What is language?

[Barbara LeMaster, Ph.D., C.S.C.]

Good question, Richard.  As someone working w/sign language, too, I've often
thought about the same issue.  Consider how thorny the terms "verbal" and
"non-verbal" are, especially when dealing with sign languages.  I was once
asked to give a guest lecture on nonverbal communication.  When I asked why, I
was told that since I work on sign language, I must be an expert on nonverbal
communication. !  That led me to think about verbal communication as being
both vocal and nonvocal, and nonverbal communication as being both vocal and
nonvocal.  ...a similar problem to the one you pose.

Barbara LeMaster

Richard J Senghas wrote:

> Happy New Year, Fellow Linganthers!
>
> Ron Kephart's recent posting regarding the popular conflation of writing
> and language arrived just as I was browsing through _Gesture and the Nature
> of Language_  by Armstrong, Stokoe, & Wilcox (1995) and working with Brenda
> Farnell's _Do You See What I Mean?_ (which deals with the problem of
> language in a delightfully new way by examining Plains Indian Sign Talk).
> As someone whose work involves sign language, I am constantly having to
> challenge notions about what language is (or is not), including some
> surprisingly naive ideas held by many faculty members.
>
> The term "language" itself may be one of the biggest perpetuators of these
> continuing misunderstandings - a deceptively simple and familiar singular
> noun that masks the many different simultaneous processes involved, from
> neurological to social. Is it even sensible to think of language as a
> unified phenomenon? It's as thorny as "culture"!
>
> So once again I'm pondering: what are the most effective ways of getting
> students (or anyone else, for that matter) to successfully recognize and
> suspend their implicit assumptions about what language is (or isn't) long
> enough to critically entertain some alternative perspectives? I'm
> interested in both gimmicks and traditional methods. I'm just as interested
> in your ideas as to why such methods work (or don't). What aspects of these
> methods reveal the local assumptions and ideologies perpetuated in places
> where the members of this list work or live?
>
> Richard
>
> ======================================================================
> Richard J Senghas, Asst. Professor       | Sonoma State University
> Department of Anthropology/Linguistics   | 1801 East Cotati Avenue
> Coordinator, Linguistics & TESL Programs | Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
> Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu               | 707-664-3920 (fax)