>The reason for my interest is this: According to the literature, as sign
>languages evolve there is a tendency of signs to
>concentrate on the signing space (i.e., they migrate from the physical to
>the signing space). Thus, I used to think that the
>apparent relatively high frequency of signs made in the physical space
>(rather than in the signing space) that we find in
>Brazilian Sign Language (in comparison to ASL) would indicate that BrSL
>would be less sophisticated than ASL.
Fernando
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I would never have thought of such an idea, that one language is more
sophisticated than another....To me all languages are valid...they are just
different, that's all.
Who says a signed language has to remain inside signing space? Maybe it
does in ASL, but ASL is only one of at least a hundred known signed
languages....maybe ASL signers are more uptight and confined to their
center because they are so stressed up North, where down South people are
more relaxed so they let their movements be more relaxed and freer?
Maybe it is just as simple as a different culture - Brazilians dance like a
dream, why can't they sign with the same full gestures?
Maybe Brazilian Sign language "feels like Brazil" and maybe American Sign
Language "feels like the USA"....there is a nervous tension in ASL that
does not exist in other signed languages...I write the Tension Symbol more
in ASL than any other signed language I have written so far.
Val ;-)
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