The Enchanting Music of Sign Language
The speaker says about the
enchanting music of sign language. The speaker was born deaf, and she was
taught to believe that sound was not a part of her life, but now she realize
that sound was very much a part of her life. She learns about American sign
language (ASL). She found out the similarities between music and ASL. For
example, a musical not cannot be fully captured
and expressed on paper. It
has same holds true for a concept in ASL. They're
both highly spatial and highly inflected — meaning
that subtle changes can affect the entire meaning of
both signs and sounds.
She
shared about a piano metaphor, to have the audiences a better understanding of
how ASL works. So, envision a piano. ASL
is broken down into many different grammatical parameters. If
you assign a different parameter to each finger as you play the piano — such
as facial expression, body movement,speed, hand shape and so on, as
you play the piano — English is a linear language, as
if one key is being pressed at a time. However, ASL is more like a chord — all
10 fingers need to come down simultaneouslyto express a clear concept or idea
in ASL. If just one of those keys were to change the
chord, it would create a completely different meaning. The
same applies to music in regards to pitch, tone and volume.In ASL, by playing
around with these different grammatical parameters, you
can express different ideas.
She
also told about how ASL is alive and thriving in her speaking, just like music
is. However, in this day and age, we
live in a very audio-centric world. And just because ASL has no sound to it, it
automatically holds no social currency. We
need to start thinking harder about what defines social currency and
allow ASL to develop its own form of currency — without
sound. And this could possibly be a step to lead to a
more inclusive society. And maybe people will understand that
you don't need to be deaf to learn ASL, nor
do you have to be hearing to learn music.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar