Notes

1. For our definition of deaf, see chapter 7. Here we note only that by deaf we do not mean a complete inability to hear any sound--an extremely rare condition. Rather, deaf refers to the severely reduced ability to hear and understand speech. For communication deaf people are visually dependent. They may be able to hear some sounds, but what they hear is insufficiently clear for effective verbal communication. Return to text
2. Schein 1984. Return to text
3. Refer to definitions of language in dictionaries published prior to 1980; for example, "the expression or communication of thoughts and feelings by means of vocal sounds and combinations of such sounds, to which meaning is attributed; human speech" (Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, 2d ed., 1970. New York: Simon & Schuster). Return to text
4. Aphasia is a condition in which ability to express language is lost due to disease of or injury to the brain. Return to text
5. Shaw 1912, 6. Return to text
6. Shaw 1912, p. vi. Return to text
7. Brennan & Hayhurst 1980, 234. Return to text
8. Ibid. Return to text
9. Bickerton 1981, 299. Return to text
10. For a discussion of this point, begin with Feigl and Brodbeck, 1953. The philosophers who pursued Einstein's theories belonged to what became known as "the Wiener Kreis" ("the Vienna Circle") after their habit of meeting in that capital's coffeehouses for their debates. Return to text
11. If we had to select a name for the discipline devoted to the study of sign it would be semiology. The Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's New World Dictionary, both distinguished lexicons, do not agree as to the meaning of this useful but seldom-used word; nor do they agree as to its spelling (semeiology in the former and semiology in the latter). Oxford's first meaning for the word is "sign language." Webster's sole definition is "the science of signs in general." They do agree on the Greek root, semeion (sign). It would appear that semiology could accommodate our interest in sign language as well as in sign codes, a distinction that, if not clear now, will become so in the chapters to follow. Semiology also seems to fit our concern with both the scientific and the cultural aspects of sign. It is offered here without foreboding but with some anticipation of minor controversy. If controversy arises, that will be to the good, for such debates typically stir increased attention to a subject. Return to text

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