Directional Verbs / signed vs. spoken languages

[S Walker]

On Mar 27, 2009, at 11:24 PM, Patricia Raswant wrote:

> ...I am sure that even you
> agree that the functions of signed languages and spoken languages are
> very different...


A language is a language regardless of modality.  Therefore *ALL*  
languages
have the exact same functions.  [I googled the "function of language"  
and got
110,000,000 pages if anyone wants to know what the "functions" of  
languages
are.  Here are 6 that I found repeated in several locations:  "(1)  
referential
("The Earth is round"), (2) emotive ("Yuck!"), (3) conative ("Come  
here"),
(4) phatic ("Hello?"), (5) metalingual ("What do you mean by  
'krill'?"), and
(6) poetic ("Smurf")."]

- Susan [retired from teaching, not retired from linguistics]   :-)
_______________________________________________
SLLING-L mailing list
SLLING-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/slling-l