SOCIOLINGUISTICS AND

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

SIGN LANGUAGE

Alicia Lamb

Guest Lecture

The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

LING 2302- Sociolinguistics

April 1st 2014

SIGN LANGUAGES

EMERGING SIGN LANGUAGES

• Emerging Sign Languages :

• new sign language which have arisen within the last two

or three generations of signers

• created when deaf people with no or minimal exposure

to any sign language come together and form a

communicative community.

EMERGING SIGN LANGUAGES

Sign language Country/region

Adamorobe Sign Language Adamorobe Village

(Ghana)

Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign

Language

(ABSL)

Southern Israeli Village

Auslan Australia

Chinese Sign Language Mainland China

Kata Kolok Desa Kolok Village

(Bali)

Kenyan Sign Language Kenya

Israeli Sign Language Israel

Lengua de Señas Argentina Argentina

Nicaraguan Sign Language Nicaragua

Emerging Sign Languages

Deaf Community Sign Languages

Village Sign Languages

SIGN LANGUAGE AND

LINGUISTICS

The History of Modern Sign Language Research William C. Stokoe (1919-2000)

1960, William C. Stokoe, Professor of English at Gallaudet University, publishes his seminal book

Sign Language Structure , where he first analyzed signs as having an internal, i.e., phonological structure. According to Stokoe, a sign is composed of three internal constituents

1.tabula --> position of the sign

2. designator --> hand configuration

3. signation --> movement or change in configuration (McBurney 2006)

Phonological parameters 1. Handshape: e.g., fingerspelled handshapes 2. (Hand Orientation): often subsumed under hand configuration which embraces handshape and orientation 3.Place of Articulation: head, cheek, temple, chest, arm, hand, etc. 4.Movement: straight (upward, downward, left, right), arc, curved, etc. Non-manual behaviors: facial expressions, body leans, mouth gestures, head movements, etc.

Handshape

Place of Articulation (Location)

Minimal pairs in TTSL

Orientation

--> In minimal pairs, one of the phon. parameters changes whereas the others do not change.

Handshape

TTSL A minority community

HISTORY

History and Sociolinguistics? • For minority languages like sign languages studying the

historical evolution of a Deaf community is indispensable for

understanding the development of sign language.

• Development- Language change

• - Language Variation- age, sex, location

• - Language Attitudes

• Sociolinguistics- interaction of language and society—how

aspects of society and social factors have an effect on

language and vice versa.

Historical Sociolinguistics

• the study of the relationship between language and

society in its historical dimension.

History

201 201

312

97 121

12 17

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1861 1866 1871 1901 1911

Po

pu

lati

on

Census Year

Population Figures for Deaf people in Trinidad and Tobago 1861-1911

Trinidad Tobago

17

EVIDENCE OF A DEAF COMMUNITY?

• No evidence of any interaction among deaf people

in Trinidad and Tobago

• Use of homesign systems (Goldin-Meadow 2003)

18

Year Terms

1861 Blind, Deaf and Dumb

1861 Deaf

1866 Blind, Deaf and Dumb

1871 Blind, Deaf and Dumb

1901 Deaf and Dumb

1911 Deaf and Dumb

HOMESIGNS

“Mother 1” “Mother 2”

19

BEGINNINGS OF A DEAF COMMUNITY

• 1921 educational conference- suggestion of

school for deaf children

• 1942- Mother of deaf teenage boys wrote to

find help for sons

20

“Public Meeting for Deaf

School” Trinidad

Guardian, July 20th 1943

BEGINNINGS OF A DEAF COMMUNITY

“Association formed to Aid Trinidad and Tobago’s

Deaf and Dumb” Trinidad Guardian July 30th

1943.

Gilby signs 'God‘ British Deaf-Mute and

Deaf Chronicle, 1892, 2, 1.

• 1st school for the deaf established in 1943

• 1945 moved to current location at Cascade and included dormitory facilities

22

“Deaf and Dumb School Opens

Tomorrow” Trinidad Guardian

November 14th 1943

SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF

23

Sketch of the first school for the Deaf on Edward Street Port-of-Spain

Original Cascade School for the Deaf

1943 1945 1946 1947 1950 1951 1952 1962

No. of Students 3 9 15 19 41 43 42 60

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Number of Students at the Cascade School for the Deaf 1943-1962

24

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

Applications forEnrolment

6 10 6 14 6 8 18 16 88 20

0102030405060708090

100

Number of Applications for Enrolment at Cascade School for the Deaf 1953-1962

25

• Increase due to rubella outbreak in 1960-1961

2nd school for the Deaf opened in south Trinidad, Audrey Jeffers School for

the Deaf Marabella

1982- School for the Deaf opened in Tobago

THE LANGUAGE

SITUATION

LANGUAGE CONTACT

‘FATHER’ ‘MOTHER’

27

• Gilby used BSL

http://www.britishsignlanguage.com/words/i

ndex.php?id=244

http://www.britishsignlanguage.com/words/i

ndex.php?id=373

BSL ALPHABET

LANGUAGE IN THE CLASSROOM

30

•Teachers trained in oral method

COMMENTS ON ORAL METHOD

• “They could not understand what was being taught even if

the teachers used the microphone….. because there were

constant drills in lip reading, the students were really

good.” (Jackie. Personal interview).

• “Everyday the teachers told me to stop using my hands in

class, they told me to speak and I tried. We had to hold

our hands behind our backs but I used to misbehave.

When the teacher turned her back I used signs with the

other children but had to do it quickly before the teacher

looked around. In the yard, during break time we used

signs.” (Geddess. Personal interview).

31

INTRODUCTION OF TOTAL

COMMUNICATION

32

• 1975- Total Communication - American Sign

Language

Current Language Situation?

• Schools- Signed English

• Deaf Clubs (by the Deaf for the Deaf)- Mainly TTSL, ASL

• Deaf religious groups (by hearing for the Deaf)- Mainly

ASL

• General population- lip-reading, articulation(as much as

possible)

LANGUAGE CHANGE AGE VARIATION

TTSL- Evidence of Phonological

Language change

“carnival” (old)

“carnival” (new)

TTSL- Evidence of Phonological

Language change- handshape

“carnival” (old) “carnival” (new)

TTSL- Evidence of Phonological

Language change- sign size

“grass” (old) “grass “ (new)

LANGUAGE ATTITUDES

Language Attitudes

• Conscious choices by deaf individuals to form enduring formal and informal relationships and frequent contact among Deaf adults, adolescents and children.

• Establishment of a Deaf association

• Control and direction of Deaf association assumed by Deaf members

• Dictionary projects

• Deaf individuals as linguistic models in schools

LANGUAGE ATTITUDES

Language Attitudes

• 2011- The Deaf Empowerment Organization of Trinidad

and Tobago- DEOTT

• “ Advocating for the rights of Deaf persons to take

advantage of opportunities available to them where is

convenient for them e.g. access to learner’s permits at all

Licensing offices not only Port of Spain or to enter classes

at the universities in the preferred and qualified field of

study”

• “Socializing with Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Hearing

Impaired persons”

LANGUAGE ATTITUDES

LANGUAGE ATTITUDES

LANGUAGE ATTITUDES

TTSL- AN ENDANGERED

LANGUAGE?

TTSL- In Danger of Being Endangered?

• “Advances” in Society are causing a decline in Deaf

population which may adversely affect the continuity of

TTSL.

• Medicine

• Education

MEDICINE

• Rubella (German Measles) Vaccination

• Leading cause of congenital deafness

• declined due to aggressive vaccination campaigns which began in

the region in the late 1970s.

Table 3: Cases of Congenital Rubella Syndrome

• Aging population not replenished

1961 1996 1997 2005

87 1 6 0

MEDICINE

• Cochlear Implants

• Moderate to profound deafness

• More than 8 have been done in Trinidad

• Less children learning TTSL or any sign SL

EDUCATION

• Mainstreaming- causes a disruption in generational and

peer transmission of TTSL.

• 1980- 8 pupils from CSD mainstreamed at Malabar RC Primary

School (south Trinidad)

• 1984- (Partial Integration)- 2 classes placed at Tunapuna Anglican

Church annex opposite to its primary school.

EDUCATION

• Hearing teachers

• Lack of language models early in the acquisition of sign language

• Language used in the classroom

• Use of SEE, ASL in the schools for the Deaf

FURTHER RESEARCH

Future Research

• Language Variation in the Deaf Community- Using corpus

to compare old/younger signer signs, location, gender

differences.

• Language Attitudes about SL among hearing people, deaf

people.

• Handshape Inventory of TTSL.

• Syntax of TTSL (word order, lexical categories)

• Morphology of TTSL ( reduplication, classifier system)

• Language Survey of TTSL (e.g. how many people use or

claim to use TTSL v.s ASL,SEE).