7 if universally
adopted,
could
break down the
barriers raised at
Babel.
For
the
English physician,
John
Bulwer,
also,
the hand:
4
Histories
of
the universal
anguage
movement
such
as
L.
Couturat
and
L.
Leau,
Histoire
de la
Langue
Universelle
Paris,
1903),
A.
Guerard,
A
short
History
of
the
International
Language
Movement
(London, 1922),
M.
Pei,
One
Language
or
the
World
(New
York,
1958),
M.
Monnerot-Dumaine,
recis
d'interlinguistique
Paris,
1960),
P.
Burney,
Les
Langues
Internationales
(Paris, 1962),
neglect
the
idea
of
gesture as the universallanguage.P. E. Stojan in the Bibliografiode internacia
linguo
(Geneva, 1929),
has a
list
of
gestural languages
for the
use
of
the
deaf.
A brief
list of recent
articleson universal
anguage
schemes
n the XVIIth
century
(again
not
touching
on
this
particularaspect)
will be found
in
the
writer's
earlier
article,
J.H.I.,
XXIV
(April-June
1963),
269.
5
J.
Bulwer,
Chirologia:
or the
Naturall
Languageof
the
Hand.
Composed
of
the
Speaking
Motions,
and
Discoursing
Gestures
thereof.
Whereunto is added
Chi-
ronomia: or the
Art
of
Manuall Rhetoricke
etc.
by
J.
B.
Gent
Philochirosophus
(London,1644).
6
G.
Bonifacio,op.
cit.,
11-12.
7
On
Bulwer see
K.
Hodgson,op.
cit.,
95-97 and
H.
J.
Norman,
John
Bulwer,
The
Chirosopher,
roceedings
of
the
Royal
Society
of
Medicine
(May,
1943),
589-
602.
What Bulwer's work
reveals
of
early XVIIth-century acting
technique
s dis-
cussed
n B. L.
Joseph's
book Elizabethan
Acting
(London,1951).
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4/15
GESTURE
AS A
UNIVERSAL
LANGUAGE 497
.
.
speakes
all
languages,
and as
universall
character
of
Reason
is
generally
understood
and
knowne
by
all
Nations,
among
the
formall
differences
of
their
Tongue.
And
being
the
onely
speech
that is naturall
to
Man,
it
may
well be called the Tongueand Generall anguageof HumaneNature,which,
without
teaching,
men
in all
regions
of the
habitable world doe at the
first
sight
most
easily
understand.8
Gestural
signs, moreover,
Bulwer
maintained,
were
infinitely superior
to
spoken
words:
they
were,
for
instance,
more
striking
in
effect and
speedier
in
execution.
More
important
than
this, however,
was,
he
believed,
the
fact
that
the
language
of
signs
differed
from all
spoken
tongues
(even
from
Hebrew)
in
being
a
natural
language.
It
could
therefore
be
universally
understood
without
being
learned or trans-
lated.
The
language
of
gesture appeared
then to
Bulwer
as
the
natural
language
of
the
beasts,
of
Adam,
and of mankind as
a whole. It was
that
primitive
tongue
which:
..
had the
happinesse
o
escape
the
curse at
the
confusion
of
Babel:
so
it
hath
since been
sanctified and
made
a
holy language
by
the
expressions
of
our
Saviours
Hands.9
For this reason above all, Bulwer believed that gesture was the ob-
vious
language
to be
adopted by
mankind
as
a common
tongue.
The
example
of the
deaf and dumb confirmed
Bulwer
in
his
belief
that the hand
could serve
as
an excellent substitute
for
the
tongue,
as
well
as
act
as an
accompaniment
to it. He
had been
much
im-
pressed,
he
wrote,
by:
.
..
that
wonder
of
necessity
that Nature
worketh in
men
that
are
born
deafe and
dumbe;
who
can
argue
and
dispute
rhetorically
by
signes,
and
with a kind of mute and logistiqueeloquenceovercome heir amaz'doppo-
nents;
wherein
some
are
so
ready
and
excellent,
they
seem to
want
nothing
to
have their
meanings
perfectly
understood.10
And
so,
after
attempting
to
adapt
the manual
signs
of
the
orator
for
use
among
the
deaf,
he
concluded in
a
later work 1 that such
an
adaptation
was
totally
unnecessary,
since
they already possessed
their
own
perfectly
adequate system
of
signs.
He went
on indeed
to reassure
the
deaf
that:
...
though you
cannot
expressyour
mindes
in
those verball
contrivancesof
man's
invention;
yet you
want
not
speech,
who
have
your
whole
Body;
for
a
Tongue,having
a
language
more naturall
and
significant
which
is common
to
you
with
us,
to
wit
gesture,
the
generall
and
universall
language
of
Humane
nature,
which
when
we
would
have
our
Speech
to
have
life
and
efficacy
we
joyne
in
commission
with our
wordes,
and when we
should
speak
with more
store
and
gravity,
we renounce
words and
use
Nods and other
Natural
signs
alone.12
8
J.
Bulwer,
op. cit.,
3.
9
Ibid.,
7.
10
Ibid.,
5.
11
J.
Bulwer, Philocophus
or the
Deafe
and
DumbeMan's Friend
by
J.
B.,
sur-
named the
Chirosopher
London,
1648).
12
Ibid.,
Dedication.
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5/15
498
JAMES R.
KNOWLSON
The
example
of the
deaf man's
signs
was then of
some
importance
already
in the
XVIIth
century
(and,
we shall
see,
was to
become
more
important
still
in
the late XVIIIth
century).
It
is
worth
then
considering or a momentwhat the status of this form of gesturehad
been
up
to that time.
Throughout
the Middle
Ages,
it had been
widely
believed
that
the deaf and dumb
were
quite incapable
of
benefiting
from
instruc-
tion of
any
kind.13Hence
few
men
were bold
or
foolish
enough
to
attempt
what
appeared
o be an
impossible
task. Dumbness was
con-
sidered
more
or
less
synonymous
with deafness. The deaf were
dumb,
not because
they
were
unable to
hear
speech-sounds,
but because
they wereafflictedwith a disease that affectedtheir organsof speech
as well as their
organs
of
hearing.
And
they
could not be
taught,
partly
because
knowledge
was
acquired
argely through
conventional
language,
but
also
because,
in
many cases,
the
deaf and dumb
ap-
peared
closer to
the
brutes
in
intelligence
than
they
did
to
normal
(i.e.
speaking)
human
beings.
As a result
of
this
attitude,
the
earliest
reports
that
deaf-mutes had
been
taught
to
understand
what
was
spoken
or written
down and
to utter
intelligible
speech-sounds,
were
treated as ill-foundedrumors,as miracle-cures(since deafness and
dumbness,
being divinely
inflicted,
could
only
be
cured
by
divine
in-
tervention),
or as
clear
proof
that
the
deaf
person
concernedcould
not
truly
have been
deaf
and
dumb at all.
Yet,
though
the deaf had been
regarded
for
many
centuries
as
incapable
of
speech,
it had
long
been
known
that
they
could com-
municate,
to
some extent
at
least,
with
those around them
by
means
of
a
number
of
(chiefly
manual)
gestures
that
were
simple
and
easy
to understand.Plato, for example,in the Cratylusreferredto those
significant
movementsof
the
head,
hand and
body
that
were
made
by
the
dumb,
and
Saint
Augustine
in
the De
Quantitate
Anima
spoke
of
a
deaf
person
who
could understandothers
and
express
himself
by
means of
gestures.14
One
recalls also the
burlesque
use to
which
ges-
tures
were
put
by
Panurge
in
Rabelais'
Pantagruel.14aFinally,
Des-
cartes
mentioned
n
the
fifth
part
of the
Discours
de
la Methodethat:
...
les
hommes
qui,
etant nes
sourds
et
muets,
sont
prives
des
organes
qui
servent aux
autres
pour
parler,
autant ou
plus
que
les
betes,
ont coitume
d'inventer
d'eux-memes,
quelques
signes, par
lesquels
ils
se font entendrea
ceux
qui,
etant
ordinairement
vec
eux,
ont
loisir
d'apprendre
eur
langue.15
13
K.
Hodgson
in The
Deaf
and
Their
Problems, Chap. 7,
gives
an
interesting
account
of
the
plight
of
the
deaf-mute n the Middle
Ages
and
in the
XVIth
and
XVIIth
centuries.
14
Quoted
n
K.
Hodgson,
op.
cit.,
72-73.
14aRabelais,
Oeuvres
Completes,
Bib.
de la Pleiade
(Paris, 1959), Pantagruel,
Chap.
XIX,
254-258;
also
ibid.,
Tiers
Livre, Chap.
XVII, 387-389,
and
Gargantua,
Chap.
XXXV,
104-106.
15
R.
Descartes,
Discours
de la
Methode,
ed. E.
Gilson
(Paris, 1930),
Ve
partie,
57-58.
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6/15
GESTUREAS A UNIVERSAL
LANGUAGE
499
Gestural
signs
were
indispensable
to
the deaf
person,
since
they
allowed
him
to
communicatehis
physical
needs and basic desires to
other membersof the
family
group.Equally,
of
course,
the
usefulness
of
these
signs
was
recognizedby
those
upon
whom
the
welfare of
the
deaf-mute
depended,
and
so a
gestural language
of a kind existed
and
was
able to
evolve
naturally
within
the cadre
of
the deaf
person's
family.
Yet
gesture
appeared
suitable for
communicationat
a
primitive
level
only,
and
when
there
was
development,
t
occurred,
as
it
were,
in
isolation.
For,
outside
the
family
circle,
signs
appeared
nconven-
ient,
strange,
and
clumsy
to
use;
often
stigmatized by
association
with an
apparent
diocy, they
were
(and
still
are,
of
course)
socially
unacceptable.
Moreover,
since
there was no institution
or stable
com-
munity
to
perpetuate
any newly
invented
signs,
there could be
little
general
development
of
the
language:
frequently,
the afflicted
amily
would
build
up
its
own conventional
signs only
for them to
be
lost
on
the deaf
person's
death.
The
static
nature
of
medieval
family
life
also
prevented
any
more
extensive
form of
development
rom
taking
place.
More
important
still was the
fact
that
signs
could not
com-
pensate
for
hearing
in
matters
of
religion. Indeed,
the deaf
were
re-
garded
throughout
the Middle
Ages
as cut
off from the word
of
God,
since .
. .
faith
cometh
by
hearing,
and
hearing by
the
word
of
God.
16
A
typical
view
of
gesture,
written
in
fact
by
a
practicing
teacher of the
deaf at the
end
of
the
XVIIth
century,
but
represent-
ing
an
attitude that
had
prevailed
for
many
centuries
before,
was
expressed
by
Johann
Conrad
Amman.
How lame and defective is that Speach (sic) which is performedby Signs
and
Gestures?How
little are
they capable
to
receive
of those
things
which
concern
heir
eternal
Salvation.l7
The
discovery
in
the late
XVIth and
early
XVIIth
century
that
deaf-mutes could
be
taught
to associate
the
written characters
of
conventional
language
or
the movements of the
lips, tongue,
and
throat
directly
with
objects
and
ideas,
and that
they
could
learn
to
produce
recognizable
speech-sounds
meant that
for
over
a
century
the teaching of the deaf, when it occurred at all, was to become
equated
with
the
teaching
of conventional
speech.
So
much
was
this
so
that
success
was
judged
at
first,
not
by any
assessment
of the
intellectual
progress
of
a
deaf
pupil,
but
by
the
ease with which
he
could
read
the
motions
of
speech
on
the
face,
and
by
the
fidelity
with
which
he
could
reproduce
onventional
speech-sounds.l8
16
Romans,
X,
17.
17
J.
C.
Amman,
Surdus
Loquens
seu
Methodus
Qua,
Qui
Surdus
natus
est, loqui
discerepossit (Amsterdam,1692), Preface.The Englishtranslation rom whichthe
question
s
taken,
was
made
by
Daniel Foot and was
published
n
1694
under
the
title The
Talking
Deaf
Man
etc.
18
A
number
of
factors
account for
this
emphasisupon
the
teaching
of
conven-
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7/15
500
JAMES
R. KNOWLSON
In
spite
of
this
emphasis upon
normal
speech,
the
language
of
gesture
played
almost
inevitably
an
important
part
in
the methods
of almost
all
the
early
teachers of the deaf.
In
the
XVIth
century,
the
Spanish
monk,
Pedro Ponce de
Leon,
though aiming
ultimately
at
teaching
his
pupils
to
speak, apparently
retained the
signs
that
they
had
built
up
together,
for
use whenever
writing
was at all in-
convenient.l9
John
Wallis
(1616-1703),
the
first
successful
English
teacher
of the
deaf, recognized
the need
for
gesture
as a
means of
bridging
he
gap
which
exists
at first
between
teacher
and
pupil.
It
will
be
convenient
ll
along
to
have
Pen, Ink,
and
Paper ready
at
hand, o writedown n Wordswhatyou signify o him [thedeafpupil]by
Signes:
and
causeHimto Write
..
whathe
signifies y
Signes.
Which
way
(of
signifying
heir
mind
by
Signes)
Deaf
persons
are often
very
good
at.
And we must
endeavour
o
learnTheir
anguage
if
I
may
so
call
it)
in
order o teach hem
Ours:
By shewing,
what
Words
nswer
o
their
Signes.20
For these
early
teachers
of
the
deaf,
however,
the
language
of
gesture
had
no
importanceper
se: it
represented
nothing
more
than
a
convenient, though
an
essential, step
towards
communicating
by
the more normalmethods of speechand writing.Hence the idea that
the
gestures
of the deaf
man
should be
adopted universally by
those
who were able
to
speak
would
probably
have
appeared
o
them
more
than a little
absurd.
Yet,
as
we
have
seen,
there were
those
who
put
forward this
idea
in
all
seriousness.
It
should
now
be
apparent
that
this
divergence
of
views
on the
status
of
gesture
up
to the
end of
the XVIIth
century may
be
re-
duced to
disagreement
on two
fundamental,
but
related,
issues.
First,
whether the signs of the untutored deaf signifiednaturally, by in-
stitution,
or
by
a
mixture of
both;
and
secondly,
whether he
language
of
gesture
was,
by
its
very
nature,
restricted
to
the communication
of a
few
limited,
concrete deas.
Some
twenty years
before
Bulwer's
Chirologia,
n
the first
book
devoted
specifically
o
the
problem
of
teaching
the
deaf,2'
Juan Pablo
Bonet had
drawn
attention
to the
unique position
of
gesture
as
a
tional language.First, and most obviously,of course,was the desire to re-integrate
the
deaf into
society by teaching
them to
speak.
Secondly,
by
means
of
written
language,
the deaf
son of a
nobleman
(the
usual
pupil
of the
early
teachers
of
the
deaf)
could retainthe
rights pertaining
o his
inheritance
and
successfully
administer
an
estate.
Finally,
the
written
characters
of
conventional
anguage
seemed
to
offer
to
the
deaf
person
an
instrumentof
thought
that could stand
in
place
of
the
spoken
word
and that
gestures
did not
provide.
19
See
K.
Hodgson,
op.
cit.,
82-84.
20
A Letter
of Dr. John Wallis
(Geom.
Prof.
Oxon,
and
F.R.S.)
to
Mr. Thomas
Beverly;
Concerning
his
Methodfor
Instructing
Persons
Deaf and
Dumb,
Philo-
sophical
Transactions
f
the Royal
Society,
XX,
No. 245
(Oct.
1698),
359.
21
J. P.
Bonet,
Reduction de
las
Letras
y
arte
para
ensenar a
ablar los mudos
(Madrid,1620).
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8/15
GESTUREAS
A
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE 501
natural
language.
Thus,
the
main recommendationof the manual
alphabet
that he described
was,
he
claimed,
that it had close
affinities
with
this natural
language
of action.
It
was,
he wrote:
...
so well
adapted
o
nature
hat it would eemas if thisartificial
anguage
had
been
derived
rom
he
language
f
nature,
orthat from
his,
sincevisi-
ble actionsare nature's
anguage.
And
this
is
supported y
the fact that
if
deaf-mutes
meet,
hough
hey
havenever eenone another
before, hey
un-
derstand
ach
other
by
the use
of the same
signs.22
Although
Bonet noted
that,
since
gestures signified
naturally,
they
could
be
easily
understood
by
all deaf
persons,
he
did not
go
on,
like
Bulwer,
to
suggest
that
gesture
might
be
adopted
by
every-
one
as a
universal
language. Probably
Bonet would
not have
agreed
with Bulwer's
view
that
gesture
could
convey
everything
that
the
spoken
word
could
express.
For
Bulwer
appears
to
have believed
(misguidedly,
of
course,)
that
the natural
signs
of
the deaf
man
needed
no
improvement
in
order to
convey
a
wide
range
of
ideas;
rather would
they
lose much
of their
clarity
and
universal
intelligi-
bility
if
tampered
with
in an
unnecessary
attempt
to
improve
them.
And
so
he
wrote,
addressing
he
deaf:
This
language
ou
speak
so
purely
hat I
who
was the
first hat
made
t
my
Darling
Study
to
interpret
he
naturall
richnesse
f our
discoursing
gestures
..
am
fully
satisfied hat
you
want
nothing
o be
perfectly
under-
stood,
your
mother
ongueadministering
ufficient tterance
pon
all
occa-
sions.23
Yet
to
the
majority
of
XVIIth-century
teachers and
writers on
the
teaching
of
the
deaf,
gesture
(except
in
its most
rudimentary
form) requiredagreement ust as much as the spokenlanguagesdid:
hence
the
frequent emphasis
upon
the fact
that
the
language
of
the
deaf must
be
learned.
Similarly
those
theorists,
such
as
Francis Bacon
and
John
Wilkins,24
who
discussed the
question
of
signs, regarded
only
those
spontaneous
and
expressivegestures
that
convey
emotions
of
joy, anger,
and
fear
as
signifying
without
agreement.
The
gestures
of
the
deaf and
dumb
were
placed
among
those non-emblematic
igns
requiring
convention.
Viewed
in
this
light,
gesture
seemed
in
no
way
unique.And, while eminentlyuseful as a preliminary tage in teach-
ing
the
deaf
to
speak,
read,
and
write
conventional
anguage,
as an
independent
medium
of
communication,
t
appeared
much
too
limited
in
range
and
too
clumsy
in
use
to be
suitable
for
more
general
adop-
tion.
22
For
reasons
of
convenience
he
quotation
of Bonet
is
taken
from
the
English
translation
by
H.
N.
Dixon,
Simplification
of
the Letters
of
the
Alphabet
and
Method
of
teaching
Deaf-Mutes
to
Speak
(Harrogate,1890),
150; Spanish
1st ed.
(1620),
123-4. 23
J.
Bulwer, Philocophus,
Dedication.
24
See The
Philosophical
Works
of
Francis
Bacon,
edd. Ellis and
Spedding
with
an
Introduction
by
John M. Robertson
(London, 1905), 521ff.,
and
John
Wilkins,
Mercury,
or
the
Secret and
Swift Messenger
(London,
1641).
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9/15
502
JAMES
R.
KNOWLSON
It
was
not
until
the
final
quarter
of
the XVIIIth
century
that
any
significant
change
in attitude towards
gesture
became
possible,
and
that,
largely
as a resultof the Abbede
l'Epee's
work24an
developing
a
system
of what he describedas
signes
methodiques,
he idea that
gesture might
supply
a universal
language
became
worthy
of
more
serious consideration.The claim of
universality
is
expressed
quite
clearly
in
the title of the
Abbe de
l'Epee's
first
book
on
the
teaching
of
the
deaf,
published
at
Paris in
1776.
The
full
title reads as
follows:
Institution des Sourds
et
Muets,
par
la
voie
des
signes methodiques;
Ouvragequi
contient le
Projet
d'une
Langue
Universelle,
par
l'entre-
mise
des
Signes naturels, assujettis
&
une
Methode.
The
grounds
on
which the Abbe's
claims were based are described
at
greater
ength
in
the
work
itself:
On
a
souventdesire
une
Langueuniverselle,
vec
le
secours
de
laquelle
les hommes
e
toutes es
nations
pourraient
'entendrees uns
les
autres. I
me
semble
qu'ily
a
longtemps
u'elle
xiste,
et
qu'elle
st
entendue
artout.
Celan'est
pas
etonnant:
'est
une
langue
naturelle.
e
parle
de
la
langue
des
signes.
Mais
elle n'a
point
ete
jusqu'a
present
d'un
grand
usage,
parcequ'on
l'atoujoursetenue ansson etatbrut, ans a perfectionner,nl'astreignant
a
des
regles.25
The
language
eulogized
here
was,
of
course, evolved,
first,
purely
as
an
instrument for
teaching
the deaf.
Here de
l'Epee's
originality
was
to
think
in
terms
of the
deaf
pupil's
over-all intellectual
develop-
ment rather
than
to concentratehis
entire
attention
upon
teaching
conventional
speech-sounds.
In
close
association with his
pupils,
therefore,he evolved a language of manual signs that consisted of
gestures
used
naturally
and
spontaneouslyby
the
deaf,
together
with
others
developed
from
these natural
signs
or
agreed
upon
by
teacher
and
pupil.
In
this
way
he
was able
to build
up
a
highly developed
language
of methodical
signs
that
was
part
natural
and
part
conven-
tional. He thus
clearly
considered
he mixture of nature and conven-
tion as one of the
greatest
virtues
of
methodical
igns. Consequently
his claim that
they
would
provide
an
excellent universal
language
hinged largelyupon this dual nature.For it was, de l'Epee stressed,
at one
and
the same time
a
natural
and a
highly
developed anguage.
Those writers
in
the
XVIIth
century
who
had made
a
claim for
the
universality
of
gesture
had done
so,
we
may
recall,
because
they
considered t
to
be the one
natural
language
that was
readily
under-
stood without
previous
knowledge.
In
the same
way,
since
de
l'Epee
retained natural
signs
as the basis
upon
which he
constructed
his
24aThere is no recent study of the Abbe de 1'Epee.See FerdinandBerthier,
l'Abbe
de
l'Epee,
sa
vie,
son
apostolat,
ses
travaux,
sa
lutte
et
ses
succes
(Paris,
1852);
Eugene
Dubief,
l'Abbe
de
i'Epee
et
l'Education
des
Sourds-Muets
(Paris,
s.d.).
25Abbe
de
l'Eppe,
Institution
des
Sourds
et
Muets,
135.
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10/1
GESTURE AS
A
UNIVERSAL
LANGUAGE
503
improved
sign-system,
he believed
that he
could
still
claim it
to
be
a natural
language.
At
the same
time,
because the
language
had
been
subjected
to
strict
methodization and
development,
the
improved
language
of
gesture
could more
properly
and
advantageously
be com-
pared
with
existing
spoken languages.
The success
of
de
l'Epee's sign language,
both as
a
medium
of
communication
with the deaf and as
a
potential
universal
language,
clearly depended
upon
the method
by
means
of
which
the
natural
language
was to
be
improved.
The
first
and
most
obvious
problem
he
encountered
in
developing
the
language
of
gesture
was
that of
representing
abstract ideas
in
terms of
physical
movements.
For,
if
the
language
were to be
enlarged by
the more or less
haphazard
in-
vention of
a
large
number of
arbitrary signs,
it would
quickly
become
too
complex
to
be
easily
learned
or
recalled.
The
solution
which
de
l'Epee
found to this
problem
was to
analyze
all
complex
and abstract
ideas into
simpler
and more concrete
parts,
which
might
then be ex-
pressed
in
terms of
physical gesture.2a
In
this
way,
he
believed,
all
ideas
might
be
conveyed
by
various
combinations
of
gestural
root-
signs,
all of
which
would,
he
maintained,
retain
a
natural
analogy
with the
object
or
idea
they represented.
For,
... c'est
la
reunion de
ces
differens
signes,
toujours
analogues
a
la
Nature
en
premiere
ou
seconde
instance,
et
decouverts
l'un
apres
l'autre,
en con-
sultant cette
meme
Nature,
a
proportion
que
le besoin
l'exigeait,qui
a forme
notre methode
complette,
sans
avoir
exige
d'autretravail de
notre
part,
que
'application
de
quelques
momens
a
chaque
operation
particuliere.
Avec des
signes
purement
arbitraires,
nous n'aurions
amais
pu
nous faire
entendre;
d'ailleurs,
nos
Sourds
et
Muets
ne
les auraient
pas retenus,
et
nous
nous
y
serions
trompes
nous-memesa
chaque
nstant.Ii n'enest
pas
de memede la
Nature,
on
ne
l'oublie
point,
et
il
est
impossible
de
s'y meprendre.26
Analysis
was thus the
keystone
of de
l'Epee's
method
of
develop-
ment. It
would,
he
claimed,
simplify
the
language
so
much
that
it
would
possess
the
simplicity
of arithmetical
symbols
rather
than
the
complexity
of
the written
Chinese characters.
La
difference
qu'il
y
a
entre
nos
signes
et les caracteres
Chinois c'est
que
ceux-cin'ontpas de liaison naturelle avec les chosesqu'ilsdoiventsignifier;
nos
signes,
au
contraire,
ont
toujours
pris
dans la
nature,
ou
en
la
saisissant
a la
volee
quand
elle se
presente
d'elle-meme,
ou en
y
ramenant
par
le
secours de
lanalyse.27
Analysis
would also
remove,
he
claimed,
all
vagueness
and
lack of
precision
from
the
representation
of
ideas and
even
from
the ideas
themselves. For this
reason,
also,
the
language
of
gesture
could be
25a
De
1'Epee's
olution has
obvious affinitieswith
John
Locke's
theory
of
ideas
as
expressed
n his
An
Essay
concerning
Humane
Understanding
London,
1690).
26
Ibid.,
Seconde
partie,
47-48.
27
Ibid.,
34.
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11/1
504
JAMES
R.
KNOWLSON
regarded
as
superior
to
existing
languages.
It
was this
apparent
vir-
tue of the
language
of
signs
that
was to strike most
forcibly
the Abbe
Condillac.28
In
certain
respects
de
l'Epee's sign-languagemay
be
regarded
as
the
visual
equivalent
of some of the earlier
projects
and schemes
of
a
written
universal
language,
though
it is
unlikely
that the
teacher
of the
deaf was
acquainted
with
any
of these universal
language
schemes.
In
the
emphasis
which is
placed upon
keeping
a
natural
analogy
between
an
object
or
idea
and the
sign
that
represents t,
the
language
of
gesture may
best
be
compared
with those
'emblematic
symbols'
which Leibniz at one
period
considered would
constitute
the best
possible
universal character.
Similarly,
the
root-signs
into
which
de
l'Epee analyzed
complex
ideas
may
be
regarded
as
equiva-
lent
to
the
'simple
elements'of the
ideal,
philosophical
anguage
also
envisaged
by
Leibniz.29
Here the resemblances nd.
For
the
root-signs
of
the
gestural
anguage
are obtained
by
analyzing
abstract
deas
into
elements
which
have
affinities
with material
things
and
which
may
therefore
be
rendered
n
terms of
physical
movements.
The
analysis
is thus turnedto a practicalrather than to
a
philosophicalend.
An
example
will
perhaps
make
this
clearer. The words
I
believe
are
expressed
in
de
l'Epee's
sign language
by
means of
four
elements
each
of which is
representedby
an
appropriate
gesture.
These ele-
ments
are:
first,
I
say yes
with
my mind ; secondly,
I
say
yes
with
my heart ;
thirdly,
I
say
yes
with
my
mouth ;
and
finally,
I
have
not
seen and
I
still
cannot
see
with
my
eyes.
The
example
serves
to
demonstrate
how much
the
signs representing
abstract ideas
depend
upon analogies with material things and situations. It shows also
that
though,
used
separately,
the
root-signs
are
simple
enough,
the
combinations
required
to
express
one abstract idea become
unduly
lengthy
and
complicated.
Considered
as a
medium for
instructing
the
deaf,
de
l'Epee's
language
of
signs
had tremendoussuccess
in
the
years
following
the
publication
of
the
Institution
des
Sourds et
Muets
in
1776.
So
much
so that
by
the middle of
the
next
decade,
as a
result of the
success of
his public demonstrations, he interest of royalty and scholars,and
the
continuation
of
his
work
in
other
countries
by
teachers
first
in-
structed
by
himself,
the Abbe de
l'Epee
had seen
his
teaching
tech-
niques
widely
adopted
throughout Europe.
Yet the
freely
acknowl-
28
See Cours
d'Etudes
pour
l'Instruction
du Prince
de
Parme,
Grammaire,
n
the
Oeuvres
Philosophiques
e
Condillac,
Vol. 33 of the
Corpus
General
des
Philosophes
frangais,
3 vols.
(Paris,
1946-51),
ed.
Georges
e
Roy,
I,
429-30.
29The
standard work
on
Leibniz's
ideas on
a
universal
character remains L.
Couturat'sLa
Logique
de
Leibniz
d'aprl
des documents nedits
(Paris,
1901).
See
also, however,J.
Cohen,
On the
Project
of a Universal
Character,
Mind,
63
(1954);
R.
Kauppi,
Uber
die
Leibnizsche
Logik.
Acta
PhilosophicaFennica,
Fasc.
XII
(Helsinki,
1960);
and
Madeleine
David,
Leibniz
et
le
'Tableau de Cebes'
(Nouveaux
Essais,
I,
IV,
Chap.
III, 20)
ou le
probleme
du
langage
par
images,
Revue
Philosophique
1961),
39-50.
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12/1
GESTURE
AS
A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
505
edged
successof
de
l'Epee's
methodical
signs
as
a
means of
educating
the
deaf did not mean
that
his
secondary
claim
that
the
signs
should
be
adopteduniversallyby
speaking
human
beings
was
considered
with
equal seriousness.Indeed, it is clear that this aspect of de l'Epee's
writing
met with
little
support.
Contemporary
ccounts
of
the
Abbe's
work,
for
example,
and
comptes
rendus
of
his books often confinetheir
attention
either
to a mere reiteration
of
the
author's
claim,
or
simply
do
not refer to
it at
all.
Such
a
reception
s
scarcely
surprising
n
view of the
lack of
any
general
nterest at
that time in
the
question
of
an
artificial
universal
language
30
and
the
rise of
an
instituted
language,
namely French,
to
the position of international language of Europe.31 t was also, of
course,quite
possible
to
ignore
de
l'Epee's
claim
in this
way,
since
its
validity
was
quite
extraneous
o
the merits of the
sign
language
as
an
instrument for
the instruction of the
deaf.
Moreover,
f
it had
been
taken
seriously,
problems
would
clearly
have arisen
of an order
quite
different
from
those
already
surmounted
by
de
l'Epee
in
the
course
of his
practical
teaching
of
the
deaf.
Many
of
these
problems
the
Abbe either
did
not
foresee
or
failed
to
recognize
as
problems
at
all.
After de l'Epee's death in 1789, his claim that methodicalsigns
offered he best
form
of
universal
anguage
was
repeatedby
his
former
pupil,
the
Abbe Roch-AmbroiseCucurronde
Sicard,
who
assumed
the direction
of
what,
two
years later,
was
to
become
the Institution
Nationale
des
Sourds
et Muets.
Realizing,
however,
that
if
such
a
language
were
to
stand
any
chance
of
being
universally
adopted,
these
gestural signs
would need to
be
recorded,
Sicard set
to work
to
provide
a
Dictionary
of
Signs.
This
dictionary
appeared
n
1808
under the title Theorie des Signes
pour
l'instruction des Sourds-
Muets. The
work
consistedof
descriptions
of the
gestures
used
by
the
deaf
person
and his
teacher
instead
of
the words
of
conventional
speech.
The
descriptions
were
arranged
not
according
o
the
alpha-
betical order
of
these
words,
but
were
classified
in families in
the
manner
Sicard
describes
here.
Je divisaistous les mots
qui
devaient
en
former
a
nomenclature
n
autantde partiesqu'onreconnaltd'elements istinctsdans
le
discours; e
0
There
were, nonetheless,
a
number
of
individual scholars
interested at this
time
in the
possibility
of
formulating
a
new,
artificial,
universal
anguage: e.g.
G.
Kalmar,
whose
anguageschemes,published
n
the
1770s,
are
discussed n
Madeleine
David's article
Un
temoin des
espoirs
du
dix-huitieme
iecle:
Kalmar et sa
langue
philosophique (1772),
Revue
Historique,
CCXV
(1956).
The relation
between
schemes
of
universal
anguageprojected
n
the 1760sand
1770s,
he
generalgrammar
movement,
and
the researches
f
Court
de
Gebelin
and Charles
de Brosses
into the
natureof the primitive anguagehave not yet been examined n print.
31
Documentationon
the
universality
of
French
may
be
found
in
F.
Brunot,
Histoire
de la
langue frangaise
des
origines
a
1900,
VIII,
2e
partie,
Le
frangais
hors
de
France
au
XVIIIe siecle
(Paris, 1935),
passim.
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13/1
506
JAMES R.
KNOWLSON
divisais ensuite les
mots,
et
chaque
espece
de
mots en autant de
families
dont
chaque
primitif
etait de
chef;
enfin
je
suivais l'ordredans
lequel
tous
les
mots,
s'ils
eussent
6te
inventes,
auraient ete
classes.
La
premiere
serie
etait celle des objetsphysiques, a seconde,celle des adjectifs,la troisieme,
celle
des noms abstractifs etc.
Chaque
nom,
chaque
adjectif,
chaque verbe,
outre
la
definition
que j'en
donnais
etait
accompagne
d'une
exposition
courte
du nombre
et de
la
forme des
signes
qu'il
fallait faire
pour
chaque
mot.
Cette marche etant
parfaitement analytique,
etait la seule
qui
pouvait
remplir
mon
but.32
The
dictionary provided
then
a
classified series
of
descriptions
of
gestures,
covering
a
wider
range
of ideas
than
those of
the Abbe de
1'Epee, and including also signs to convey grammatical relations. It
was this
improved
language
of
gesture,
Sicard
claimed
in
the
Cours
d'Instruction
d'un
Sourd-Muet
de
Naissance
and
again
in the dic-
tionary
itself:
qui
est vraiment
'ouvrage ustement
attendu
depuis
longtemps,
des
philoso-
phes
. . .
qui
pourra
realiser les
espoirs
de ceux
qui desirent, depuis long-
temps,
un
moyen general
de
communication,
ndependant
de
toute
langue
articulee;
dont
le savant
Leibnitz
avait
congu
e
projet
si hardi.33
Sicard's claim was voiced at a time when the question of an arti-
ficial,
universal
language
(or
pasigraphie
as
it
was
then
called)
had
become once
again
one
of the chief
interests of
leading
French
think-
ers.84
Condorcet, Garat, Lancelin,
and
Laromiguiere
all
expressed
a
desire
for the institution
of such
a
language,
while
Destutt de
Tracy,
Roederer,
and
de Gerando considered
the
problem
as
important
and
worthy
of
serious
discussion.
In
the
mid-1790's
a number
of schemes
of
pasigraphy
were submitted
to
the second
class
of
the
Institut Na-
tional ( Sciences Morales et Politiques ),3 and Sicard himself was
an ardent
supporter
of
one
such scheme.36
The deaf
also had
by
this
time
become
a favorite
object
of
study
for
philosophers
of
the
'ecole
82
Sicard,
Theoriedes
Signes
etc.
2
vols.
(Paris,
1808),
I,
4-5.
88
Sicard,
Cours
d'Instructiond'un
Sourd-Muet
de
Naissance
(Paris,
an
VIII),
496.
84
J.
Simon,
the historian
of
the
second class
of
the
Institut
National,
wrote that:
..
la
pasigraphie
emblait
a
la
plupart
des
philosophes
une d6couverte
de
premier
ordre.C'etaitun des cotes de la fameusequestiondes signes, si populaire
a
la fin
du
XVIIIe
siecle
et
dans
les
premieres
annees
de
celui-ci.
Une
Academie
sous
le
Directoire
(Paris,
1885),
219-220.
Simon's
opening
statement
s
not
accurate,
hough
his
assessment
of
the
philosophers'
nterest
in
the
subject
s
true
enough.
The
writer
intends to
examine the French
Ideologues'
nterest
in universal
anguage
n
a
later
article.
35
Schemes
submitted
to
the second
class were
by Joseph
de
Maimieux,
Zalkind-
Hourwitz,
Fournaux,
and the Abbe
Montmignon.
See
the
secretary
Champagne's
Histoire
abregee
des
travaux
de
la
Classe,
Memoires
de
l'lnstitut
National.
Sci-
ences
Morales
et
Politiques,
III
(Paris,
an
IX),
ii.
36This was the
Pasigraphie
ou
premiers
e6mentsdu nouvel art-scienced'6crire
et
d'imprimer
n
une
langue
de
maniere
a etre
lu et entendudans toute autre
langue
sans
traduction
of
Joseph
de
Maimieux,
published
at Paris
in
French
and
German
editions n
1797.An
introductory
etter
to
this
work
is
by
Sicard.
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14/1
GESTURE
AS A
UNIVERSAL
LANGUAGE
507
sensualiste,'
who,
with the
example
of
Diderot
and
Condillac before
them,
were anxious
to learn all that
they
could from the deaf man
about
the
development
of
man's various
faculties and the
generation
of his ideas.37In view of these
interests,
it is scarcely surprising that
Sicard's
suggestion
should have received
rather more
serious
consider-
ation than
the same idea had
done
when
it
had been
expressed
earlier
by
the Abbe
de
l'Epee. However,
of
those
philosophers
who
considered
the
possibility
of
gesture
supplying
the universal
language, only
Pierre
Laromiguiere
recommended it as
an
admirable solution
to
the
problem
of
Babel.
Thus, concerning
the
possibility
of
inventing
a
universal
language,
he
wrote,
in
language
reminiscent
of
the Abbe de
1'Epee,
to whose work he later referred:
Savans,
ignorans,
out
le
monde
a
comprend,
out le monde
a
parle.
Que
'un
de nous
soit
transporte
aux
extremitesdu
globe,
au milieu d'une
horde
sauvage:
croyez-vous
qu'il
ne saura
pas
exprimer
es besoins
les
plus
pres-
sans de
la
vie?
Croyez-vous qu'il
se
meprenne
sur les
signes
d'un
refus
barbare,
ou d'une ntention
genereuse
et
compatissante?
1 ne
s'agit
done
pas
d'inventer
une
langue
nouvelle,
de la
faire:
elle
existe: c'est la
nature
qui
l'a faite.38
De
Gerando also
approached
the
signes methodiques
of Sicard
with
considerable enthusiasm for
the
idea that
they
offered
a
prac-
ticable solution
to
the
problem presented by
the confusion
of
tongues.
C'est
1?
que
nous venons chercher
avec
empressement,
vec
avidite,
cette
langue
appelee
naturelle;
cette
langue
annoncee
comme si
feconde,
si
belle,
si
expressive,
si
fidele,
si
exacte;
cette
langue
destinee
a devenir
la
langue
universelle,
ou
plutot
qui
deja
en
possede par
elle-meme
le
privilege;
cette
langue, objet perpetuel de l'enthousiasmede l'Abbe de 1'Epeeet de ses
disciples.9
After
examining closely
the
signs
worked
out
by
de
l'Epee
and
further
developed by
Sicard,
he
was
forced,
however,
to
conclude
that
the
language possessed
a number
of
serious
defects
that made
it
quite
unsuitable
for universal
adoption.
Since
many
of de Gerando's
criticisms still
apply today,
it is
perhaps
worth
concluding
this
study
by repeating
the
principal
objections,
which
he first voiced
in
his
prize-winning Des Signes et de l'Art de Penser (published in 1800),
and later
developed
in
his
special study
on
the education
of
the
deaf.
The
descriptions
of
signs
in Sicard's
dictionary
were,
de Gerando
believed,
too
complex
to be
adopted
universally;
they were,
he
wrote:
37
Joseph
Marie de
G6rando
wrote,
for
example,
in
Des
Signes
et de l'Art
de
Penser,
4
vols.
(Paris,
1800),
that
the deaf
. . .
nous
offrentdonc
un
terme
de
com-
paraison
tres-favorable
pour
juger
de
ce
que
l'homme doit
a
l'usage
des
langues,
pour
saisir dans ses
principes
a
g6neration
de
nos
idees, pour apprecier
avec
exacti-
tude
l'infuence des
signes.
(IV, 453).
38
P.
Laromiguiere,
emons
e
Philosophie,
4th ed.
(Paris, 1826),
III,
113.
89
J.
M.
de
Gerando,
De
l'Education des
Sourds-Muets
de
Naissance,
2
vols.
(Paris,
1827), I,
509.
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15/1
508
JAMES
R.
KNOWLSON
Souvent
ngenieuses,
ouvent
laires,plus
ou
moins
exactes,
maisdes
de-
scriptions
qui
sont
generalement
'une
extreme
etendue,
composees
'un
grand
nombre e
details,
qui
doiventa ces
details
memece
qu'elles
ont de
fideleet de pittoresque, ui exigentune pantomime resque oujours ort
d6veloppee,
t
qui
demandent
n
temps
assez
long
pour
etre
fidelement
execut6es;
ous
y trouvons,
n un
mot,
une
suite
d'explications,
l'aide
de
tableaux
ensibles, xprimes
ar
une
longue
uite
de
gestes.40
In
use,
these
highly complex
successions
of
signs
tended
to
be abbre-
viated.
However,
n
this
way,
as
they
became more
and
more
laconic,
de
Gerando
argued, they
lost
whatever
analogies
with material
ob-
jects they
had
ever
possessed.Moreover,
n
order to
convey
abstrac-
tions,
metaphor
had to be used in a
confusing
and
unphilosophical
manner.
And
so,
he wrote:
C'est
ainsi
que,
par
une
degradation
ontinue t
insensible,
e
langage
mimique,
'un
ableau
ivant,anime, omplet
ont
l
se
composait l'origine,
se transforme
n
une
analogie
uccessivement
lus imparfaite,
lus
vague,
pour
se terminer
nfindans
une
pure
convention.41
Thus,
though
not without its
virtues,42
he
language
that
Laromi-
guiere considereduniversally intelligible because natural turns out
to be
necessarily
he
product
of
agreement.
Two final
objections
were
made
by
de
Gerando,
both of
which
argued against
the universal
adoption
of
an
already
highly imperfect
language.
First he
pointed
out
that there
existed no
form
of
script
in
which
gestural
signs
could
be
written
down.43
econdly,
he
recognized
hat there
was
no reason
why signs
which
were
interpreted
n one
way
in one
country
should
not, owing
to
varying
social
habits,
be
understood
to
mean
some-
thing quite different n another.
De
Gerando's
ejection
of
gesture
as a
universal
anguage
did
not,
of
course,
prevent
teachers of the deaf
like
Bebian,
author
of the
Mimographie
(Paris,
1825),
from
continuing
to
press
de
l'Epee
and
Sicard'sclaim.
Nor,
as we
saw at the
beginning
of
this
article,
is
the
idea
quite
dead
today.
And,
though
it
is
theoretically,
of
course,
quite
feasible,
it
seems at
least several
times less
likely
that
man,
accustomed to
communicating
by
the
spoken word,
will
revert
to
a
silent form of communication, han that all men will agreeto adopt
the
same
written
language-in
the
present
writer's
view,
an
already
highly
unlikely
occurrence.
University
of
Glasgow.
40
Ibid., I,
517.
41
Ibid.,
I,
564.
42
One of its
chief
virtues, according
o
de
Gerando,
was that
in order
to
explain
conventional
words
by
signs,
strict
definitions
had
to be
given,
thereby
encouraging
clear habits of
thought. Thus,
he
wrote: . .
le
sourd-muet . .
apprend
es
mots
par la grammaire, t la grammairepar la metaphysique;on fait raisonner on esprit
avant
de
chercher
guider
sa
main,
et
la
langue
est
pour
lui
le
resultat de la
science.
Des
Signes
et de
'Art
de
Penser,
IV,
473.
48
It
is
interesting
o
note that Sir Richard
Paget
saw
a similar
omission
as
one
of
the
major
drawbacks o
the
institution
of his
sign
language.
See
Nature,
CLI
(Jan.
16,
1943),
80.
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