WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.279 align:middle line:84% [SQUEAKING] [RUSTLING] [CLICKING] 00:00:06.279 --> 00:00:11.109 align:middle line:90% 00:00:11.109 --> 00:00:13.080 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: Signed languages-- 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:16.560 align:middle line:84% there are a bunch of signed languages. 00:00:16.560 --> 00:00:19.710 align:middle line:84% I've listed three of them here, but there are many. 00:00:19.710 --> 00:00:22.410 align:middle line:84% And maybe the first thing to say about them, 00:00:22.410 --> 00:00:26.850 align:middle line:84% I can remember a time when I believed, 00:00:26.850 --> 00:00:29.400 align:middle line:84% as a child, that signed languages were basically 00:00:29.400 --> 00:00:30.840 align:middle line:90% just codes-- 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:34.020 align:middle line:84% coded versions of spoken languages. 00:00:34.020 --> 00:00:35.520 align:middle line:84% When I was a kid, you were sometimes 00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:40.422 align:middle line:84% taught ASL signs for things every so often in class, 00:00:40.422 --> 00:00:41.880 align:middle line:84% sort of the way you would be taught 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:44.308 align:middle line:84% the occasional Spanish word in class or whatever. 00:00:44.308 --> 00:00:46.350 align:middle line:84% It's like, here's the word in a foreign language. 00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:49.320 align:middle line:90% Let's all learn this word. 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:51.995 align:middle line:84% Unlike Spanish, the impression I was given by my teachers-- who 00:00:51.995 --> 00:00:53.370 align:middle line:84% may actually have believed this-- 00:00:53.370 --> 00:00:56.490 align:middle line:84% was that the way you spoke ASL was to speak English, 00:00:56.490 --> 00:00:57.720 align:middle line:90% but to use your hands. 00:00:57.720 --> 00:01:01.830 align:middle line:84% So like every English word had an ASL translation. 00:01:01.830 --> 00:01:03.400 align:middle line:84% And there is something like that. 00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:05.730 align:middle line:84% It's called Signed Exact English. 00:01:05.730 --> 00:01:10.110 align:middle line:84% But it is not the standard language used by the deaf. 00:01:10.110 --> 00:01:12.510 align:middle line:84% The deaf use something called American Sign Language 00:01:12.510 --> 00:01:13.626 align:middle line:90% in America. 00:01:13.626 --> 00:01:17.280 align:middle line:90% 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:19.050 align:middle line:84% Another way to make this point may 00:01:19.050 --> 00:01:21.150 align:middle line:84% be that signed languages are not just 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:24.540 align:middle line:84% coded versions of the spoken languages that are around them, 00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:29.610 align:middle line:84% is that American-- to point out that American Sign Language is 00:01:29.610 --> 00:01:33.750 align:middle line:84% fairly closely related to French Sign Language, which I won't 00:01:33.750 --> 00:01:36.810 align:middle line:84% try to pronounce in French because I don't speak French, 00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:39.040 align:middle line:90% for historical reasons. 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:41.820 align:middle line:84% The first schools for the deaf in America 00:01:41.820 --> 00:01:43.757 align:middle line:84% were established by people from France 00:01:43.757 --> 00:01:45.840 align:middle line:84% who had established schools for the deaf in France 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:47.280 align:middle line:84% and began establishing them here. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:50.790 align:middle line:84% So American Sign Language is a descendant of French Sign 00:01:50.790 --> 00:01:53.250 align:middle line:84% Language, and it is unrelated to British Sign Language 00:01:53.250 --> 00:01:54.570 align:middle line:90% and quite different from it. 00:01:54.570 --> 00:01:57.185 align:middle line:84% So go ahead and make all the jokes 00:01:57.185 --> 00:01:59.310 align:middle line:84% you want about American English and British English 00:01:59.310 --> 00:02:01.602 align:middle line:84% being different, but they're more similar to each other 00:02:01.602 --> 00:02:03.090 align:middle line:90% than either is to French. 00:02:03.090 --> 00:02:06.780 align:middle line:84% But American Sign Language is more similar to French Sign 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:09.240 align:middle line:84% Language than it is to British Sign Language 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:11.490 align:middle line:84% because American Sign Language is not English. 00:02:11.490 --> 00:02:13.890 align:middle line:84% It's another language, one which is 00:02:13.890 --> 00:02:16.275 align:middle line:84% spoken with your body, especially your hands. 00:02:16.275 --> 00:02:19.473 align:middle line:90% 00:02:19.473 --> 00:02:20.390 align:middle line:90% Yes, I just said that. 00:02:20.390 --> 00:02:22.772 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:22.772 --> 00:02:24.230 align:middle line:84% Another way to make the same point, 00:02:24.230 --> 00:02:25.820 align:middle line:84% there are big grammatical differences 00:02:25.820 --> 00:02:29.000 align:middle line:84% between ASL and English, some of which we'll be exploring. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:29.500 align:middle line:90% Here's one. 00:02:29.500 --> 00:02:32.010 align:middle line:84% In English has overt wh-movement. 00:02:32.010 --> 00:02:34.680 align:middle line:90% Remember wh-movement? 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:36.710 align:middle line:90% So in "Who did John see?" 00:02:36.710 --> 00:02:39.530 align:middle line:84% Lots of other languages, like Mandarin, don't. 00:02:39.530 --> 00:02:42.500 align:middle line:84% And in this regard, ASL is more like Mandarin 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:43.940 align:middle line:90% than it is like English. 00:02:43.940 --> 00:02:45.290 align:middle line:90% It's actually a blend. 00:02:45.290 --> 00:02:46.730 align:middle line:90% You can do either one. 00:02:46.730 --> 00:02:49.640 align:middle line:84% But there's a very natural way to ask wh-questions 00:02:49.640 --> 00:02:54.360 align:middle line:84% in ASL, which looks something like this. 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:56.090 align:middle line:84% Here's a guy who is about to say, 00:02:56.090 --> 00:03:00.030 align:middle line:90% I think, "Who did John see?" 00:03:00.030 --> 00:03:01.590 align:middle line:90% "John"- "saw"- "who?" 00:03:01.590 --> 00:03:04.140 align:middle line:84% Yeah, so I'll get him to sign that again. 00:03:04.140 --> 00:03:06.990 align:middle line:90% So "John saw who?" 00:03:06.990 --> 00:03:08.670 align:middle line:90% And "who" is signed like this. 00:03:08.670 --> 00:03:11.070 align:middle line:90% That's the ASL for "who." 00:03:11.070 --> 00:03:13.920 align:middle line:84% There's another thing he's doing, which we'll talk about. 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:17.983 align:middle line:84% Part of signing a question in ASL 00:03:17.983 --> 00:03:19.650 align:middle line:84% is not just what you do with your hands, 00:03:19.650 --> 00:03:21.030 align:middle line:90% but what you do with your face. 00:03:21.030 --> 00:03:24.150 align:middle line:84% You're required to look puzzled as you 00:03:24.150 --> 00:03:26.080 align:middle line:84% ask these particular kinds of questions-- 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:28.530 align:middle line:84% and so to tilt your head and furrow your brow. 00:03:28.530 --> 00:03:31.320 align:middle line:84% And there's some very careful work 00:03:31.320 --> 00:03:33.835 align:middle line:84% on where, exactly, you're required to tilt your head 00:03:33.835 --> 00:03:34.710 align:middle line:90% and furrow your brow. 00:03:34.710 --> 00:03:36.340 align:middle line:84% It turns out to be very interesting. 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:38.400 align:middle line:84% It isn't just you do that for the whole question. 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:40.317 align:middle line:84% You do that for certain parts of the question. 00:03:40.317 --> 00:03:43.050 align:middle line:84% And linguists who work on signed languages 00:03:43.050 --> 00:03:44.850 align:middle line:90% do work on what's going on. 00:03:44.850 --> 00:03:46.430 align:middle line:90% I'll put a link to this. 00:03:46.430 --> 00:03:50.370 align:middle line:84% This is a corpus of American Sign Language utterances 00:03:50.370 --> 00:03:53.760 align:middle line:84% by the folks over there at BU who 00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:56.868 align:middle line:90% have a center for studying ASL. 00:03:56.868 --> 00:03:59.160 align:middle line:84% There's a lot of really interesting data in here, which 00:03:59.160 --> 00:04:00.690 align:middle line:90% is tagged, as you can see. 00:04:00.690 --> 00:04:03.700 align:middle line:84% Anyway, I'll put a link to this on our website. 00:04:03.700 --> 00:04:06.230 align:middle line:84% So this is Carol Neidle, who's done a lot of really 00:04:06.230 --> 00:04:07.230 align:middle line:90% interesting work on ASL. 00:04:07.230 --> 00:04:10.285 align:middle line:90% 00:04:10.285 --> 00:04:11.410 align:middle line:90% Back into full screen mode. 00:04:11.410 --> 00:04:12.460 align:middle line:84% I'm sorry, I'm going to do a lot of this 00:04:12.460 --> 00:04:15.002 align:middle line:84% because we're going to be going back and forth between videos 00:04:15.002 --> 00:04:16.420 align:middle line:90% and my slides. 00:04:16.420 --> 00:04:17.571 align:middle line:90% And I am low tech. 00:04:17.571 --> 00:04:19.779 align:middle line:84% If I were higher tech, I would have figured out a way 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:21.550 align:middle line:84% to incorporate the videos into the slides, 00:04:21.550 --> 00:04:24.620 align:middle line:84% but that's why this is the linguistics department and not 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:26.810 align:middle line:90% some other department. 00:04:26.810 --> 00:04:28.763 align:middle line:90% OK, so ASL is not English. 00:04:28.763 --> 00:04:31.180 align:middle line:84% It's not English because it's not all that closely related 00:04:31.180 --> 00:04:33.460 align:middle line:84% to British sign language, and it's also not English 00:04:33.460 --> 00:04:35.305 align:middle line:84% because, well, it has wh- [INAUDIBLE] too, 00:04:35.305 --> 00:04:37.810 align:middle line:84% like, English standard way to ask "Who did John see?," 00:04:37.810 --> 00:04:39.390 align:middle line:84% the word order is, "John saw who?" 00:04:39.390 --> 00:04:42.010 align:middle line:90% 00:04:42.010 --> 00:04:43.870 align:middle line:84% That's not to say that sign languages aren't 00:04:43.870 --> 00:04:45.787 align:middle line:84% in some kind of contact with spoken languages. 00:04:45.787 --> 00:04:53.200 align:middle line:84% So typically, if you're a deaf person growing up in America, 00:04:53.200 --> 00:04:55.870 align:middle line:84% you have some kind of relationship with ASL. 00:04:55.870 --> 00:04:59.060 align:middle line:84% What kind of relationship depends on the circumstances. 00:04:59.060 --> 00:05:01.450 align:middle line:84% So it's not at all uncommon for deaf children 00:05:01.450 --> 00:05:03.400 align:middle line:84% to be the deaf children of hearing parents, 00:05:03.400 --> 00:05:05.988 align:middle line:84% and then their parents have to do some hustling 00:05:05.988 --> 00:05:08.530 align:middle line:84% and be careful to make sure that their children have a chance 00:05:08.530 --> 00:05:10.930 align:middle line:90% to learn ASL. 00:05:10.930 --> 00:05:13.690 align:middle line:84% Some children of hearing parents will try to learn ASL 00:05:13.690 --> 00:05:16.630 align:middle line:84% themselves and raise their children in ASL. 00:05:16.630 --> 00:05:20.410 align:middle line:84% But, of course that's quite difficult, to learn quickly 00:05:20.410 --> 00:05:21.910 align:middle line:90% a language like ASL. 00:05:21.910 --> 00:05:24.803 align:middle line:84% I say "quickly" because if you didn't know ASL 00:05:24.803 --> 00:05:27.220 align:middle line:84% before you realized that you had a deaf child, well, then, 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:29.590 align:middle line:84% you need to hurry up and learn it fairly fast. 00:05:29.590 --> 00:05:32.690 align:middle line:84% And that's a difficult position for parents to be in. 00:05:32.690 --> 00:05:36.910 align:middle line:84% So there are some barriers with respect to how much resources 00:05:36.910 --> 00:05:39.550 align:middle line:84% these people have, whether they can 00:05:39.550 --> 00:05:43.453 align:middle line:84% do that in time for their kids to be exposed to ASL the way 00:05:43.453 --> 00:05:45.370 align:middle line:84% you need to be exposed to your first language. 00:05:45.370 --> 00:05:47.170 align:middle line:84% They're the deaf kids who-- and then, there 00:05:47.170 --> 00:05:50.050 align:middle line:84% are deaf kids who are lucky enough to be around native ASL 00:05:50.050 --> 00:05:52.030 align:middle line:90% signers from a very early age. 00:05:52.030 --> 00:05:55.368 align:middle line:84% Now, the upshot of all this is that if you're deaf 00:05:55.368 --> 00:05:57.160 align:middle line:84% and you're growing up in the United States, 00:05:57.160 --> 00:05:59.170 align:middle line:84% you probably have some kind of relation to ASL. 00:05:59.170 --> 00:06:00.610 align:middle line:84% Maybe you become a fluent speaker. 00:06:00.610 --> 00:06:04.775 align:middle line:90% That's one hope. 00:06:04.775 --> 00:06:07.150 align:middle line:84% But you also have some kind of relationship with English. 00:06:07.150 --> 00:06:09.850 align:middle line:84% You're surrounded by people who are communicating 00:06:09.850 --> 00:06:11.020 align:middle line:90% with each other in English. 00:06:11.020 --> 00:06:13.720 align:middle line:84% And so there are what you could think of as borrowings 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:17.650 align:middle line:84% between gestures of hearing people around you 00:06:17.650 --> 00:06:22.870 align:middle line:84% and the gestures that are used in the sign. 00:06:22.870 --> 00:06:24.340 align:middle line:84% Maybe one of the clearest examples 00:06:24.340 --> 00:06:27.640 align:middle line:84% of this, the pronoun for "I" in American Sign Language is this. 00:06:27.640 --> 00:06:29.890 align:middle line:90% You point at your own chest. 00:06:29.890 --> 00:06:32.920 align:middle line:84% The pronoun for "I" in Japanese Sign Language is this. 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:34.780 align:middle line:90% You point at your own nose. 00:06:34.780 --> 00:06:38.740 align:middle line:84% That's borrowing from the standard way 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:40.940 align:middle line:84% to point to yourself in these places. 00:06:40.940 --> 00:06:43.330 align:middle line:84% So in Japan, and a lot of Asia, I think, 00:06:43.330 --> 00:06:47.770 align:middle line:84% the way to point to yourself is to point at your own nose, 00:06:47.770 --> 00:06:50.770 align:middle line:84% whereas in America, the standard way to point to yourself 00:06:50.770 --> 00:06:51.853 align:middle line:90% is to point at your chest. 00:06:51.853 --> 00:06:53.478 align:middle line:84% So we could think of this as borrowing, 00:06:53.478 --> 00:06:55.060 align:middle line:84% if we wanted to, some kind of contact 00:06:55.060 --> 00:06:58.555 align:middle line:84% between the spoken language and the sign language. 00:06:58.555 --> 00:07:02.610 align:middle line:90% 00:07:02.610 --> 00:07:03.810 align:middle line:90% From very early on-- 00:07:03.810 --> 00:07:05.358 align:middle line:84% one of the first days, I think-- we 00:07:05.358 --> 00:07:07.650 align:middle line:84% talked about Saussure and the idea of the arbitrariness 00:07:07.650 --> 00:07:10.770 align:middle line:84% of the sign, the observation that the fact that this 00:07:10.770 --> 00:07:14.470 align:middle line:84% is called a "table" is an arbitrary fact. 00:07:14.470 --> 00:07:16.980 align:middle line:84% There's nothing about it that demands 00:07:16.980 --> 00:07:18.143 align:middle line:90% that it be called a table. 00:07:18.143 --> 00:07:19.560 align:middle line:84% It could have been called "chair", 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:22.230 align:middle line:84% and the fact that it's called a table is an accident. 00:07:22.230 --> 00:07:25.020 align:middle line:84% The fact that we call it a table in English but that in another 00:07:25.020 --> 00:07:27.570 align:middle line:84% language it could be called a "mesa," or a [NON-ENGLISH],, 00:07:27.570 --> 00:07:30.600 align:middle line:90% or a bunch of other things. 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.720 align:middle line:84% Yeah, languages get to arbitrarily decide what 00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:35.430 align:middle line:90% they're going to call things. 00:07:35.430 --> 00:07:36.720 align:middle line:90% Even in spoken languages-- 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:38.260 align:middle line:90% I think we said this before-- 00:07:38.260 --> 00:07:45.690 align:middle line:84% there are places where the way a word is pronounced 00:07:45.690 --> 00:07:48.720 align:middle line:84% has some kind of connection with what it refers to. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:50.460 align:middle line:84% The classic example of this is names 00:07:50.460 --> 00:07:53.490 align:middle line:84% for birds, which are not always, but often 00:07:53.490 --> 00:07:55.500 align:middle line:84% imitations of the call of the bird. 00:07:55.500 --> 00:07:58.558 align:middle line:84% So a little chickadee is named after the thing 00:07:58.558 --> 00:07:59.475 align:middle line:90% that a chickadee says. 00:07:59.475 --> 00:08:01.200 align:middle line:84% It sounds like it's saying "chickadee," 00:08:01.200 --> 00:08:03.390 align:middle line:90% if you listen to a chickadee. 00:08:03.390 --> 00:08:06.990 align:middle line:84% Or Passamaquoddy, the word for "Great Horned Owl," 00:08:06.990 --> 00:08:09.960 align:middle line:84% is [NON-ENGLISH],, which is a pretty good imitation 00:08:09.960 --> 00:08:11.160 align:middle line:90% of an owl. 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:12.720 align:middle line:84% So there are some things like that 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:14.460 align:middle line:84% where people seem to be imitating 00:08:14.460 --> 00:08:18.570 align:middle line:90% the sounds made by something. 00:08:18.570 --> 00:08:23.730 align:middle line:84% In ASL, of course, your sounds are not relevant. 00:08:23.730 --> 00:08:25.650 align:middle line:84% In a sense, you have a lot of chances 00:08:25.650 --> 00:08:27.870 align:middle line:90% to have non-arbitrary signs. 00:08:27.870 --> 00:08:30.090 align:middle line:84% So there are signs that really do 00:08:30.090 --> 00:08:32.640 align:middle line:84% look like you're imitating the thing, 00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:34.630 align:middle line:84% trying to make an image of the thing. 00:08:34.630 --> 00:08:35.927 align:middle line:90% So here's "book." 00:08:35.927 --> 00:08:36.510 align:middle line:90% That's "book." 00:08:36.510 --> 00:08:38.820 align:middle line:84% You can see why that's the word for "book." 00:08:38.820 --> 00:08:41.007 align:middle line:84% Or this is "tree," and you can see 00:08:41.007 --> 00:08:42.299 align:middle line:90% why that's the word for "tree." 00:08:42.299 --> 00:08:43.710 align:middle line:90% It's a picture of a tree. 00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:46.740 align:middle line:84% This is the kind of thing that gets people 00:08:46.740 --> 00:08:50.460 align:middle line:84% to think that ASL is basically a very sophisticated version 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:54.990 align:middle line:84% of charades, that people are just trying to imitate things, 00:08:54.990 --> 00:08:56.260 align:middle line:90% and then you're done. 00:08:56.260 --> 00:08:57.960 align:middle line:90% But of course, that's not it. 00:08:57.960 --> 00:09:00.150 align:middle line:84% Signs are just as arbitrary in ASL 00:09:00.150 --> 00:09:01.710 align:middle line:84% as they are in any spoken language. 00:09:01.710 --> 00:09:03.780 align:middle line:84% That is to say they're mostly arbitrary, 00:09:03.780 --> 00:09:06.120 align:middle line:84% with some other cases like "chickadee" 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:09.600 align:middle line:84% for English or "book" for ASL, cases where it's 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:11.310 align:middle line:90% possible to imitate something. 00:09:11.310 --> 00:09:13.830 align:middle line:90% 00:09:13.830 --> 00:09:15.810 align:middle line:84% There's a fair amount of work on the phonology 00:09:15.810 --> 00:09:18.480 align:middle line:84% of signed languages-- which, when I say it that way, 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:19.990 align:middle line:90% sounds like a bad joke. 00:09:19.990 --> 00:09:23.190 align:middle line:84% I mean, what does that mean, the phonology of sign languages? 00:09:23.190 --> 00:09:25.920 align:middle line:84% But it's actually, there's this really cool stuff that people 00:09:25.920 --> 00:09:29.850 align:middle line:84% have observed about, if you think of phonology as being 00:09:29.850 --> 00:09:34.740 align:middle line:84% the study of how basic units can be combined to make slightly 00:09:34.740 --> 00:09:37.320 align:middle line:84% larger units-- so OK, for spoken languages, 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:38.880 align:middle line:90% those units are sounds-- 00:09:38.880 --> 00:09:41.250 align:middle line:84% and we make all kinds of observations about the rules 00:09:41.250 --> 00:09:43.500 align:middle line:84% for how those things get to combine. 00:09:43.500 --> 00:09:46.290 align:middle line:84% And cast your mind back to when I was showing you some Lardil 00:09:46.290 --> 00:09:49.380 align:middle line:84% data, and I said, we convinced ourselves 00:09:49.380 --> 00:09:53.700 align:middle line:84% that it was useful to think that the accusative forms were 00:09:53.700 --> 00:09:57.930 align:middle line:84% a more reliable guide to the underlying forms 00:09:57.930 --> 00:09:59.610 align:middle line:90% than the nominative forms were. 00:09:59.610 --> 00:10:02.080 align:middle line:84% That's what we ended up saying for Lardil. 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:06.480 align:middle line:84% So we wanted to say, -in is being added to the underlying 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:09.540 align:middle line:84% form of the noun, which for "woman" is "bidngen" 00:10:09.540 --> 00:10:12.180 align:middle line:90% and for "fish" is "yak." 00:10:12.180 --> 00:10:14.850 align:middle line:84% And if you ask a Lardil speaker, what's your word for fish, 00:10:14.850 --> 00:10:16.620 align:middle line:90% they're not going to say "yak." 00:10:16.620 --> 00:10:17.880 align:middle line:90% They're going to say "yaga." 00:10:17.880 --> 00:10:21.930 align:middle line:84% But that's because, although the Lardil word for fish is 00:10:21.930 --> 00:10:25.530 align:middle line:84% underlyingly "yak," Lardil also has a basic rule-- 00:10:25.530 --> 00:10:26.430 align:middle line:90% a bunch of rules-- 00:10:26.430 --> 00:10:28.590 align:middle line:84% that lengthen monosyllabic words. 00:10:28.590 --> 00:10:31.350 align:middle line:84% And we talked about various rules of this kind. 00:10:31.350 --> 00:10:33.210 align:middle line:84% They add different things depending 00:10:33.210 --> 00:10:37.590 align:middle line:84% on what the monosyllabic word ends in, what sound it ends in, 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:41.730 align:middle line:84% with the upshot that "yak" is not a possible Lardil 00:10:41.730 --> 00:10:43.560 align:middle line:90% word because it's too short. 00:10:43.560 --> 00:10:46.200 align:middle line:84% And Lardil, therefore, lengthens it 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:47.865 align:middle line:84% if you haven't added anything to it. 00:10:47.865 --> 00:10:49.740 align:middle line:84% So if you've made it accusative, you're fine. 00:10:49.740 --> 00:10:52.297 align:middle line:84% It's two syllables long, "yaga," and you're all done. 00:10:52.297 --> 00:10:53.880 align:middle line:84% But if you wanted it to be nominative, 00:10:53.880 --> 00:10:55.860 align:middle line:84% you weren't going to add any suffixes to it, well, then, 00:10:55.860 --> 00:10:57.810 align:middle line:84% you need to add another vowel because it's too short. 00:10:57.810 --> 00:10:59.880 align:middle line:84% That was the picture of Lardil that we ended up with. 00:10:59.880 --> 00:11:01.463 align:middle line:84% Does that sound even faintly familiar? 00:11:01.463 --> 00:11:03.300 align:middle line:84% That's what we were talking about. 00:11:03.300 --> 00:11:05.250 align:middle line:84% That's a story about Lardil that says 00:11:05.250 --> 00:11:07.800 align:middle line:84% Lardil is like many languages in having what's called 00:11:07.800 --> 00:11:09.240 align:middle line:90% a minimal word requirement. 00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:12.360 align:middle line:84% That is, in Lardil, it says Lardil words can't 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:13.502 align:middle line:90% be just one syllable long. 00:11:13.502 --> 00:11:15.210 align:middle line:84% If you have a word that's going to end up 00:11:15.210 --> 00:11:16.920 align:middle line:84% being one syllable long, you do something to it 00:11:16.920 --> 00:11:17.670 align:middle line:90% to make it longer. 00:11:17.670 --> 00:11:20.100 align:middle line:90% 00:11:20.100 --> 00:11:23.880 align:middle line:84% ASL has also been argued to have a minimal word requirement, 00:11:23.880 --> 00:11:25.230 align:middle line:90% and the argument goes like this. 00:11:25.230 --> 00:11:28.590 align:middle line:84% There are signs that, if they're by themselves, 00:11:28.590 --> 00:11:30.900 align:middle line:84% they involve a movement which is often short. 00:11:30.900 --> 00:11:32.640 align:middle line:84% But then, that movement goes away 00:11:32.640 --> 00:11:34.660 align:middle line:84% if they're made part of a larger word. 00:11:34.660 --> 00:11:38.090 align:middle line:90% So here's the ASL for "think." 00:11:38.090 --> 00:11:42.000 align:middle line:84% You take your finger, you move it towards your temple, 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:43.740 align:middle line:84% and touch yourself in the temple briefly. 00:11:43.740 --> 00:11:47.190 align:middle line:84% Yeah, that's "think" and [INAUDIBLE] "I think." 00:11:47.190 --> 00:11:48.503 align:middle line:90% And here is "shocked." 00:11:48.503 --> 00:11:50.670 align:middle line:84% So "shocked" starts with your finger at your temple, 00:11:50.670 --> 00:11:52.295 align:middle line:84% where it would be for "think," and then 00:11:52.295 --> 00:11:54.750 align:middle line:84% it has a second component, "shocked." 00:11:54.750 --> 00:11:55.680 align:middle line:90% "I'm shocked." 00:11:55.680 --> 00:12:01.140 align:middle line:84% Yeah, so "think," one way to think about "think" 00:12:01.140 --> 00:12:03.510 align:middle line:84% is just having your hand in a position. 00:12:03.510 --> 00:12:04.830 align:middle line:90% That's too small. 00:12:04.830 --> 00:12:06.840 align:middle line:84% That's like a monosyllable in Lardil. 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:08.100 align:middle line:90% And so you add something. 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:08.940 align:middle line:90% You add emotion. 00:12:08.940 --> 00:12:11.520 align:middle line:84% Your hand moves towards your temple. 00:12:11.520 --> 00:12:13.260 align:middle line:84% But if you're adding, if you're making 00:12:13.260 --> 00:12:16.110 align:middle line:84% "shocked," which is "think" plus something else-- 00:12:16.110 --> 00:12:18.240 align:middle line:84% that's kind of like the accusative of "fish"-- 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:20.790 align:middle line:84% then it's OK to just start with your hand at your temple 00:12:20.790 --> 00:12:22.140 align:middle line:90% and then do the second half. 00:12:22.140 --> 00:12:25.980 align:middle line:84% You don't have to add that motion to your hand. 00:12:25.980 --> 00:12:29.160 align:middle line:84% And the suggestion that's been made in the literature on ASL 00:12:29.160 --> 00:12:32.710 align:middle line:84% phonology is this is like a minimal word requirement. 00:12:32.710 --> 00:12:37.470 align:middle line:84% So Diane Brentari has suggested ASL signs have a minimal word 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:38.190 align:middle line:90% requirement. 00:12:38.190 --> 00:12:39.440 align:middle line:90% She doesn't say "like Lardil." 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:42.250 align:middle line:84% I forget what minimal word language she's talking about. 00:12:42.250 --> 00:12:45.930 align:middle line:84% So they have to contain at least one move, is her idea. 00:12:45.930 --> 00:12:49.140 align:middle line:84% "Think" Is the ASL version of the Lardil word for "fish." 00:12:49.140 --> 00:12:53.330 align:middle line:90% 00:12:53.330 --> 00:12:56.150 align:middle line:90% Remember Polish obstruents? 00:12:56.150 --> 00:12:58.347 align:middle line:84% I like this class because I think I promised you 00:12:58.347 --> 00:13:00.680 align:middle line:84% that I was never, ever again going to talk about Polish, 00:13:00.680 --> 00:13:02.830 align:middle line:90% and so I apologize. 00:13:02.830 --> 00:13:03.710 align:middle line:90% It's the last day. 00:13:03.710 --> 00:13:05.585 align:middle line:84% You don't have to hear any more about Polish. 00:13:05.585 --> 00:13:06.340 align:middle line:90% Sorry, go ahead. 00:13:06.340 --> 00:13:07.400 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: I just have a question. 00:13:07.400 --> 00:13:08.317 align:middle line:90% NORVIN RICHARDS: Yeah. 00:13:08.317 --> 00:13:11.350 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: Are there other words that have "think" something? 00:13:11.350 --> 00:13:13.150 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: Oh, dear, now we 00:13:13.150 --> 00:13:15.970 align:middle line:84% get beyond my very modest knowledge about ASL. 00:13:15.970 --> 00:13:16.630 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:13:16.630 --> 00:13:19.480 align:middle line:84% Are you thinking that might be the only one? 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:23.190 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: Well, I think, again, if you, I guess, 00:13:23.190 --> 00:13:26.370 align:middle line:84% look at compound words, there is definitely the ability 00:13:26.370 --> 00:13:29.630 align:middle line:90% to pair them with other things. 00:13:29.630 --> 00:13:32.960 align:middle line:84% So I was just wondering if that's a common way 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:37.130 align:middle line:84% to just show surprise, maybe confusion. 00:13:37.130 --> 00:13:38.630 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: Oh, you mean having 00:13:38.630 --> 00:13:40.580 align:middle line:90% this as part of a larger sign? 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:43.102 align:middle line:84% Yeah, so Brentari's discussion certainly makes 00:13:43.102 --> 00:13:44.810 align:middle line:84% it sound like there are a bunch of these. 00:13:44.810 --> 00:13:46.313 align:middle line:84% "Shocked" is the examples she uses, 00:13:46.313 --> 00:13:48.230 align:middle line:84% and I'm afraid I don't know any other examples 00:13:48.230 --> 00:13:49.040 align:middle line:90% off the top of my head. 00:13:49.040 --> 00:13:51.050 align:middle line:84% I'll try to find the paper that I got this from, 00:13:51.050 --> 00:13:54.750 align:middle line:84% and I can put it on the website so you can take a look. 00:13:54.750 --> 00:13:59.230 align:middle line:84% So here I am signing things at you, yeah. 00:13:59.230 --> 00:14:01.750 align:middle line:84% Polish-- last time, I promise, we will talk about Polish. 00:14:01.750 --> 00:14:05.950 align:middle line:84% Polish obstruents, so stops and fricatives-- 00:14:05.950 --> 00:14:07.540 align:middle line:84% we convinced ourselves that Polish 00:14:07.540 --> 00:14:09.850 align:middle line:84% has what's called final voicing, cross-linguistically 00:14:09.850 --> 00:14:14.020 align:middle line:84% extraordinarily common, a phenomenon in which, if you 00:14:14.020 --> 00:14:17.900 align:middle line:84% have a voiced obstruent at the end of a word, 00:14:17.900 --> 00:14:18.980 align:middle line:90% it becomes voiceless. 00:14:18.980 --> 00:14:21.920 align:middle line:84% So if you look at the plurals of these nouns, 00:14:21.920 --> 00:14:24.460 align:middle line:84% then you can see that before the plural suffix "i", 00:14:24.460 --> 00:14:27.250 align:middle line:84% you can have both voiced and voiceless 00:14:27.250 --> 00:14:30.100 align:middle line:84% stops and fricatives-- in the last example, "nose" 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:32.050 align:middle line:84% and "rubble," plural of "rubble," 00:14:32.050 --> 00:14:35.750 align:middle line:84% which, hopefully, none of us will meet any time soon. 00:14:35.750 --> 00:14:38.500 align:middle line:84% But that if you don't have the plural, all of these obstruents 00:14:38.500 --> 00:14:40.375 align:middle line:84% are voiceless if they're at the end of a word 00:14:40.375 --> 00:14:42.670 align:middle line:84% because Polish has final devoicing. 00:14:42.670 --> 00:14:45.760 align:middle line:84% This was part of the argument that we need to posit 00:14:45.760 --> 00:14:49.150 align:middle line:84% an underlying representation for a word like "lye," let's say-- 00:14:49.150 --> 00:14:53.740 align:middle line:84% the second line there-- which ends in a voiced stop, 00:14:53.740 --> 00:14:56.440 align:middle line:90% because that gives us the best-- 00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:58.288 align:middle line:84% well, the best match on the data. 00:14:58.288 --> 00:15:00.580 align:middle line:84% So it allows us to account for the fact that the plural 00:15:00.580 --> 00:15:03.470 align:middle line:84% of "bow" and "lye" look different from each other-- 00:15:03.470 --> 00:15:05.050 align:middle line:90% they're "wuki" and "wugi"-- 00:15:05.050 --> 00:15:07.308 align:middle line:84% even though the singulars look the same. 00:15:07.308 --> 00:15:09.850 align:middle line:84% So this is what we were doing back when we were doing Polish, 00:15:09.850 --> 00:15:10.810 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:15:10.810 --> 00:15:13.490 align:middle line:84% Have I triggered your Polish flashbacks? 00:15:13.490 --> 00:15:15.762 align:middle line:84% OK, so it has voiced obstruents, but they're 00:15:15.762 --> 00:15:16.970 align:middle line:90% limited in where they can go. 00:15:16.970 --> 00:15:19.660 align:middle line:84% They can't go at the ends of words. 00:15:19.660 --> 00:15:21.910 align:middle line:84% Here's an observation about the distribution of finger 00:15:21.910 --> 00:15:23.590 align:middle line:90% wiggling in the ASL sign. 00:15:23.590 --> 00:15:25.450 align:middle line:84% So sometimes when you make an ASL sign, 00:15:25.450 --> 00:15:26.710 align:middle line:90% you wiggle your fingers. 00:15:26.710 --> 00:15:29.952 align:middle line:84% There are ASL signs in which there isn't much movement, 00:15:29.952 --> 00:15:31.660 align:middle line:84% or just one of Brentari's shortened ones, 00:15:31.660 --> 00:15:33.490 align:middle line:84% like the word for "color," which is this. 00:15:33.490 --> 00:15:35.350 align:middle line:84% So you put your hand to your chin, 00:15:35.350 --> 00:15:37.810 align:middle line:90% and you wiggle your fingers. 00:15:37.810 --> 00:15:41.620 align:middle line:84% There are also signs where your hands are moving 00:15:41.620 --> 00:15:43.720 align:middle line:84% and the wiggling is happening during the move, 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:47.420 align:middle line:84% like go up in flames, where your hands are rising 00:15:47.420 --> 00:15:48.670 align:middle line:90% and your fingers are wiggling. 00:15:48.670 --> 00:15:50.740 align:middle line:84% That's how you do go up in flames. 00:15:50.740 --> 00:15:53.350 align:middle line:84% So ASL signs can have finger wiggling in them, 00:15:53.350 --> 00:15:55.930 align:middle line:84% but there are imaginable signs that you don't get. 00:15:55.930 --> 00:15:58.450 align:middle line:84% So you could imagine a sign where 00:15:58.450 --> 00:16:01.150 align:middle line:84% your fingers would wiggle, and then you would move. 00:16:01.150 --> 00:16:03.238 align:middle line:84% It would be like go up in flames, 00:16:03.238 --> 00:16:05.530 align:middle line:84% except you would wiggle first before you began moving-- 00:16:05.530 --> 00:16:07.810 align:middle line:84% or in which you moved and then, having reached 00:16:07.810 --> 00:16:10.090 align:middle line:84% your destination, you did a long move-- 00:16:10.090 --> 00:16:12.355 align:middle line:84% not one of your short moves, but a long move-- 00:16:12.355 --> 00:16:14.230 align:middle line:84% did your move, and then wiggled your fingers. 00:16:14.230 --> 00:16:16.690 align:middle line:84% But there aren't any signs like that. 00:16:16.690 --> 00:16:21.820 align:middle line:84% So finger wiggling is either confined 00:16:21.820 --> 00:16:23.950 align:middle line:84% to the position at the end of one 00:16:23.950 --> 00:16:26.800 align:middle line:84% of Brentari's short movements, or if your hands are moving 00:16:26.800 --> 00:16:30.080 align:middle line:84% over a longer distance like in "go up in flames," well, you 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:31.330 align:middle line:90% have to wiggle the whole time. 00:16:31.330 --> 00:16:35.660 align:middle line:90% 00:16:35.660 --> 00:16:38.367 align:middle line:84% Similar observation about hand shape change. 00:16:38.367 --> 00:16:40.700 align:middle line:84% So there are signs where your hands just do a short move 00:16:40.700 --> 00:16:44.780 align:middle line:84% and then change their hand shape, like "understand," where 00:16:44.780 --> 00:16:47.480 align:middle line:84% your hand moves into position and then, put up one finger, 00:16:47.480 --> 00:16:52.960 align:middle line:84% "understand," or "old", where your hand starts at your chin 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:55.210 align:middle line:84% and moves as it moves away from your chin-- "old." 00:16:55.210 --> 00:16:56.380 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:16:56.380 --> 00:17:01.960 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: You're talking about other mental concepts being 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:05.270 align:middle line:84% expressed in sign language and understand-- 00:17:05.270 --> 00:17:07.277 align:middle line:90% so it also starts at the temple? 00:17:07.277 --> 00:17:09.069 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, so I think, right, I 00:17:09.069 --> 00:17:10.660 align:middle line:90% think there are a number of-- 00:17:10.660 --> 00:17:12.545 align:middle line:84% not surprising, maybe a number of mental. 00:17:12.545 --> 00:17:13.670 align:middle line:90% So "forget" is another one. 00:17:13.670 --> 00:17:17.020 align:middle line:84% This is "forget," where you wipe something off of your brain, 00:17:17.020 --> 00:17:20.720 align:middle line:90% yeah, using your middle finger. 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:24.520 align:middle line:84% Your middle finger is also used for being sick. 00:17:24.520 --> 00:17:26.020 align:middle line:84% So yeah, there are a bunch of signs, 00:17:26.020 --> 00:17:28.073 align:middle line:84% that use your head that have to do with what's 00:17:28.073 --> 00:17:28.990 align:middle line:90% going on in your head. 00:17:28.990 --> 00:17:30.100 align:middle line:90% Yeah, that's right. 00:17:30.100 --> 00:17:31.582 align:middle line:90% That's right. 00:17:31.582 --> 00:17:34.778 align:middle line:84% OK, so ASL has finger wiggling, but there 00:17:34.778 --> 00:17:36.570 align:middle line:84% are limits on where finger wiggling can go. 00:17:36.570 --> 00:17:38.362 align:middle line:84% It goes during the motion, or it goes right 00:17:38.362 --> 00:17:40.560 align:middle line:84% after one of Brentari's short movements. 00:17:40.560 --> 00:17:41.940 align:middle line:90% Hand shape change is the same. 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:43.560 align:middle line:84% It goes after one of Brentari's short movements, 00:17:43.560 --> 00:17:45.390 align:middle line:84% like in "understand," or it goes during the movement, 00:17:45.390 --> 00:17:46.290 align:middle line:90% like in "old." 00:17:46.290 --> 00:17:48.280 align:middle line:90% Yeah, but there aren't-- 00:17:48.280 --> 00:17:49.860 align:middle line:84% did I say this in the next slide? 00:17:49.860 --> 00:17:53.220 align:middle line:84% Yeah, again, you can imagine a sign where-- 00:17:53.220 --> 00:17:56.010 align:middle line:84% which would be like "old" where you would start with one hand 00:17:56.010 --> 00:17:59.550 align:middle line:84% shape, you change shapes, and then move, 00:17:59.550 --> 00:18:01.920 align:middle line:84% or where you would move along distance and then change 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:05.620 align:middle line:84% shapes, but there aren't any signs like that. 00:18:05.620 --> 00:18:07.380 align:middle line:84% And so people have suggested, yeah, 00:18:07.380 --> 00:18:10.140 align:middle line:84% just like a phonologist has to be able to say things like, 00:18:10.140 --> 00:18:13.560 align:middle line:84% this is a language that has voiced obstruents but not 00:18:13.560 --> 00:18:16.500 align:middle line:84% at the ends of words-- there are limits on where they can go-- 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:19.770 align:middle line:84% ASL has finger wiggling, and it has hand shape change, 00:18:19.770 --> 00:18:22.260 align:middle line:84% but it has rules about where they can go in the sign. 00:18:22.260 --> 00:18:24.210 align:middle line:84% And then, of course, you want to know why-- 00:18:24.210 --> 00:18:27.390 align:middle line:84% like why, what constrains these to where they go. 00:18:27.390 --> 00:18:30.150 align:middle line:84% But when I say that there's work on ASL phonology, , 00:18:30.150 --> 00:18:31.122 align:middle line:90% this is what I mean-- 00:18:31.122 --> 00:18:32.580 align:middle line:84% there's people trying to figure out 00:18:32.580 --> 00:18:36.390 align:middle line:84% what makes something a possible well-formed ASL sign. 00:18:36.390 --> 00:18:39.630 align:middle line:84% It turns out there are limits on this. 00:18:39.630 --> 00:18:42.450 align:middle line:84% One observation, actually, that people 00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:45.240 align:middle line:84% have made as they do this work, there 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:49.302 align:middle line:84% are compounds or polymorphemic signs, 00:18:49.302 --> 00:18:51.510 align:middle line:84% which you can tell they're polymorphemic because they 00:18:51.510 --> 00:18:52.720 align:middle line:90% appear to violate these rules. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:54.970 align:middle line:84% So I just said, there aren't any signs where you first 00:18:54.970 --> 00:18:57.950 align:middle line:90% finger wiggle and then move. 00:18:57.950 --> 00:18:59.700 align:middle line:84% Here's an apparent counterexample to that. 00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:02.805 align:middle line:84% There's a word "hypnotist," which goes like this. 00:19:02.805 --> 00:19:05.430 align:middle line:90% 00:19:05.430 --> 00:19:07.950 align:middle line:90% But that's a two-morpheme sign. 00:19:07.950 --> 00:19:12.990 align:middle line:84% So it's "hypnotize"-- which is a Brentari short movement plus 00:19:12.990 --> 00:19:15.600 align:middle line:84% finger wiggling-- and then there's a suffix, 00:19:15.600 --> 00:19:17.460 align:middle line:90% which is the agentive suffix. 00:19:17.460 --> 00:19:18.840 align:middle line:90% You use it to make-- 00:19:18.840 --> 00:19:21.310 align:middle line:84% you attach it to nouns to make people who do that now. 00:19:21.310 --> 00:19:23.280 align:middle line:90% So it's a hypnotist. 00:19:23.280 --> 00:19:27.390 align:middle line:84% So "hypnotist" by itself looks like you're finger wiggling 00:19:27.390 --> 00:19:28.320 align:middle line:90% and then moving. 00:19:28.320 --> 00:19:29.880 align:middle line:84% But that's because there's a morpheme boundary 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:30.830 align:middle line:90% between those two things. 00:19:30.830 --> 00:19:32.538 align:middle line:84% So within a morpheme, you can think of it 00:19:32.538 --> 00:19:34.360 align:middle line:84% as a bisyllabic word if you want. 00:19:34.360 --> 00:19:36.840 align:middle line:84% So in the first syllable, you're doing finger wiggling 00:19:36.840 --> 00:19:40.590 align:middle line:84% the same way you're doing finger wiggling in color. 00:19:40.590 --> 00:19:42.390 align:middle line:84% And then there's a second move, which 00:19:42.390 --> 00:19:43.620 align:middle line:90% involves moving your hands. 00:19:43.620 --> 00:19:49.390 align:middle line:90% 00:19:49.390 --> 00:19:52.870 align:middle line:84% ASL has one-handed signs, like "understand," 00:19:52.870 --> 00:19:58.160 align:middle line:84% and it also has two-handed signs, like "go up in flames." 00:19:58.160 --> 00:20:00.410 align:middle line:84% There's an interesting restriction in two-handed signs 00:20:00.410 --> 00:20:01.460 align:middle line:90% on the second hand. 00:20:01.460 --> 00:20:04.190 align:middle line:84% So the second hand either has to stay still, 00:20:04.190 --> 00:20:07.430 align:middle line:84% like in tree, where one hand moves and the other hand 00:20:07.430 --> 00:20:11.180 align:middle line:84% just stays there in the background for the first sign, 00:20:11.180 --> 00:20:14.420 align:middle line:84% or it does the same thing as the other hand. 00:20:14.420 --> 00:20:18.290 align:middle line:84% So "teach," both your hands are doing the same thing. 00:20:18.290 --> 00:20:20.090 align:middle line:90% I love the sign for "teach." 00:20:20.090 --> 00:20:23.420 align:middle line:84% I want to do this when I teach now. 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:26.072 align:middle line:84% Or bicycle, where your hands are doing the same thing, 00:20:26.072 --> 00:20:27.780 align:middle line:84% but they're out of phase with each other. 00:20:27.780 --> 00:20:30.570 align:middle line:84% So they're both going in circles. 00:20:30.570 --> 00:20:32.450 align:middle line:84% Which is kind of interesting because-- 00:20:32.450 --> 00:20:34.070 align:middle line:90% so and that's it, right? 00:20:34.070 --> 00:20:36.952 align:middle line:84% So there aren't ASL signs in which 00:20:36.952 --> 00:20:38.910 align:middle line:84% one hand is doing one thing and the other hand, 00:20:38.910 --> 00:20:41.310 align:middle line:84% is doing a completely different thing. 00:20:41.310 --> 00:20:43.280 align:middle line:90% And it's not because-- 00:20:43.280 --> 00:20:44.600 align:middle line:90% does that make sense? 00:20:44.600 --> 00:20:48.170 align:middle line:84% So your hands can't both be moving and doing 00:20:48.170 --> 00:20:50.220 align:middle line:90% different things. 00:20:50.220 --> 00:20:52.970 align:middle line:84% Which is interesting, because it is actually physically possible 00:20:52.970 --> 00:20:56.450 align:middle line:84% to violate this, to have your two hands both moving and doing 00:20:56.450 --> 00:20:58.040 align:middle line:90% different things, in poetry. 00:20:58.040 --> 00:21:01.220 align:middle line:84% So there's a video which I'll try to show you now 00:21:01.220 --> 00:21:05.480 align:middle line:84% of an ASL poet, guy named Clayton Valli, who 00:21:05.480 --> 00:21:06.740 align:middle line:90% wrote many poems in ASL. 00:21:06.740 --> 00:21:08.360 align:middle line:84% There are a lot of YouTube videos 00:21:08.360 --> 00:21:10.760 align:middle line:90% of him performing his poems. 00:21:10.760 --> 00:21:13.730 align:middle line:84% And this one is called "Snowflake." 00:21:13.730 --> 00:21:16.870 align:middle line:90% And what he does in it-- 00:21:16.870 --> 00:21:18.620 align:middle line:84% the reason I'm going to show you the video 00:21:18.620 --> 00:21:20.540 align:middle line:84% is that I can't physically do it very well. 00:21:20.540 --> 00:21:22.370 align:middle line:90% I'll show you what he does. 00:21:22.370 --> 00:21:24.390 align:middle line:84% But I'll tell you what he's about to do, 00:21:24.390 --> 00:21:26.060 align:middle line:90% just so you can see it. 00:21:26.060 --> 00:21:29.590 align:middle line:84% With one hand, he's doing the sign for "snowflake"-- 00:21:29.590 --> 00:21:31.540 align:middle line:90% which is a snowflake falling. 00:21:31.540 --> 00:21:33.850 align:middle line:84% And, then with the other hand, he's signing one-handed 00:21:33.850 --> 00:21:35.093 align:middle line:90% versions of-- 00:21:35.093 --> 00:21:36.385 align:middle line:90% I may not get the order right-- 00:21:36.385 --> 00:21:38.980 align:middle line:90% 00:21:38.980 --> 00:21:45.300 align:middle line:90% white, cold, beautiful. 00:21:45.300 --> 00:21:47.240 align:middle line:84% And he's doing this as this hand is moving. 00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:49.740 align:middle line:84% So this hand is moving, and with the other hand, he's going, 00:21:49.740 --> 00:21:51.300 align:middle line:90% white, cold, beautiful. 00:21:51.300 --> 00:21:54.540 align:middle line:84% And as you can see, I can't physically do this, but he can. 00:21:54.540 --> 00:21:55.770 align:middle line:90% Let me show you him doing it. 00:21:55.770 --> 00:21:58.470 align:middle line:90% 00:21:58.470 --> 00:22:01.202 align:middle line:90% Let me get it. 00:22:01.202 --> 00:22:01.810 align:middle line:90% Where is he? 00:22:01.810 --> 00:22:03.107 align:middle line:90% Yeah, so here's Clayton Valli. 00:22:03.107 --> 00:22:05.440 align:middle line:84% And I think I paused it in more or less the right place, 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:07.232 align:middle line:84% and we have to watch this for a little bit. 00:22:07.232 --> 00:22:09.670 align:middle line:84% So he's about to sign about looking out 00:22:09.670 --> 00:22:11.380 align:middle line:90% the window at a snowy day. 00:22:11.380 --> 00:22:13.810 align:middle line:90% The snow is coming down. 00:22:13.810 --> 00:22:16.280 align:middle line:84% And now I think it's about to come. 00:22:16.280 --> 00:22:17.350 align:middle line:90% Here's the snow piled up. 00:22:17.350 --> 00:22:21.014 align:middle line:90% 00:22:21.014 --> 00:22:22.080 align:middle line:90% Come on, Clayton. 00:22:22.080 --> 00:22:26.732 align:middle line:90% 00:22:26.732 --> 00:22:27.440 align:middle line:90% Yeah, here it is. 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:29.360 align:middle line:84% There's the snowflake falling, and 00:22:29.360 --> 00:22:33.920 align:middle line:84% white, beautiful, cold, yeah, with his other hand. 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:37.550 align:middle line:84% So it's physically possible to do that, 00:22:37.550 --> 00:22:40.370 align:middle line:84% at least if you're Clayton Valli, if you're a fluent ASL 00:22:40.370 --> 00:22:41.990 align:middle line:90% signer. 00:22:41.990 --> 00:22:44.160 align:middle line:84% But there aren't any ASL signs that do it. 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:48.290 align:middle line:84% It's one of those rules that you break in order 00:22:48.290 --> 00:22:50.360 align:middle line:90% to perform poetry. 00:22:50.360 --> 00:22:53.540 align:middle line:90% So I'll put a link to that. 00:22:53.540 --> 00:22:56.300 align:middle line:84% I'll put link to that poem on the website so you can see. 00:22:56.300 --> 00:22:56.800 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:22:56.800 --> 00:22:57.710 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: I feel like that might just 00:22:57.710 --> 00:23:00.200 align:middle line:84% be because most people aren't capable of doing 00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:02.723 align:middle line:84% that, like do a circle with one hand 00:23:02.723 --> 00:23:03.890 align:middle line:90% and a square with the other. 00:23:03.890 --> 00:23:05.190 align:middle line:90% Most people can't do that. 00:23:05.190 --> 00:23:06.770 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: So I think it's one 00:23:06.770 --> 00:23:09.320 align:middle line:84% of those things that probably requires practice, right? 00:23:09.320 --> 00:23:13.550 align:middle line:84% And question, is this something that any ASL signer could just 00:23:13.550 --> 00:23:15.980 align:middle line:90% do cold without any trouble? 00:23:15.980 --> 00:23:17.750 align:middle line:84% If they saw the Clayton Valli video, 00:23:17.750 --> 00:23:20.900 align:middle line:84% they'd be like, oh, yeah, and then they would do it, 00:23:20.900 --> 00:23:23.360 align:middle line:84% and I can't do it because I'm not a fluent ASL signer? 00:23:23.360 --> 00:23:26.623 align:middle line:84% Or whether it's because Clayton Valli practiced in his room 00:23:26.623 --> 00:23:28.040 align:middle line:84% hour after hour and eventually got 00:23:28.040 --> 00:23:30.380 align:middle line:84% to where he could get his hands to do that? 00:23:30.380 --> 00:23:31.220 align:middle line:90% Yeah, right. 00:23:31.220 --> 00:23:32.570 align:middle line:90% So I think you're right. 00:23:32.570 --> 00:23:33.600 align:middle line:90% It's not exactly that. 00:23:33.600 --> 00:23:35.240 align:middle line:84% It's not surprising that ASL isn't 00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:38.060 align:middle line:84% full of signs that are like this, with your two hands doing 00:23:38.060 --> 00:23:39.780 align:middle line:90% two different things. 00:23:39.780 --> 00:23:42.620 align:middle line:84% But it's interesting that it is physically possible 00:23:42.620 --> 00:23:44.240 align:middle line:90% to learn to do it. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:45.320 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:23:45.320 --> 00:23:49.400 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: I think that it's in contrast to the signing rule. 00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:52.114 align:middle line:84% It's one of the first things you learn in an ASL class. 00:23:52.114 --> 00:23:54.743 align:middle line:84% And I believe that is where you should 00:23:54.743 --> 00:23:57.903 align:middle line:84% focus all your attention, on the dominant hand. 00:23:57.903 --> 00:23:59.320 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:23:59.320 --> 00:24:02.650 align:middle line:84% So I mean, you're absolutely right. 00:24:02.650 --> 00:24:04.900 align:middle line:84% What happens is that the non-dominant hand 00:24:04.900 --> 00:24:06.910 align:middle line:84% either copies the dominant hand or just 00:24:06.910 --> 00:24:10.060 align:middle line:90% sits still, like in "tree." 00:24:10.060 --> 00:24:13.570 align:middle line:84% And so you think this is something somebody deliberately 00:24:13.570 --> 00:24:14.080 align:middle line:90% did? 00:24:14.080 --> 00:24:16.535 align:middle line:84% They decided that ASL should work this way? 00:24:16.535 --> 00:24:17.660 align:middle line:90% It'd be interesting to see. 00:24:17.660 --> 00:24:18.310 align:middle line:90% I have no idea. 00:24:18.310 --> 00:24:20.320 align:middle line:84% I'm doing all this talk about ASL. 00:24:20.320 --> 00:24:23.200 align:middle line:84% I started by saying, there are many sign languages. 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:25.990 align:middle line:84% I don't know whether this is true in every sign language. 00:24:25.990 --> 00:24:27.490 align:middle line:84% I haven't heard of a sign language 00:24:27.490 --> 00:24:29.698 align:middle line:84% in which your hands are allowed to move independently 00:24:29.698 --> 00:24:30.710 align:middle line:90% of each other. 00:24:30.710 --> 00:24:33.080 align:middle line:84% So it'd be interesting to see how universal this is. 00:24:33.080 --> 00:24:33.580 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:24:33.580 --> 00:24:38.800 align:middle line:84% Is there a left-handed versus right-handed version of ASL? 00:24:38.800 --> 00:24:42.130 align:middle line:84% No, I mean if, so I'm right-handed, 00:24:42.130 --> 00:24:43.630 align:middle line:84% and so this is my version of "tree." 00:24:43.630 --> 00:24:46.480 align:middle line:84% If I were left-handed this would be my version of "tree." 00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:49.150 align:middle line:84% And they mean the same thing, as far as I can tell. 00:24:49.150 --> 00:24:52.960 align:middle line:84% Similarly, for the signs that use both hands-- 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:55.870 align:middle line:84% I mean, this is a consequence of these facts about the signs 00:24:55.870 --> 00:24:58.328 align:middle line:84% that we've been talking about-- for the signs that use both 00:24:58.328 --> 00:25:01.682 align:middle line:90% hands, like "teach," if I'm-- 00:25:01.682 --> 00:25:03.640 align:middle line:84% somebody described this to me as the equivalent 00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:05.307 align:middle line:84% of talking with your mouth full-- if I'm 00:25:05.307 --> 00:25:08.020 align:middle line:84% busy with my right hand, if I'm holding something 00:25:08.020 --> 00:25:10.000 align:middle line:84% or whatever, then I can sign "teach" just 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:13.300 align:middle line:84% with my other hand, and you don't lose anything, 00:25:13.300 --> 00:25:15.460 align:middle line:90% in a sense. 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:19.390 align:middle line:84% You might if there's also a sign that's just like this. 00:25:19.390 --> 00:25:22.022 align:middle line:84% And Valli, actually, in this video, 00:25:22.022 --> 00:25:23.230 align:middle line:90% is doing something like that. 00:25:23.230 --> 00:25:27.850 align:middle line:84% The sign for "cold" uses both hands. 00:25:27.850 --> 00:25:29.440 align:middle line:90% They're both moving. 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:32.450 align:middle line:84% But because his right hand is busy doing "snowflake," 00:25:32.450 --> 00:25:35.610 align:middle line:84% he does a one-handed version of "cold," yeah. 00:25:35.610 --> 00:25:41.180 align:middle line:90% 00:25:41.180 --> 00:25:45.730 align:middle line:84% Yeah, OK, and I alluded to this a second ago. 00:25:45.730 --> 00:25:47.500 align:middle line:84% There's a lot of work on the use of parts 00:25:47.500 --> 00:25:48.940 align:middle line:84% of the body other than your hands, so 00:25:48.940 --> 00:25:50.023 align:middle line:90% your non-manual component. 00:25:50.023 --> 00:25:52.810 align:middle line:84% There's facial expressions that are involved in doing 00:25:52.810 --> 00:25:53.810 align:middle line:90% certain kinds of things. 00:25:53.810 --> 00:25:57.310 align:middle line:84% So as I said, in wh-questions in ASL, 00:25:57.310 --> 00:26:00.370 align:middle line:84% wh-questions require you to furrow your brow 00:26:00.370 --> 00:26:01.780 align:middle line:90% and look puzzled. 00:26:01.780 --> 00:26:04.427 align:middle line:84% And there's all this interesting work on where, exactly, you're 00:26:04.427 --> 00:26:05.260 align:middle line:90% required to do that. 00:26:05.260 --> 00:26:09.715 align:middle line:84% As I said, ASL is a wh-in-situ language, 00:26:09.715 --> 00:26:11.950 align:middle line:84% or it has the option of wh in situ. 00:26:11.950 --> 00:26:15.110 align:middle line:84% And I do have chalk today, which is nice. 00:26:15.110 --> 00:26:18.610 align:middle line:84% So apparently, what that means is 00:26:18.610 --> 00:26:32.680 align:middle line:84% that if you're doing the ASL for "You gave what to the teacher?" 00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:35.710 align:middle line:84% where just pretend that all of this is ASL, 00:26:35.710 --> 00:26:39.370 align:middle line:84% you're required to look puzzled here-- 00:26:39.370 --> 00:26:41.500 align:middle line:84% that is, from the beginning of the question 00:26:41.500 --> 00:26:43.180 align:middle line:90% until you get to the wh word. 00:26:43.180 --> 00:26:46.630 align:middle line:84% And then you're allowed to relax your face. 00:26:46.630 --> 00:26:49.825 align:middle line:84% And if this is an embedded question like, I don't know-- 00:26:49.825 --> 00:26:53.960 align:middle line:90% 00:26:53.960 --> 00:26:56.020 align:middle line:84% so if I'm saying the ASL for, "I don't know 00:26:56.020 --> 00:26:58.120 align:middle line:90% what you gave to the teacher"-- 00:26:58.120 --> 00:26:59.650 align:middle line:90% well, then, this is still true. 00:26:59.650 --> 00:27:03.220 align:middle line:84% You sign "I don't know" without doing a wh- facial expression, 00:27:03.220 --> 00:27:05.110 align:middle line:90% but you do one for this part. 00:27:05.110 --> 00:27:08.320 align:middle line:84% So from the beginning of the question to the wh- word, 00:27:08.320 --> 00:27:10.600 align:middle line:90% you're required to look puzzled. 00:27:10.600 --> 00:27:14.680 align:middle line:84% Just kind of cool there's this work on this. 00:27:14.680 --> 00:27:18.715 align:middle line:84% Or similarly, there's a negation in facial expression in ASL. 00:27:18.715 --> 00:27:20.380 align:middle line:90% And so negation-- 00:27:20.380 --> 00:27:22.480 align:middle line:90% ASL has a word for "not." 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:24.350 align:middle line:90% It's this. 00:27:24.350 --> 00:27:27.280 align:middle line:90% And so if I want to sign-- 00:27:27.280 --> 00:27:28.270 align:middle line:90% oh, sorry. 00:27:28.270 --> 00:27:31.050 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: So does that mean that the facial expressions we make 00:27:31.050 --> 00:27:36.632 align:middle line:84% when [INAUDIBLE] are related to [INAUDIBLE] 00:27:36.632 --> 00:27:39.910 align:middle line:84% face and interaction with others? 00:27:39.910 --> 00:27:42.750 align:middle line:84% Because I would think it's something that's unique, 00:27:42.750 --> 00:27:45.070 align:middle line:84% like when you're confused, to make 00:27:45.070 --> 00:27:47.080 align:middle line:90% an expression with your face. 00:27:47.080 --> 00:27:49.234 align:middle line:84% Is it just related to the fact that you're 00:27:49.234 --> 00:27:51.734 align:middle line:84% talking with someone you want to understand you're confused. 00:27:51.734 --> 00:27:53.620 align:middle line:90% Or is it [INAUDIBLE]? 00:27:53.620 --> 00:27:55.000 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: These are all really interesting questions 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:56.417 align:middle line:84% to which I don't know the answers. 00:27:56.417 --> 00:28:00.580 align:middle line:84% One possibility is that the puzzled facial expression, 00:28:00.580 --> 00:28:02.530 align:middle line:84% the wh- facial expression in ASL, 00:28:02.530 --> 00:28:05.650 align:middle line:84% it's a little bit the two pronouns for "I" 00:28:05.650 --> 00:28:07.120 align:middle line:84% that I was talking about earlier-- 00:28:07.120 --> 00:28:09.940 align:middle line:84% that this is "I" in ASL, and this is "I" in Japanese Sign 00:28:09.940 --> 00:28:12.490 align:middle line:84% Language, and that maybe that's connected to gestures 00:28:12.490 --> 00:28:17.080 align:middle line:84% that hearing people make that speakers of sign languages 00:28:17.080 --> 00:28:18.530 align:middle line:90% are using in a different way. 00:28:18.530 --> 00:28:21.940 align:middle line:84% So you're right, I might, if I were asking you a wh- question, 00:28:21.940 --> 00:28:23.900 align:middle line:90% look puzzled. 00:28:23.900 --> 00:28:26.620 align:middle line:84% I don't have to look puzzled to ask you a wh-question, 00:28:26.620 --> 00:28:30.310 align:middle line:84% and there are no particular restrictions on when I should 00:28:30.310 --> 00:28:31.300 align:middle line:90% look puzzled-- 00:28:31.300 --> 00:28:33.970 align:middle line:84% where during my question I should look puzzled. 00:28:33.970 --> 00:28:35.650 align:middle line:90% But in ASL, there are. 00:28:35.650 --> 00:28:37.450 align:middle line:84% You actually have to do this, and you 00:28:37.450 --> 00:28:39.520 align:middle line:84% have to do it at the right points, 00:28:39.520 --> 00:28:43.000 align:middle line:84% in the right points of the wh- question. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:45.760 align:middle line:84% So their use of facial expressions 00:28:45.760 --> 00:28:49.570 align:middle line:84% is a little more sophisticated, I guess, or rule-governed, 00:28:49.570 --> 00:28:53.740 align:middle line:84% than they have been shown to be, anyway, for speaking people. 00:28:53.740 --> 00:28:56.050 align:middle line:84% Now, maybe all this shows is that there 00:28:56.050 --> 00:28:58.840 align:middle line:84% hasn't been enough work on facial expressions 00:28:58.840 --> 00:28:59.920 align:middle line:90% for spoken languages. 00:28:59.920 --> 00:29:02.140 align:middle line:84% We're all obsessed with the sounds, 00:29:02.140 --> 00:29:05.320 align:middle line:84% but for ASL, there's all this clever work on what you 00:29:05.320 --> 00:29:06.640 align:middle line:90% do with the rest of your body. 00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:09.860 align:middle line:90% Yeah, good question. 00:29:09.860 --> 00:29:12.470 align:middle line:84% Similarly, there's a negation facial expression. 00:29:12.470 --> 00:29:16.460 align:middle line:84% So if I want to say, "I'm not deaf," I can sign, 00:29:16.460 --> 00:29:20.660 align:middle line:90% "I," "not," and "deaf." 00:29:20.660 --> 00:29:28.400 align:middle line:84% or I can point at myself and shake my head as I sign "deaf." 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:31.760 align:middle line:84% So I don't have to use the sign for "not" at all. 00:29:31.760 --> 00:29:35.570 align:middle line:84% By shaking my head, I convey negation 00:29:35.570 --> 00:29:38.005 align:middle line:90% without using the negation sign. 00:29:38.005 --> 00:29:40.380 align:middle line:84% So there are facial expressions for both of these things. 00:29:40.380 --> 00:29:41.838 align:middle line:84% I don't know what happens when they 00:29:41.838 --> 00:29:45.002 align:middle line:84% combine because, presumably, you can ask negative questions. 00:29:45.002 --> 00:29:47.585 align:middle line:84% I guess you can do all of these things with your head at once. 00:29:47.585 --> 00:29:50.840 align:middle line:90% 00:29:50.840 --> 00:29:55.410 align:middle line:84% One of the other properties of signed languages 00:29:55.410 --> 00:29:59.000 align:middle line:84% which is cool and there's a lot of work on it 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:02.400 align:middle line:84% is the use of loci in space to refer. 00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:04.700 align:middle line:84% So an English sentence like "Trump 00:30:04.700 --> 00:30:09.020 align:middle line:84% told Biden that he would win" is ambiguous. 00:30:09.020 --> 00:30:14.360 align:middle line:84% So "he" could refer to Trump, or to Biden, or to anybody else, 00:30:14.360 --> 00:30:15.370 align:middle line:90% in principle. 00:30:15.370 --> 00:30:17.300 align:middle line:84% It has to refer to some male person. 00:30:17.300 --> 00:30:20.090 align:middle line:84% It could refer to either of these people. 00:30:20.090 --> 00:30:22.790 align:middle line:84% If you were going to sign this in ASL-- 00:30:22.790 --> 00:30:23.938 align:middle line:90% and I'm not going to. 00:30:23.938 --> 00:30:25.730 align:middle line:84% I don't know enough ASL, but I can tell you 00:30:25.730 --> 00:30:28.620 align:middle line:84% the basic ideas about how this would work-- first of all, 00:30:28.620 --> 00:30:31.100 align:middle line:84% you would need what are called "name signs." 00:30:31.100 --> 00:30:34.850 align:middle line:84% So you would need to sign the names "Trump" and "Biden". 00:30:34.850 --> 00:30:37.520 align:middle line:84% The simple way to do that is by finger spelling. 00:30:37.520 --> 00:30:42.897 align:middle line:84% So there are correspondents to all of the letters. 00:30:42.897 --> 00:30:45.230 align:middle line:84% You can sign all of the letters of the English alphabet. 00:30:45.230 --> 00:30:49.430 align:middle line:84% So you could sign T-R-U-M-P, only you'd do it faster if you 00:30:49.430 --> 00:30:52.070 align:middle line:90% knew ASL. 00:30:52.070 --> 00:30:54.320 align:middle line:84% But there are also what are called "name signs," which 00:30:54.320 --> 00:30:57.170 align:middle line:84% are signs that are just signs for particular people-- 00:30:57.170 --> 00:31:01.040 align:middle line:84% typically famous people, or people who are deaf, 00:31:01.040 --> 00:31:05.000 align:middle line:84% I think, generally end up with name signs. 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:06.770 align:middle line:90% Name signs are often based-- 00:31:06.770 --> 00:31:09.980 align:middle line:84% they often contain the first letter of the person's name. 00:31:09.980 --> 00:31:12.080 align:middle line:84% I had a classmate in grad school who was deaf. 00:31:12.080 --> 00:31:15.500 align:middle line:84% He's now a professor at Gallaudet University. 00:31:15.500 --> 00:31:19.138 align:middle line:84% His name was Gaurav in English, and his ASL sign 00:31:19.138 --> 00:31:21.680 align:middle line:84% involved the letter G, which is the first letter of his name, 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:22.670 align:middle line:90% put on the chest. 00:31:22.670 --> 00:31:26.330 align:middle line:90% Sorry, so that's Gaurav in ASL. 00:31:26.330 --> 00:31:27.800 align:middle line:84% The name sign for "Noam Chomsky," 00:31:27.800 --> 00:31:31.040 align:middle line:84% which is one of the few other signs I know, is this. 00:31:31.040 --> 00:31:33.482 align:middle line:84% So it's a C. When I first saw it, I was like, 00:31:33.482 --> 00:31:34.940 align:middle line:84% what, they think he's an alcoholic? 00:31:34.940 --> 00:31:36.810 align:middle line:90% What is the deal? 00:31:36.810 --> 00:31:39.350 align:middle line:84% It turns out to be based on the sign for "God." 00:31:39.350 --> 00:31:40.890 align:middle line:90% So it's "God" with a C. 00:31:40.890 --> 00:31:41.390 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:31:41.390 --> 00:31:42.350 align:middle line:90% It's Noam Chomsky. 00:31:42.350 --> 00:31:44.660 align:middle line:84% It was invented by someone with the proper level 00:31:44.660 --> 00:31:47.430 align:middle line:90% of respect for Noam Chomsky. 00:31:47.430 --> 00:31:49.430 align:middle line:84% The name of sign for Trump, there are apparently 00:31:49.430 --> 00:31:50.638 align:middle line:90% various name signs for Trump. 00:31:50.638 --> 00:31:51.515 align:middle line:90% One of them is this-- 00:31:51.515 --> 00:31:54.480 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:31:54.480 --> 00:31:54.980 align:middle line:90% 00:31:54.980 --> 00:31:58.430 align:middle line:90% Or this, that's another one. 00:31:58.430 --> 00:32:01.358 align:middle line:84% For Biden, I was looking, and apparently, there 00:32:01.358 --> 00:32:03.650 align:middle line:84% isn't general agreement on what the name sign for Biden 00:32:03.650 --> 00:32:04.150 align:middle line:90% ought to be. 00:32:04.150 --> 00:32:06.230 align:middle line:84% One of them is this, which is apparently 00:32:06.230 --> 00:32:09.290 align:middle line:84% supposed to be a gesture that indicates that he likes 00:32:09.290 --> 00:32:11.510 align:middle line:90% to wear sunglasses, I guess. 00:32:11.510 --> 00:32:14.060 align:middle line:84% It's connected to the fact that he has sunglasses a lot. 00:32:14.060 --> 00:32:16.070 align:middle line:84% By now, there must be a name sign for Biden 00:32:16.070 --> 00:32:19.130 align:middle line:84% because, of course, he's surrounded by interpreters 00:32:19.130 --> 00:32:21.350 align:middle line:90% when he's talking, you hope. 00:32:21.350 --> 00:32:23.948 align:middle line:84% But anyway, if you wanted to say-- bless you-- in ASL, 00:32:23.948 --> 00:32:26.240 align:middle line:84% "Trump told Biden that he would win," you'd sign Trump, 00:32:26.240 --> 00:32:29.090 align:middle line:84% and you'd sign Biden, and you would put them in places. 00:32:29.090 --> 00:32:32.180 align:middle line:84% So you'd say "Trump," and you'd put Trump here, and Biden, 00:32:32.180 --> 00:32:33.410 align:middle line:90% put Biden here. 00:32:33.410 --> 00:32:37.942 align:middle line:84% And then you would say, he told him that he-- 00:32:37.942 --> 00:32:39.650 align:middle line:84% and then you would either point at Trump, 00:32:39.650 --> 00:32:40.910 align:middle line:90% or you would point at Biden-- 00:32:40.910 --> 00:32:42.240 align:middle line:90% would win. 00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:44.900 align:middle line:84% So the ASL versions of the sentence are not ambiguous. 00:32:44.900 --> 00:32:47.450 align:middle line:90% So you make it clear. 00:32:47.450 --> 00:32:50.120 align:middle line:84% You've either pointed at Trump, or you've pointed at Biden. 00:32:50.120 --> 00:32:52.340 align:middle line:84% So he always refers to someone in particular. 00:32:52.340 --> 00:32:54.380 align:middle line:84% Or, if what I want to convey to you 00:32:54.380 --> 00:32:56.540 align:middle line:84% is "Trump told Biden that Obama would win," well, 00:32:56.540 --> 00:32:58.190 align:middle line:84% then, I need to sign "Biden," "Obama," 00:32:58.190 --> 00:32:59.690 align:middle line:90% and put "Obama" somewhere else. 00:32:59.690 --> 00:33:02.765 align:middle line:84% You can have many, many people in front of you in space. 00:33:02.765 --> 00:33:05.630 align:middle line:90% 00:33:05.630 --> 00:33:08.000 align:middle line:84% I believe people who have studied this have not 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:11.510 align:middle line:84% found limits on how much space, how much subdividing of space 00:33:11.510 --> 00:33:13.070 align:middle line:90% you can do in front of you. 00:33:13.070 --> 00:33:14.570 align:middle line:84% I don't know how hard they've tried, 00:33:14.570 --> 00:33:17.495 align:middle line:84% but yeah, it's certainly not just two. 00:33:17.495 --> 00:33:21.230 align:middle line:84% You can have lots of pronouns in front of you. 00:33:21.230 --> 00:33:23.142 align:middle line:84% There are even fancier things you can do. 00:33:23.142 --> 00:33:24.725 align:middle line:84% I was just reading a paper about this. 00:33:24.725 --> 00:33:26.420 align:middle line:90% This is kind of astonishing. 00:33:26.420 --> 00:33:30.200 align:middle line:84% So if I want to say something in ASL like "Most of my students 00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:35.610 align:middle line:84% came to class," what I do is I start by signing "my students," 00:33:35.610 --> 00:33:37.860 align:middle line:84% and then I put my students in a circle. 00:33:37.860 --> 00:33:40.550 align:middle line:84% So I have my students, and then I establish a circle 00:33:40.550 --> 00:33:41.942 align:middle line:90% that all of my students are in. 00:33:41.942 --> 00:33:44.150 align:middle line:84% And then I'm going to make the sign for "most," which 00:33:44.150 --> 00:33:45.540 align:middle line:90% I think is something like this. 00:33:45.540 --> 00:33:47.840 align:middle line:84% And then I describe a smaller circle 00:33:47.840 --> 00:33:50.780 align:middle line:84% that's part of the circle that I've just described for you. 00:33:50.780 --> 00:33:53.220 align:middle line:84% And then I would sign, "went to class." 00:33:53.220 --> 00:33:57.090 align:middle line:84% So I make my circle that has all the students, 00:33:57.090 --> 00:33:59.000 align:middle line:84% And then I have a subset of that that's-- 00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:01.070 align:middle line:84% I draw the kinds of Venn diagram-y things 00:34:01.070 --> 00:34:03.003 align:middle line:90% we were talking about before. 00:34:03.003 --> 00:34:03.920 align:middle line:90% Here are the students. 00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:05.690 align:middle line:84% And the cool thing about this is now, 00:34:05.690 --> 00:34:08.719 align:middle line:84% what I've got in front of me is a space that's got my students, 00:34:08.719 --> 00:34:11.893 align:middle line:84% and it's subdivided into a larger space that's 00:34:11.893 --> 00:34:14.060 align:middle line:84% got most of my students, the ones who came to class, 00:34:14.060 --> 00:34:16.100 align:middle line:84% and a smaller space that's got the students who 00:34:16.100 --> 00:34:17.250 align:middle line:90% didn't come to class. 00:34:17.250 --> 00:34:19.159 align:middle line:84% So the next sentence, apparently, 00:34:19.159 --> 00:34:23.630 align:middle line:84% can be "They stayed home," pointing at the ones who 00:34:23.630 --> 00:34:25.159 align:middle line:90% didn't come to class. 00:34:25.159 --> 00:34:28.760 align:middle line:84% In English, if I say "Most of my students came to class, 00:34:28.760 --> 00:34:34.480 align:middle line:84% they stayed home," I'm contradicting myself. 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:36.480 align:middle line:84% And there's something interesting going on here. 00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:37.980 align:middle line:84% When we were talking about pronouns, 00:34:37.980 --> 00:34:39.710 align:middle line:90% we just breezed by them, right? 00:34:39.710 --> 00:34:41.570 align:middle line:84% Pronouns, well, they refer to people 00:34:41.570 --> 00:34:44.330 align:middle line:90% who are salient or whatever. 00:34:44.330 --> 00:34:49.570 align:middle line:84% Certainly, if I pass a bunch of students on the Infinite 00:34:49.570 --> 00:34:51.820 align:middle line:84% Corridor, I could remark to you, "They're on their way 00:34:51.820 --> 00:34:52.320 align:middle line:90% to class." 00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:54.528 align:middle line:84% We don't have to have been talking about them before. 00:34:54.528 --> 00:34:55.909 align:middle line:90% They're just there in the world. 00:34:55.909 --> 00:34:58.220 align:middle line:84% I get to assume that you're thinking about them. 00:34:58.220 --> 00:35:00.550 align:middle line:84% But if I say "Most of my students 00:35:00.550 --> 00:35:03.220 align:middle line:90% came to class," well, that-- 00:35:03.220 --> 00:35:05.620 align:middle line:84% I mean, I'm telling you that they're my students, 00:35:05.620 --> 00:35:07.330 align:middle line:84% and that most of them came to class, 00:35:07.330 --> 00:35:09.430 align:middle line:84% and then there were the ones who didn't, right? 00:35:09.430 --> 00:35:10.912 align:middle line:90% I mean, that's what that means. 00:35:10.912 --> 00:35:13.120 align:middle line:84% But I still don't get to refer to the ones who didn't 00:35:13.120 --> 00:35:14.410 align:middle line:90% come to class with "they." 00:35:14.410 --> 00:35:16.660 align:middle line:84% "They" has to refer to the ones who did come to class. 00:35:16.660 --> 00:35:19.780 align:middle line:84% But in ASL, I get to point at them. 00:35:19.780 --> 00:35:21.860 align:middle line:84% And so I get to refer to them right away. 00:35:21.860 --> 00:35:23.240 align:middle line:90% Joseph? 00:35:23.240 --> 00:35:26.380 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: So the "Most of my students came to class." 00:35:26.380 --> 00:35:28.040 align:middle line:90% NORVIN RICHARDS: Yeah. 00:35:28.040 --> 00:35:31.625 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: Because [INAUDIBLE] the quantifier "most," 00:35:31.625 --> 00:35:33.410 align:middle line:90% you're describing a subset. 00:35:33.410 --> 00:35:35.360 align:middle line:84% But doesn't it conservatively mean you 00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:38.130 align:middle line:90% get to ignore the [INAUDIBLE]? 00:35:38.130 --> 00:35:40.130 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: So if we didn't know about ASL, 00:35:40.130 --> 00:35:44.815 align:middle line:84% I might have said, why don't I get to refer to that other set? 00:35:44.815 --> 00:35:46.190 align:middle line:84% And you might have said, ah, it's 00:35:46.190 --> 00:35:48.052 align:middle line:84% because of the conservativity of "most." 00:35:48.052 --> 00:35:50.510 align:middle line:84% Yeah, that would have been a pretty plausible thing to say, 00:35:50.510 --> 00:35:52.730 align:middle line:90% and it's maybe even right. 00:35:52.730 --> 00:35:55.730 align:middle line:84% But the fact that in ASL you can refer to them with a pronoun 00:35:55.730 --> 00:35:57.590 align:middle line:84% suggests that maybe it's actually 00:35:57.590 --> 00:35:58.725 align:middle line:90% something else going on. 00:35:58.725 --> 00:36:01.100 align:middle line:84% There's all kinds of stuff like this in spoken languages, 00:36:01.100 --> 00:36:01.470 align:middle line:90% by the way. 00:36:01.470 --> 00:36:02.720 align:middle line:90% It's not just about modifiers. 00:36:02.720 --> 00:36:05.630 align:middle line:90% And so like-- old observation-- 00:36:05.630 --> 00:36:11.570 align:middle line:84% if I say, John has a child; she's five-- 00:36:11.570 --> 00:36:12.590 align:middle line:90% that's fine. 00:36:12.590 --> 00:36:14.150 align:middle line:84% And "she," you probably figure it's 00:36:14.150 --> 00:36:15.770 align:middle line:90% the child I'm talking about. 00:36:15.770 --> 00:36:18.920 align:middle line:84% If I say, "John is a parent; she's 00:36:18.920 --> 00:36:22.920 align:middle line:84% five," that's a weird thing for me to say, 00:36:22.920 --> 00:36:24.870 align:middle line:84% even though by saying, "John is a parent," 00:36:24.870 --> 00:36:26.880 align:middle line:84% I'm telling you that John has a child, right? 00:36:26.880 --> 00:36:29.190 align:middle line:84% That's what that means, but it doesn't help. 00:36:29.190 --> 00:36:33.340 align:middle line:84% [LAUGHS] So we're limited in how we can use pronouns. 00:36:33.340 --> 00:36:33.840 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry. 00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:35.392 align:middle line:84% You had a point you wanted to make. 00:36:35.392 --> 00:36:37.100 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: Is there any finer distinction, 00:36:37.100 --> 00:36:40.700 align:middle line:84% like with [INAUDIBLE] say, I get most of my students who 00:36:40.700 --> 00:36:42.520 align:middle line:90% don't come to class because-- 00:36:42.520 --> 00:36:44.260 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: I believe you can, then, 00:36:44.260 --> 00:36:46.220 align:middle line:90% draw subparts of these. 00:36:46.220 --> 00:36:48.190 align:middle line:84% I'll put that paper on the website, too. 00:36:48.190 --> 00:36:48.730 align:middle line:90% You can-- 00:36:48.730 --> 00:36:49.210 align:middle line:90% AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 00:36:49.210 --> 00:36:50.500 align:middle line:84% NORVIN RICHARDS: Yeah, there's all kinds of stuff 00:36:50.500 --> 00:36:51.643 align:middle line:90% that you can do with space. 00:36:51.643 --> 00:36:53.560 align:middle line:84% Again, I don't know what the limits of it are, 00:36:53.560 --> 00:36:55.518 align:middle line:84% but it would be really interesting to find out. 00:36:55.518 --> 00:36:57.942 align:middle line:84% Yeah, they can do more referring to sets and subsets 00:36:57.942 --> 00:37:00.400 align:middle line:84% than we can do because they have the advantage that they've 00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:02.410 align:middle line:90% got a blackboard. 00:37:02.410 --> 00:37:05.040 align:middle line:84% They get to point out where everything is. 00:37:05.040 --> 00:37:05.540 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:37:05.540 --> 00:37:07.600 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: OK, so that seems pretty 00:37:07.600 --> 00:37:09.203 align:middle line:90% different from spoken English. 00:37:09.203 --> 00:37:10.120 align:middle line:90% NORVIN RICHARDS: Yeah. 00:37:10.120 --> 00:37:13.418 align:middle line:84% AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] shapes that individual's perception 00:37:13.418 --> 00:37:15.590 align:middle line:84% of the world into certain [INAUDIBLE].. 00:37:15.590 --> 00:37:19.800 align:middle line:84% But is their written form of communication very different 00:37:19.800 --> 00:37:21.240 align:middle line:90% from a non-deaf individual's? 00:37:21.240 --> 00:37:22.220 align:middle line:90% Or are they similar? 00:37:22.220 --> 00:37:23.220 align:middle line:90% NORVIN RICHARDS: Oh, OK. 00:37:23.220 --> 00:37:24.720 align:middle line:84% So there have been various attempts 00:37:24.720 --> 00:37:28.290 align:middle line:84% to come up with writing systems that are indigenous to ASL, 00:37:28.290 --> 00:37:29.790 align:middle line:84% and I don't think any of them have 00:37:29.790 --> 00:37:33.580 align:middle line:90% gained a lot of popularity. 00:37:33.580 --> 00:37:39.090 align:middle line:84% So when linguists are writing papers about ASL, 00:37:39.090 --> 00:37:40.393 align:middle line:90% what they typically do is-- 00:37:40.393 --> 00:37:42.060 align:middle line:84% I mean, I did a parody of it over here-- 00:37:42.060 --> 00:37:45.390 align:middle line:84% that if you want to write an example sentence that's like, 00:37:45.390 --> 00:37:48.510 align:middle line:84% "I saw a tree," for "tree," you're going to write-- 00:37:48.510 --> 00:37:51.960 align:middle line:84% for this sign, you're going to write the English word 00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:53.340 align:middle line:90% "tree" in all capital letters. 00:37:53.340 --> 00:37:55.590 align:middle line:84% So you use all capital letters to indicate that you're 00:37:55.590 --> 00:37:57.750 align:middle line:90% talking about signs. 00:37:57.750 --> 00:37:59.340 align:middle line:84% And then, they'll annotate these, 00:37:59.340 --> 00:38:01.950 align:middle line:84% if you're interested in indicating things 00:38:01.950 --> 00:38:04.210 align:middle line:84% about facial position, and facial expression, 00:38:04.210 --> 00:38:05.710 align:middle line:84% and things like that, there are ways 00:38:05.710 --> 00:38:07.110 align:middle line:84% of annotating that to show you're 00:38:07.110 --> 00:38:10.500 align:middle line:84% doing the wh- facial expression or whatever. 00:38:10.500 --> 00:38:13.420 align:middle line:84% As far as actual ASL speakers go, 00:38:13.420 --> 00:38:17.220 align:middle line:84% my understanding is that they typically don't write in ASL. 00:38:17.220 --> 00:38:20.610 align:middle line:84% So dictionaries, you can find dictionaries of ASL online. 00:38:20.610 --> 00:38:22.950 align:middle line:84% They have lots of videos, or they'll 00:38:22.950 --> 00:38:27.320 align:middle line:84% have pictures of one frame after another of-- 00:38:27.320 --> 00:38:32.010 align:middle line:84% so there isn't-- literacy among the deaf is apparently a really 00:38:32.010 --> 00:38:34.140 align:middle line:84% serious problem, as you might imagine, right? 00:38:34.140 --> 00:38:36.030 align:middle line:84% So somebody who's profoundly deaf, 00:38:36.030 --> 00:38:40.160 align:middle line:90% who hasn't heard a sound-- 00:38:40.160 --> 00:38:44.370 align:middle line:84% learning to spell if you can hear is hard enough. 00:38:44.370 --> 00:38:49.230 align:middle line:84% Learning to spell if all of the symbols that you're being asked 00:38:49.230 --> 00:38:53.520 align:middle line:84% to write just don't represent anything for you at all, 00:38:53.520 --> 00:38:54.820 align:middle line:90% it's going to be a nightmare. 00:38:54.820 --> 00:38:59.400 align:middle line:84% And so although ASL native signers typically 00:38:59.400 --> 00:39:02.065 align:middle line:84% write in English, it's apparently very hard, 00:39:02.065 --> 00:39:02.940 align:middle line:90% as you might imagine. 00:39:02.940 --> 00:39:04.710 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:39:04.710 --> 00:39:06.190 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:39:06.190 --> 00:39:08.050 align:middle line:90% Points about this? 00:39:08.050 --> 00:39:08.550 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:39:08.550 --> 00:39:13.050 align:middle line:90% 00:39:13.050 --> 00:39:15.090 align:middle line:84% Oh, OK, so yeah, this has all been 00:39:15.090 --> 00:39:17.320 align:middle line:84% about space and other things to do with your body. 00:39:17.320 --> 00:39:20.950 align:middle line:84% I wanted to show you one other video. 00:39:20.950 --> 00:39:24.000 align:middle line:84% So there's another phenomenon that people use when they are 00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:27.123 align:middle line:84% telling stories or talking about multiple people, 00:39:27.123 --> 00:39:28.665 align:middle line:84% which is what's called "role shift"-- 00:39:28.665 --> 00:39:30.810 align:middle line:84% that's what people who work on it call it-- 00:39:30.810 --> 00:39:32.670 align:middle line:90% where you'll shift your body. 00:39:32.670 --> 00:39:34.407 align:middle line:84% People do this in spoken language, 00:39:34.407 --> 00:39:36.240 align:middle line:84% too, but again, in ASL, it's apparently more 00:39:36.240 --> 00:39:37.230 align:middle line:90% or less obligatory. 00:39:37.230 --> 00:39:39.150 align:middle line:84% You'll shift your body to represent 00:39:39.150 --> 00:39:42.930 align:middle line:84% the different characters that you're talking about. 00:39:42.930 --> 00:39:47.610 align:middle line:84% And I'll show you a story where somebody does this. 00:39:47.610 --> 00:39:49.860 align:middle line:84% It is a story about throwing a stick for a dog, 00:39:49.860 --> 00:39:52.140 align:middle line:84% and one of the nice things about it 00:39:52.140 --> 00:39:53.880 align:middle line:84% is that there's no need at all to explain 00:39:53.880 --> 00:39:56.180 align:middle line:90% what the guy is talking about. 00:39:56.180 --> 00:39:57.680 align:middle line:84% Maybe at the beginning a little bit. 00:39:57.680 --> 00:39:59.870 align:middle line:84% He's going for a walk with his dog. 00:39:59.870 --> 00:40:03.220 align:middle line:90% 00:40:03.220 --> 00:40:04.320 align:middle line:90% No, stop that! 00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:11.930 align:middle line:90% 00:40:11.930 --> 00:40:14.030 align:middle line:90% OK, so there's his dog, right? 00:40:14.030 --> 00:40:15.980 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] And there's him. 00:40:15.980 --> 00:40:18.230 align:middle line:84% [LAUGHS] Yeah, so he's doing role shift. 00:40:18.230 --> 00:40:20.050 align:middle line:90% He's going to get a stick. 00:40:20.050 --> 00:40:23.093 align:middle line:90% Yeah, and there's the dog again. 00:40:23.093 --> 00:40:24.010 align:middle line:90% The dog's all excited. 00:40:24.010 --> 00:40:24.677 align:middle line:90% There's the guy. 00:40:24.677 --> 00:40:27.040 align:middle line:90% He throws the stick. 00:40:27.040 --> 00:40:30.460 align:middle line:90% Phew, clunk. 00:40:30.460 --> 00:40:32.050 align:middle line:90% And here comes the dog. 00:40:32.050 --> 00:40:32.770 align:middle line:90% And so-- 00:40:32.770 --> 00:40:35.884 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:40:35.884 --> 00:40:38.853 align:middle line:90% 00:40:38.853 --> 00:40:41.270 align:middle line:84% I'm showing this to you partly because it's a cute story-- 00:40:41.270 --> 00:40:43.575 align:middle line:90% "Thank you," he says. 00:40:43.575 --> 00:40:45.950 align:middle line:84% I'm showing that to you partly because it's a cute story, 00:40:45.950 --> 00:40:48.075 align:middle line:84% but also because it's a good example of role shift. 00:40:48.075 --> 00:40:50.250 align:middle line:84% So he's-- oh, there's Clayton Valli again-- 00:40:50.250 --> 00:40:51.590 align:middle line:90% a good example of role shift. 00:40:51.590 --> 00:40:54.410 align:middle line:84% So he's using his body to go back and forth between being 00:40:54.410 --> 00:40:55.640 align:middle line:90% the dog and being the person. 00:40:55.640 --> 00:40:57.307 align:middle line:84% And apparently, this is a standard thing 00:40:57.307 --> 00:41:01.490 align:middle line:84% that you do if you do ASL, if you're a native speaker of ASL. 00:41:01.490 --> 00:41:04.130 align:middle line:84% It's part of being a fluent signer as opposed to being 00:41:04.130 --> 00:41:05.750 align:middle line:90% someone who knows a bit of ASL. 00:41:05.750 --> 00:41:09.068 align:middle line:90% 00:41:09.068 --> 00:41:10.610 align:middle line:84% Full screen mode, that's what I want. 00:41:10.610 --> 00:41:13.322 align:middle line:90% 00:41:13.322 --> 00:41:14.230 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:41:14.230 --> 00:41:19.400 align:middle line:84% So this was what I wanted to try to show you about ASL. 00:41:19.400 --> 00:41:24.500 align:middle line:84% So just to review, ASL, American Sign Language, it's a language. 00:41:24.500 --> 00:41:28.920 align:middle line:84% It's a language spoken here in America by many deaf people. 00:41:28.920 --> 00:41:30.830 align:middle line:90% It is not English. 00:41:30.830 --> 00:41:32.420 align:middle line:90% It's not any form of English. 00:41:32.420 --> 00:41:35.060 align:middle line:84% It's not charades, and it's not English with all 00:41:35.060 --> 00:41:37.250 align:middle line:84% of the words replaced by signs, which is what 00:41:37.250 --> 00:41:39.805 align:middle line:90% I believed when I was a kid. 00:41:39.805 --> 00:41:41.930 align:middle line:84% It's a language that's quite different from English 00:41:41.930 --> 00:41:45.650 align:middle line:84% in various ways, as I've tried to show you. 00:41:45.650 --> 00:41:48.710 align:middle line:84% There's a lot of interesting work on ASL. 00:41:48.710 --> 00:41:52.220 align:middle line:84% A lot of it is on ASL phonology, where by "phonology," we 00:41:52.220 --> 00:41:55.010 align:middle line:84% mean what we always meant by phonology, I guess, 00:41:55.010 --> 00:41:58.130 align:middle line:84% which is the rules for how the articulations work. 00:41:58.130 --> 00:42:01.430 align:middle line:84% So phonology up until now has all 00:42:01.430 --> 00:42:03.870 align:middle line:84% been about what you're doing with your vocal tract 00:42:03.870 --> 00:42:06.328 align:middle line:84% and what the rules are for what your vocal tract is allowed 00:42:06.328 --> 00:42:09.380 align:middle line:90% to do here or there in a word. 00:42:09.380 --> 00:42:11.510 align:middle line:84% There is an ASL version of this where 00:42:11.510 --> 00:42:14.510 align:middle line:84% people try to understand what are the various articulations 00:42:14.510 --> 00:42:19.040 align:middle line:84% your fingers, your hands, your wrists, the rest of your body, 00:42:19.040 --> 00:42:20.870 align:middle line:84% what are those parts of you allowed 00:42:20.870 --> 00:42:24.350 align:middle line:84% to do at different points in the sign? 00:42:24.350 --> 00:42:25.880 align:middle line:84% And then, as I said, there's a lot 00:42:25.880 --> 00:42:27.530 align:middle line:84% of interest in the use of parts of your body 00:42:27.530 --> 00:42:28.447 align:middle line:90% other than your hands. 00:42:28.447 --> 00:42:30.680 align:middle line:84% Lots of work on facial expression and on role shift, 00:42:30.680 --> 00:42:33.200 align:middle line:84% shifting your shifting your body back and forth. 00:42:33.200 --> 00:42:36.220 align:middle line:84% And that's what I wanted to tell you about ASL. 00:42:36.220 --> 00:42:39.800 align:middle line:90% Any questions about any of that? 00:42:39.800 --> 00:42:40.910 align:middle line:90% Then we are done. 00:42:40.910 --> 00:42:43.610 align:middle line:84% You officially know everything about 24.900. 00:42:43.610 --> 00:42:45.780 align:middle line:84% So 24.900, you know everything about linguistics. 00:42:45.780 --> 00:42:46.280 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:42:46.280 --> 00:42:48.450 align:middle line:90% No, actually, that's false. 00:42:48.450 --> 00:42:50.935 align:middle line:84% But one of the main goals of this class-- 00:42:50.935 --> 00:42:52.310 align:middle line:84% this class has had several goals, 00:42:52.310 --> 00:42:53.935 align:middle line:84% but one of the main goals of this class 00:42:53.935 --> 00:42:55.640 align:middle line:84% has been to convince you that there 00:42:55.640 --> 00:42:59.060 align:middle line:84% are some interesting mysteries having to do with how language 00:42:59.060 --> 00:43:02.242 align:middle line:84% works and that, if you take more linguistics classes, 00:43:02.242 --> 00:43:04.700 align:middle line:84% you might get to learn more about how those mysteries work. 00:43:04.700 --> 00:43:06.530 align:middle line:84% If you take even more linguistics classes, 00:43:06.530 --> 00:43:09.140 align:middle line:84% then you could be the person who solves these mysteries 00:43:09.140 --> 00:43:11.380 align:middle line:84% for the rest of us, which would be great. 00:43:11.380 --> 00:43:13.130 align:middle line:84% One of the nice things about linguistics-- 00:43:13.130 --> 00:43:14.510 align:middle line:90% I think I've said this before-- 00:43:14.510 --> 00:43:17.030 align:middle line:84% it's a field that's been around for a while. 00:43:17.030 --> 00:43:18.300 align:middle line:90% We have some results. 00:43:18.300 --> 00:43:20.870 align:middle line:84% But it's not all that hard, even in an intro class, 00:43:20.870 --> 00:43:24.050 align:middle line:84% to bring you right up to the edge of what we understand 00:43:24.050 --> 00:43:27.770 align:middle line:84% and invite you to look down into the abyss and ask yourself how 00:43:27.770 --> 00:43:30.350 align:middle line:84% you could build a bridge-- this metaphor is getting away from 00:43:30.350 --> 00:43:31.700 align:middle line:90% me-- 00:43:31.700 --> 00:43:33.560 align:middle line:84% how you could move further, how you 00:43:33.560 --> 00:43:35.462 align:middle line:84% could get further from where we are. 00:43:35.462 --> 00:43:36.920 align:middle line:84% So I hope that at least some of you 00:43:36.920 --> 00:43:39.620 align:middle line:84% will be inspired to want to do that because we need people 00:43:39.620 --> 00:43:41.630 align:middle line:84% to go out there and solve the mysteries that 00:43:41.630 --> 00:43:43.430 align:middle line:90% haven't been solved. 00:43:43.430 --> 00:43:46.592 align:middle line:90% Questions about any of that? 00:43:46.592 --> 00:43:47.800 align:middle line:90% All right, then, we are done. 00:43:47.800 --> 00:43:48.970 align:middle line:90% Go forth. 00:43:48.970 --> 00:43:50.528 align:middle line:90% Do your class evaluations. 00:43:50.528 --> 00:43:52.570 align:middle line:84% So we're ending early, so you'll have a good half 00:43:52.570 --> 00:43:55.720 align:middle line:84% hour to think hard about what you want to write in your class 00:43:55.720 --> 00:43:56.530 align:middle line:90% evaluations. 00:43:56.530 --> 00:43:59.662 align:middle line:90% And thanks very much. 00:43:59.662 --> 00:44:01.340 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:44:01.340 --> 00:44:01.840 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:44:01.840 --> 00:44:05.645 align:middle line:90% 00:44:05.645 --> 00:44:06.520 align:middle line:90% Thank you, thank you. 00:44:06.520 --> 00:44:08.910 align:middle line:90% Go out and enjoy the day. 00:44:08.910 --> 00:44:17.000 align:middle line:90%