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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday June 20 2017, @08:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the guess-what-this-gesture-means dept.

Languages, like human bodies, come in a variety of shapes—but only to a point. Just as people don't sprout multiple heads, languages tend to veer away from certain forms that might spring from an imaginative mind. For example, one core property of human languages is known as duality of patterning: meaningful linguistic units (such as words) break down into smaller meaningless units (sounds), so that the words sap, pass, and asp involve different combinations of the same sounds, even though their meanings are completely unrelated.

It's not hard to imagine that things could have been otherwise. In principle, we could have a language in which sounds relate holistically to their meanings—a high-pitched yowl might mean "finger," a guttural purr might mean "dark," a yodel might mean "broccoli," and so on. But there are stark advantages to duality of patterning. Try inventing a lexicon of tens of thousands of distinct noises, all of which are easily distinguished, and you will probably find yourself wishing you could simply re-use a few snippets of sound in varying arrangements.

What to make, then, of the recent discovery of a language whose words are not made from smaller, meaningless units? Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL) is a new sign language emerging in a village with high rates of inherited deafness in Israel's Negev Desert. According to a report led by Wendy Sandler of the University of Haifa, words in this language correspond to holistic gestures, much like the imaginary sound-based language described above, even though ABSL has a sizable vocabulary.

To linguists, this is akin to finding a planet on which matter is made up of molecules that don't decompose into atoms. ABSL contrasts sharply with other sign languages like American Sign Language (ASL), which creates words by re-combining a small collection of gestural elements such as hand shapes, movements, and hand positions.

Researchers theorize the sign language hasn't re-used simpler elements to create new words because gestures can accommodate a wider range of variation than sounds can, such that many more unique signifiers are possible.


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @09:57PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @09:57PM (#528742)

    all the other sign languages. Wow, who'd have thunk it.

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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday June 20 2017, @10:48PM (4 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday June 20 2017, @10:48PM (#528756) Homepage
    Yeah, I love the way the article starts by telling a fantastic story about sounds, and then ends it with "well they found the gesture equivalent!!!!yksteist!!"

    Bait and switch is a terrible argumentation technique in any field. I believe the relevant logical fallacy is called argumentum ad doing really bad argumentation.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday June 20 2017, @11:00PM (3 children)

      by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Tuesday June 20 2017, @11:00PM (#528761) Journal

      Actually, that's NOT what TFA or even TFS summary says. From the summary:

      ABSL contrasts sharply with other sign languages like American Sign Language (ASL), which creates words by re-combining a small collection of gestural elements such as hand shapes, movements, and hand positions.

      In other words, TFA is claiming most sign languages are like sound-based languages in combining a relatively small number of "atomistic" elements to create meaning. This kind of sign language apparently hasn't done that so far, instead relying on a more strict word=unique gesture pattern. The claim is that this is fundamentally different from any sound language.

      Personally, I'm skeptical -- it seems it likely just may be that the vocabulary isn't big enough to force recombination and reuse. TFA actually says this:

      One possible explanation is that the vocabulary of ABSL hasn’t yet reached a critical mass that would force it into a more combinatorial system for word-creation.

      So yeah: probably not as amazing or unique as TFA seems to claim, but so far apparently a bit different from other established sign languages (and sound languages).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @03:22AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @03:22AM (#528861)
        Yeah give them sets of walkie talkies and see how they handle and describe that with their language :).
        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 21 2017, @12:48PM

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday June 21 2017, @12:48PM (#528982) Journal

          That's easy. They'll pouch out their lower lip like they're holding a plug of chewin' tabacky and mimic saying "10-4, Good Buddy!" into the handset.

          --
          Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @05:05PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 21 2017, @05:05PM (#529113)

        "American Sign Language (ASL), which creates words by re-combining a small collection of gestural elements such as hand shapes, movements, and hand positions"

        That is just incorrect.