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From:  Ronald H Dettloff
Date:  Thu May 20, 1999  3:58 am
Subject:  Re: Answers for Valarie and Wayne


Thanks for the information. I will check out Rochester for the technical
signs, but I have noticed that Deaf people have no problems talking about
the parts of an automobile without any formal instruction in vocabulary
of ASL. I still believe ASL is a way of using sign language that makes it
possible to communicate anything you want and I am not talking about
mime.

On Wed, 19 May 1999 01:48:05 -0700 Joe Martin
writes:
>On Mon, 17 May 1999, Ronald H Dettloff wrote:
>
>> Please understand that ASL can be adapted to fit any situation. I
>have
>> been an an interpreter for automotive studies and have found that
>the
>> most important factor other than knowing ASL is knowing the
>automobile
>> yourself. With these two skills you can interpret anything about
>any
>> automobile and there is no need to study special automobile signs.
>..................>
>I disagree, strongly.
>
> If you do this you are doing one of two things;
>1) using mime (which is not language at all. (altho a mime-action can
> become a
> word if it is used linguistically, as a symbol for
> something.))
>2) making up your own words, and thus creating a duolect; a language
> variety used by only two people.
>
>I've used interpreters in my classes. They were constantly
>faced with technical terminology that they didn't know (terps in
>physics
>class needn't be physicists!!) Since fingerspelling the words is both
>HARD
>and slow, we did what you mentioned above, but only as a temporary
>solution. We asked our friends, none of whom knew signs for this
>stuff
>either. then we reached out to the larger community by looking for
>books
>and dictionaries. (for which a decent writing system is essential.!!)
>
>This is how languages grow. Part of the definition of a natural
>language
>is that it is the product of a community of users. We had
>created "Joe Martin Sign Language" distinct from ASL, a whole
>slew of dialects, different for each terp. Very unsatisfactory.
> The same process works
>with all languages; in talking with my japanese friends I can
>"mime" too, by saying "the thing with three coils that adjusts how
>much
>current goes from the alternator and how much to the battery and cuts
>off
>the circuit when the battery is overcharged," or I can make up the
>name
>bloofp for it.
>It is much better to learn that the Japanese community
>calls it "seigyoku," and join them. The point of learning a language
>is
>to join that community. Learning their vocabulary is at least half
>the
>battle.
>

Pastor Ronald H. Dettloff
The Deaf Church
20880 Ten Mile Road
St. Clair Shores, MI. 48080

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