ASL for infants

[Mark A. Mandel]

(I am sending this post to ADS-L and SLLING-L, the Sign Language
Linguistics list.)

Grant Barrett <gbarrett at MONICKELS.COM> wrote to ADS-L, the American Dialect
Society mailing list:

>>>>>
>From the Washington Post

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57900-2001Mar12.html

"All three researchers advocate teaching signing as a way to learn babies'
needs and
wants -- whether food, play or a diaper change -- before they start to
speak, typically
during their second year."
<<<<<

Thanks for that URL, Grant. They seem to have done something to block
people from highlighting text and copying it off the page, which meant that
I had to View Source to pull this quote from the article, which is by Sarah
Glazer:

>>>>>
Some experts familiar with American Sign Language, the formalized system of
signs and motions often taught to the deaf, [...]
<<<<<

If I weren't so unfortunately used to it, I would seethe. ASL is **FRIGGIN'
NOT A "FORMALIZED SYSTEM TAUGHT TO THE DEAF"!! IT IS THE NATIVE LANGUAGE OF
THE AMER...

I guess even exposure hasn't immunized me. How would this a-h feel if I
wrote "Some experts familiar with English, the formalized system of mouth
movements and sounds often taught to the hearing..."?

-- Mark, going off for a cup of coffee to calm down

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com
                     (speaking for myself)