Detail View: Deaf Studies, Culture, and History Archives: Semiotics analysis of ASL poetry

ds_0049_campbellsemiotics_cap_01.mp4

ds_0049_campbellsemiotics_cap_01.mp4

Semiotics analysis of ASL poetry

Campbell, Cindy

American Sign Language literature

American Sign Language Research

Semiotics

Deaf, Writings of the, American

ASL poetry

Cynthia Campbell shares her research on the semiotics of ASL Poetry, analyzing a seemingly simple poem, Cow and Rooster by Clayton Valli signed by a young girl. She explains that in teaching hearing students ASL they had a difficult time making a transition to using sign language smoothly. Her research question relates to improving the teaching of ASL by asking Deaf people what is considered excellent storytelling or poetry. They were not able to give her examples, so this became part of her research question. She analyzes Cow and Rooster by using some semiotic principles as outlined by 19th century philosopher Charles Sanders Pierce: symbols, icons, and index (as it pertains to ASL). She found rich analysis in this poem: body stance and shift to indicate different characters, handshape patterns of 3 (rooster), Y (cow) and 5 (farm) signed in different spatial areas, and discovered metonymy (icon and index)-- and a pattern of in the narrative structure. English text has a different pattern as compared to ASL signs, thus more research is needed to see how Deaf and hearing people process language and if it is different, how to improve teaching of ASL to hearing students.

National Technical Institute for the Deaf

Rochester Institute of Technology - RIT Libraries - RIT Archive Collections

2000

2018

moving image

mp4

VHS

35 minutes

American Sign Language

English

RITDSA.0049

Sculptures in the Air: An Accessible Online Video Repository of the American Sign Language (ASL) Poetry and Literature Collections

ASL Lecture Series DVDs

2018-2019 CLIR Grant-ASL Poetry and Literature

https://albert.rit.edu/record=b3955314

https://archivesspace.rit.edu/repositories/2/resources/837

New York - Rochester

Henrietta Campus

RIT Libraries makes materials from its collections available for educational and research purposes pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. It is your responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright holder to publish or reproduce images in print or electronic form.

CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 4.0 International

FOLKS, FOLKS, IT SEEMS THAT WE HAVE LIFTOFF HERE. CAN I GET YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE? WE'RE GONNA GO AHEAD AND GET STARTED. OUR TECHNICAL PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN SORT OF RESOLVED. ANYWAY, WE NEED TO GO AHEAD AND INTRODUCE MS. CINDY CAMPBELL, OUR FOURTH IN THE "ASL LECTURE SERIES." AND SHE'S A FORMER STUDENT. SHE GRADUATED HERE A FEW YEARS AGO. AND SHE IS TEACHING IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER EDUCATION HERE. SHE'S GOING TO EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT ABOUT HER DISSERTATION FOR HER Ph.D. AND SO I'D LIKE TO WELCOME CINDY CAMPBELL. CINDY: HI, EVERYONE. THANKS, BARBARA RAY, FOR THE INTRODUCTION. I'M THRILLED TO BE HERE. AND, ALSO, I'M THRILLED TO SHOW YOU MY WORK. I THINK THIS IS VERY EXCITING. LAST YEAR, I WAS TEACHING A CLASS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY. AND I WONDERED WHAT MADE ME THINK ABOUT WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT ASL THUS FAR. SO IT MADE ME AND INSPIRED ME TO RESEARCH MORE CLOSELY SOME POETRY AND ELOQUENCE. AND IT'S VERY RICH. I FOUND THAT ASL AND POETRY IS VERY, VERY RICH. SO THESE ARE THE RESULTS FROM MY RESEARCH. NOW, IT'S NOT FINISHED. MIND YOU, THE RESEARCH WILL GO ON AND LEAD TO MORE RESEARCH. THIS IS A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF ASL POETRY. SOUNDS MORE COMPLICATED THAN IT IS. I'M GONNA GO ON AND EXPLAIN A LITTLE BIT MORE IN DEPTH. AND I'M SURE YOU'LL UNDERSTAND VERY CLEARLY BY THE END OF MY PRESENTATION, OK? SO LET ME START WITH SOME OVERHEADS FOR YOU. NOW, THE PROJECT THAT I'M SPEAKING TO YOU ABOUT WAS AN IN-DEPTH STUDY OF ASL IN A LINGUISTIC MANNER. SO... AS I'VE BEEN TEACHING OVER THE YEARS, I'VE TAUGHT MANY STUDENTS, AND I'M FINDING THAT WE'RE CONCENTRATING ON SIGN USE, LEARNING THE SIGNS FOR "MOTHER" AND "FATHER" AND "SODA POP." AND THEN WHEN YOU GET OUT IN THE WORLD, THE STUDENTS FOUND THAT IT WAS VERY AWKWARD STILL. AS I RESEARCHED THEM AND I ANALYZED THEM, I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH THEM AND WHY THEY WERE SO AWKWARD ONCE THEY GOT OUT INTO THE REAL WORLD. THAT LED TO MY RESEARCH, BECAUSE THERE WAS A QUESTION UNANSWERED FOR ME. AND I THINK THAT THIS WILL IMPROVE OUR PEDAGOGY IN FUTURE YEARS IF WE CAN ANSWER A FEW QUESTIONS. IT WILL HELP STUDENTS IN SOCIALIZING AND BEING MORE ELOQUENT WITH THE LANGUAGE. OK. THUS FAR, THE RESEARCH, WHICH IS PLENTIFUL, WE'VE BEEN FOCUSING ON ASL STRUCTURE AND NARRATIVE AND DISCOURSE. WE HAVE NAMED AND LABELED AND ANALYZED ALL OF IT. WE HAVE STRUCTURE. WE KNOW THAT ASL HAS GRAMMAR AND SYNTAX. WE KNOW ALL OF THAT. STILL NOT QUITE SATISFIED. THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE RESEARCH. AND THAT'S THE INTENT OF MY ANALYZATION HERE, OK? SO, SECONDLY, MY MASTER'S THESIS WAS VERY CRITICAL. THAT ANSWERS THAT QUESTION-- THAT QUESTION THAT KEPT BOTHERING ME FOR 5 YEARS. IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT FOR ME TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION, SO THAT WAS THE REASON FOR MY MASTER'S THESIS. MY MASTER'S THESIS WANTED TO FOCUS ON HOW DEAF SPEAKERS, DEAF SIGNERS ACHIEVED ELOQUENCE IN THEIR NARRATIVES. SO A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS IS, THEREFORE, ATTACHED TO DEAF ELOQUENCE, ELOQUENCE OF SPEAKERS. SO I WENT TO A LOT OF DEAF PEOPLE THAT I KNEW-- DEAF FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES AND ASKED THEM TO NAME FOR ME A PERSON THAT THEY REMEMBER IN THEIR SCHOOLING OR AT ANY TIME THAT THEY'VE MET A PERSON IN THEIR LIFE THAT WAS BEAUTIFULLY ELOQUENT IN THE USE OF ASL. THEY ALL NAMED DIFFERENT PEOPLE, SOME TEACHERS THAT THEY'D HAD, SOME FRIENDS THAT THEY'D KNOWN. ONCE I GATHERED ALL THAT INFORMATION, I ASKED THEM, WHY WAS THAT PERSON ELOQUENT? WHAT MADE THEM ELOQUENT? THE ANSWERS THAT I GOT WERE THAT THE SIGNING WAS BEAUTIFUL, THEIR USE OF THE LANGUAGE WAS BEAUTIFUL, AND THEY WERE CLEAR, THEY UNDERSTOOD HOW TO USE THE LANGUAGE IN A BEAUTIFUL WAY. THIS WASN'T SUFFICIENT FOR ME. I NEEDED TO KNOW MORE. SO I ASKED THEM TO SHOW ME. I ASKED THEM TO SHOW ME WHY THE PERSON WAS SO ELOQUENT. THEY COULDN'T ANSWER ME. I SAID, THAT'S THE QUESTION I NEED TO ANSWER, AND THAT'S WHY I DID MY MASTER'S THESIS ON THAT. OK? I ALREADY KIND OF EXPLAINED TO YOU THAT THIS WILL LEAD TO TEACHING TOOLS FOR US IN THE FUTURE. NOW, I WANT TO FOCUS ON ASL DISCOURSE FIRST. SO I WANT TO SHOW YOU MY STUDIES OF WHAT I'VE FOUND IN THE STRUCTURE OF ASL AND IN POETRY. NOW, I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH YOU'VE TAKEN OF SIGN LANGUAGE. SOME OF YOU ARE MORE PROFICIENT THAN OTHERS, AND SOME OF YOU ARE LINGUISTS, INDEED, IN THE AUDIENCE. SO, NOW, WHEN WE'RE SPEAKING LANGUAGE, WHAT IS A WORD? LIKE THE WORD "CAKE." OK? YOU HAVE A TONE OF VOICE WHEN YOU SAY "CAKE." THERE'S A SOUND: "CAKE." THERE'S THE PRODUCTION OF IT. BUT IF YOU PULL THAT WORD APART A LITTLE BIT, YOU CAN FIND THE SOUND, THE SOUND, CCC... [MAKES LONG "A" SOUND] THAT SOUND AAA, ANOTHER SOUND, CCC, [EMPHASIZES CCC SOUND] AND THE END SOUND OF "CAKE." SIGNS HAVE THE SAME THING. WE CAN PULL APART THE DIFFERENT SIGNS AND SEPARATE THEM INTO THEIR PHONEMES, MORPHEMES IF YOU WILL. OK? SO EXAMPLE: THE SIGN "MOTHER." CAN YOU ALL SEE THIS, "MOTHER"? OK? IT HAS 5, WHAT WE'LL CALL PARAMETERS. OK? PHONOLOGICAL COMPONENTS, AND HERE THEY ARE. WE HAVE THE HANDSHAPE, OK? IT'S A 5. CORRECT. A 5 HANDSHAPE. NEXT, WE WANT TO LOOK AT ITS LOCATION. WHERE IS THE SIGN PRODUCED? RIGHT HERE, UNDER THE MOUTH AND THE CHIN, CORRECT? THIRDLY, WE HAVE MOVEMENT. DOES THE SIGN MOVE? THERE'S A SMALL MOVEMENT WITH THE SIGN "MOTHER." YES. YOU CAN MOVE IT A COUPLE OF TIMES, OR YOU CAN MOVE IT ONCE. THE FOURTH THING WE LOOK AT IS PALM ORIENTATION, WHETHER THE PALM IS FACING OUR READER OR FACING TOWARD OURSELVES OR FACING TO THE RIGHT SIDE OR THE LEFT SIDE, OK? AND THE LAST IS THE NON-MANUAL MARKERS THAT GO WITH "MOTHER." THE SIGN "MOTHER" DOESN'T REQUIRE ANY NON-MANUAL MARKERS NECESSARILY, SO THIS IS HOW WE SPLIT APART THE WORD OR, IF YOU WILL, THE SIGN "MOTHER." ALL OF THESE 3, 4, 5 THINGS TOGETHER MAKE THE SIGN "MOTHER." OK. IT'S IMPORTANT NOW THAT THE SIGN FOR "MOTHER" IS MOVED JUST A LITTLE BIT UP TO THE FOREHEAD. AND THERE'S ONCE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SIGN FOR "MOTHER" AND THE SIGN FOR "FATHER," AND THAT IS LOCATION. IT MAKES A DIFFERENT SIGN, OK? SO THAT'S CRITICAL. THAT'S A CRITICAL--IF ONE LITTLE COMPONENT IS CHANGED, YOU GET A DIFFERENT SIGN. THIS MIGHT SEEM A LITTLE COMPLEX, BUT LET ME GO AHEAD AND I'LL EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU. SEMIOTICS... DOESN'T MEAN SIGN. IT'S NOT THE WORD "SIGN." A SIGN MEANS WHAT? LIKE THAT IS A SIGN. THAT'S A SIGN. "NOSE"--THAT'S A SIGN. MY MOUTH, THAT'S A SIGN. EVERYTHING IS A SIGN. EVERY GESTURE IS A SIGN, OK? THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN. EVERYTHING HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A SIGN. SO WHEN WE GET A SIGN, IT HAS A PROCESS. HOW WE STUDY SIGNS. PEIRCE IN HIS WORK. HE'S A FAMOUS AMERICAN PHILOSOPHER BACK IN--AROUND THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, ABOUT 1905. HIS WORK WAS FOCUSED ON SEMIOTICS. HE DISCUSSED EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD, THE WORLD OF MAN. WHEN PEOPLE GET A THOUGHT, THEY INTERPRET ALL OF THIS INFORMATION IN THEIR HEADS AND COME OUT AND PRODUCE SYMBOLS. AND EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD IS CONNECTED TO EVERYTHING ELSE. EVERYTHING IS INTERPRETED AS A SIGN OR A WORD OR A CONCEPT, AND IT BECOMES, EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED, OK? NOW... I HAVE TO SHOW YOU HIS MODEL SO THAT WE CAN PUT ALL THIS TOGETHER. THIS IS PEIRCE'S MODEL, OK? NOW... I WANT TO SHOW YOU, HERE'S ONE WITH A REFERENT. THE REFERENT--AND I'LL HAVE TO TELL YOU WHAT THAT MEANS, OK? MY SHOES, MY CLOTHES. THAT'S A REFERENT. MY HAIR. THAT'S A REFERENT, OK? ANYTHING. ONE THING. ANYTHING THAT IS ONE THING, LIKE HAIR OR CHAIR OR WHATEVER. THAT'S A REFERENT, AN OBJECT, OK? SUPPOSE YOU SEE A PERSON. AND YOU SEE THEIR HAIR. HOW DO WE GET THE SYMBOL "H-A-I-R"? WE GOT TO CONNECT THE SYMBOL WITH THE THING, THE OBJECT--HAIR, OK? THAT BECOMES THE INTERPRETATION INTO A SIGN, A SYMBOL, OK? THAT'S THE PROCESS. NOW, ARE WE CLEAR ON THAT? LET ME SHOW YOU SOME MORE. PODIUM. OK? I SEE THIS. I SEE ITS SHAPE. I SEE ITS COLOR. I SEE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. THIS THING. HOW DO I CONNECT TO THAT? HOW I CONNECT TO THAT IS WITH LANGUAGE, OK? I NEED TO MAKE A SYMBOL, A WORD, IF YOU WILL, FOR THAT. "PODIUM." OK. NOW, THAT THING REPRESENTS A PODIUM. OK? THE WORD "PODIUM" REPRESENTS THE THING. NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT LANGUAGE. NOW, THERE ARE A MILLION DIFFERENT SIGNS, RIGHT? NOW, PEIRCE HAD 3 GROUPS OF SIGNS. SYMBOLS: THAT MEANS LINGUISTIC WORDS. YOU HAVE TO HAVE AN AGREED-UPON SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION, LIKE A LANGUAGE, IF YOU WILL, AN AGREED-UPON SYSTEM OF WORDS THAT REPRESENT OBJECTS, OK? SO WHAT'S THE SIGN FOR THIS, WHAT I'M WEARING? WHAT'S THE SIGN FOR THIS? OK, "DRESS." GOOD. "DRESS" IS THE SIGN FOR THIS. FINE. NOW, THE DEAF COMMUNITY AGREES. WE ALL AGREE, IF YOU WILL, TO SIGN "DRESS" FOR THAT OBJECT. NOW, IF I'M TALKING TO A PERSON FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY AND I SIGN "DRESS," WHAT WE IN AMERICA HAVE AGREED UPON IS THE SIGN FOR "DRESS," THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND THAT. IT DOESN'T MEAN THE SAME THING TO THEM. THEIR PEOPLE HAVE A DIFFERENT SIGN FOR "DRESS," OK? SO IT'S AN ABSTRACT CONCEPT THAT WE HAVE TO AGREE UPON WHAT LABELS WE WILL USE AND WHAT SYMBOLS WE WILL USE TO DEFINE THE OBJECT, OK? OK. NOW, THE NEXT GROUP FROM PEIRCE IS ICONS. NOW, ICONS ARE EASY. AN ICON MEANS SOMETHING THAT MAKES A CONNECTION. NOW, SUPPOSE I SIGN "DRINK." OK, THAT'S EASY. YOU WOULD UNDERSTAND THAT EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW SIGN LANGUAGE, RIGHT? NOW, IF I GO AGAIN TO EUROPE OR TO ANOTHER COUNTRY AND I SIGN "DRINK," IT'S VERY CLEAR. IT SO CLEARLY REPRESENTS THE ACTION OF THAT OBJECT THAT ANY OTHER PERSON ON THE PLANET WOULD KNOW WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT. THE NEXT GROUP OF "IF" COMPONENTS FROM PEIRCE IS INDEXES. NOW, LET'S PUT ENGLISH ASIDE HERE, AND LET'S TALK ABOUT ASL, OK? INDEXING. DO YOU SEE WHAT I'M DOING HERE? INDEXING MEANS "REFERRING BACK TO SOMETHING." OK. SAY I'M SIGNING THIS ABOUT A CAR, AND I USE THIS CLASSIFIER TO REPRESENT THE CAR, THE VEHICLE, OK? THAT'S REFERENCING BACK. ASL MAKES HIGH USE OF REFERENCING. IF I SIGN "MY MOTHER," AND I PUT "MY MOTHER" IN MY LEFT POSITION HERE, OR IN MY RIGHT POSITION, THEN I CAN REFERENCE BACK TO "MY MOTHER" ON MY LEFT POSITION OR ON MY RIGHT POSITION, AND YOU KNOW WHO I'M TALKING ABOUT. SUPPOSE I HAVE A BIG BOWL OF SALAD IN FRONT OF ME, AND I USE THE CLASSIFIER, BUT I MAINTAIN THE SIZE AND SHAPE OF THAT BOWL AS I MOVE THE BOWL FROM THE TABLE TO THE SINK. THAT'S REFERENCING BACK. OK, I THINK YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN. ASL IS VERY RICH IN INDEXICALITY. FIRST I WANT TO SHOW YOU A LITTLE DATA. OK. ACTUALLY, LET ME SHOW YOU A MOVIE FIRST REAL QUICK. IT'S IMPORTANT THAT POETRY-- THERE WAS ONE LITTLE GIRL IN HERE WHO IS SO CUTE. SHE'S TALKING ABOUT A HORSE AND A COW. IT'S JUST ONE MINUTE. IT'S A VERY SHORT STORY, BUT IT IS BEAUTIFUL. HER USE OF LANGUAGE IS JUST BEAUTIFUL. I WANT TO SHOW YOU THAT FIRST, AND THEN I WANT TO ANALYZE THE DATA WITH YOU. THAT SIMPLE LITTLE STORY BUT BEAUTIFULLY DONE, WOW! AND A LOT OF ANALYZING POTENTIAL THERE. OK. SO BEFORE I SHOW YOU THE DATA NOW, LET'S ANALYZE THAT WHICH IS REAL IMPORTANT. WHEN YOU GO TO AN ENGLISH CLASS-- YOU'VE ALL TAKEN ENGLISH CLASSES, RIGHT? WRITING CLASSES. OK. WHEN YOU WRITE A PAPER, HOW DO YOU START? WHAT'S YOUR PROCESS? WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU DO? OK, YOU MAKE AN OPENING, RIGHT? AN INTRODUCTION. AN OPENING STATEMENT, OPENING PARAGRAPH, YES? RIGHT. WHAT'S THE SECOND PART OF YOUR PAPER? A BODY. GOOD. MM-HMM. A BODY THAT IS HOWEVER MANY PARAGRAPHS. AND WHAT'S THE LAST PART OF YOUR PAPER? A CONCLUSION. CORRECT. SO THE OPENING, THE BODY, AND THE CONCLUSION IS IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE. OK, NOW, ASL STUDENTS, WHEN THEY PRODUCE NARRATIVE, THEY HAVE THE 3 SAME COMPONENTS, OK? I'M GOING TO GO A LITTLE DEEPER INTO EACH OF THOSE WITH THIS DATA I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU. OK. SO I WANT TO LET YOU KNOW HOW WE'RE GOING TO ANALYZE THIS. OOPS. CAN YOU ALL SEE? HA HA! OK. OK. SO WHEN YOU START TO ANALYZE THIS-- I GOT THIS AND I DIDN'T KNOW EXACTLY HOW TO ANALYZE THIS DATA. SO I THOUGHT, LET ME BREAK IT INTO COLUMNS. I'LL HAVE A 1 COLUMN, A 2 COLUMN, AND A 3 COLUMN. I WAS A LITTLE BIT AWKWARD WITH THIS AT FIRST. AND I WAS TALKING TO A TEACHER COLLEAGUE OF MINE. THEY SUGGESTED THAT I FOLLOW WHAT THE PERSON DOES AS FAR AS THEIR MOVEMENT TO THEIR RIGHT SIDE, THEIR MIDDLE, OR THEIR LEFT SIDE, WHERE THE SIGNS ARE PLACED. AND THAT MADE THINGS ALL WORK OUT VERY WELL. SO THAT WORKED. OK? YOU CAN SEE IT UP HERE. THAT'S FOR THE RIGHT SIDE, OK? HERE'S THE MIDDLE... AND LEFT, OK? SO THAT'S WHERE THE SIGNS ARE PRODUCED. SO... SEE WHAT HAPPENS HERE IN THE MIDDLE SPACE? THE LITTLE GIRL TALKED ABOUT THE FARM AND TALKED ABOUT THE COWS AND SET THE COWS UP. AND YOU COULD SEE THE ROOSTER THEN, AND THE ROOSTER WAS SET UP, OK? ALL OF THAT WAS BASICALLY IN THE MIDDLE FRAME, OK, IN HER MIDDLE SPACE OF HER BODY. DO YOU SEE ALL THIS DOWN HERE LATER ON IN THE POEM-- OR LATER ON IN THE NARRATIVE? DO YOU SEE THE Y HANDSHAPE? AND YOU SEE DOWN HERE THE 3 CLASSIFIER, THE 3 HANDSHAPE. AND THEN IN THE MIDDLE, WE HAVE TWO HANDS AND THE 5 CLASSIFIER. OK? AND THEN DOWN AT THE END AGAIN. SO THERE'S 3 SPECIFIC HANDSHAPES THAT SHE USED. SHE USED THE 3, THE Y, AND THE 5 HANDSHAPES, OK? SO THE 5 IS IMPORTANT. THE 5 HANDSHAPE IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE WHEN YOU'RE SHIFTING YOUR BODY-- I WONDERED, WHY DO PEOPLE SHIFT THEIR BODIES? WELL, OBVIOUSLY, THAT'S FOR A ROLE SHIFT, OK? FOR A COMPARING AND A CONTRASTING, OK? THIS IS WHAT'S HAPPENING WHEN I SHIFT TO MY LEFT. THIS CHARACTER TAKES ON THE ROLE, AND IT DOES THE SPEAKING. NOW, WHEN I SHIFT TO MY RIGHT, THERE'S ANOTHER CHARACTER. I BECOME ANOTHER CHARACTER, AND I DO THE NARRATIVE FOR THAT CHARACTER, OK? SO THIS HAS A DEFINITE LINGUISTIC PURPOSE-- ROLE TAKING, ROLE SHIFTING. OK. SO, OOPS. WAIT A MINUTE. I'VE LOST MY TECHNOLOGY. AH, THERE WE GO. OK. PHEW! OK, IT ONLY TOOK A NAP. OK. NOW, THAT ROLE SHIFTING, THAT BODY SHIFTING, THAT IS INDEXING. OK? THAT'S OUR LEFT COLUMN, WHERE THE Y HAPPENED. AND THEN OUR RIGHT COLUMN IS WHERE THE 3 HANDSHAPE HAPPENED. AND THEN IN THE MIDDLE IS WHERE THE 5 HANDSHAPE HAPPENED. OK? SO YOU HAVE THE COW ON THE LEFT, WHICH IS THE Y HANDSHAPE; THE ROOSTER ON THE RIGHT, WHICH IS THE 3 HANDSHAPE; AND IN THE MIDDLE, WE HAVE THE 5 HANDSHAPE, WHICH WAS REPRESENTING THE FARM. SO NOW... SO YOU HAVE YOUR 3, YOUR 5, AND YOUR Y HANDSHAPES. SO WHO'S THE 3 REPRESENTING? THE ROOSTER. WHO DOES THE Y REPRESENT? THE COW. AND WHAT DOES THE 5 HANDSHAPE REPRESENT? THE FARM. ALL THOSE 3 ARE INDEXED OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND OFTEN AT THE SAME TIME. THE REASON FOR THAT IS BECAUSE THAT MAKES A LINGUISTIC CONNECTION. YOU CAN SWITCH YOUR BODY, AND YOU BECOME THAT CHARACTER. AT THE SAME TIME, THAT'S AN ICON BECAUSE THERE'S MOVEMENT INVOLVED. YOU CAN SEE HOW THE COW MOVES, HOW THE ROOSTER WALKS, HOW THE COW CHEWS ITS CUD. YOU CAN SEE THE WEIGHT IN THE MOVEMENT OF EACH CHARACTER. THAT'S INDEXING, AND IT'S ALSO ICONING--ICONOGRAPHIC. AND THAT'S CALLED METONYMY, OK? BECAUSE YOU'RE COMBINING 2 OR 3 DIFFERENT PARTS. THAT'S METONYMY. METONYMY MEANS TWO PARTS ACTING IN THE SAME TIME. YOU HAVE INDEXING AND YOU HAVE ICONIC REPRESENTATION SIMULTANEOUSLY. THAT'S VERY ABSTRACT, VERY RICH. THAT STORY SHOWS THAT THE REASON THAT A LOT OF HEARING STUDENTS WHO ARE LEARNING SIGN LANGUAGE ARE VERY AWKWARD THEIR FIRST TWO OR 3 YEARS, BECAUSE THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF WHAT THEY'RE DOING. THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF WHAT THE LANGUAGE CAN DO. I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THAT FOR QUITE A LONG TIME. I'D UNDERSTAND I WAS JUST TEACHING THEM SIGNS, AND I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WHY THEY WERE NOT GETTING THE ELOQUENCE AND THE COMPLEXITIES. THIS RESEARCH HAS LED ME TO UNDERSTAND WHY THAT IS. THEY WERE NOT TAUGHT THE INDEXING OR THE ICONING-- ICONICITY AND INDEXING. OK, NOW, LET'S LOOK AT THE BEGINNING, THE MIDDLE, AND THE ENDING, GOING BACK TO HOW WE WRITE A PAPER, RIGHT? THE INTRODUCTION, THE BODY, AND THE CONCLUSION, OK? LET'S CONNECT THAT TO OUR STORY. NOW, DO YOU SEE ALL THIS THAT'S HAPPENING UP HERE? IN THE MIDDLE SECTION, USING MORE SIGNS-- "FARM," "COW," "ROOSTER." NOW DO YOU SEE THIS LATER ON IN THE STORY, WHAT'S HAPPENING? THERE AREN'T ANY WORDS. THERE AREN'T ANY SYMBOLS. SYMBOL USE GOES WAY DOWN IN THE MIDDLE AND END OF THE STORY. AND THEN AT THE END, THE WORD-- OR THE SYMBOLS CROP UP AGAIN. SO I WAS ANALYZING... HOW PEOPLE USE THIS LANGUAGE. AND WHAT HAPPENS IS IN THE BEGINNING OF A STORY OR A POEM, THERE'S HEAVY SYMBOL USE. THEN...AS WE REACH THE MIDDLE OF THE STORY OR POEM, SYMBOL USE...DECREASES AND ICON AND INDEXING USE INCREASES. SO THAT POEM HAS STRUCTURE IMBEDDED. IT PURELY HAS STRUCTURE. WE KNOW THAT. WHEN I STARTED REALIZING... WHAT KIND OF STRUCTURE WAS INVOLVED AND REALIZING HOW THE STRUCTURE WAS CONNECTED TO THE ELOQUENCE AND THE PRODUCTION, IT ALL STARTED TO MAKE SENSE. AND THIS 3-COLUMN GRID IS WHAT I CAME UP WITH. SO THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE IS DEEPER THAN YOU THINK. IT'S NOT JUST AN OPENING/INTRODUCTION, A BODY, AND A CLOSING. IT HAS A LOT MORE TO IT. THERE'S MORE DEPTH AND MORE RICHNESS TO IT THROUGH THE STRUCTURE THAN WHAT WE ORIGINALLY THOUGHT. NOW, RELATED TO THE DATA, THERE'S TWO TESTS IN MY THESIS, OK? ANALYZING THE STRUCTURE, AND, ALSO, I WANTED TO TEST A NARRATIVE AND HOW THE STRUCTURE APPLIES TO THE NARRATIVE, OK, OR IF IT APPLIED. OK. I WANTED TO FOCUS ON POETRY BECAUSE STORYTELLING AND NARRATIVE IS VERY DIFFERENT THAN POETRY. I WANTED TO SEE IF MY THESIS APPLIED TO IT. AND I FOUND THAT STORIES HAVE FOLLOWED THE SAME PRINCIPLES AS POETRY, BUT THERE'S ONE DIFFERENCE. THE OPENING IS STRONG SYMBOL USE. THE OPENING IS VERY HIGH IN SYMBOL USE. THE MIDDLE, THE BODY OF THE STORY... IS PRETTY SIMILAR TO POETRY. THERE'S A LOT OF ACTING, A LOT OF GESTURING, A LOT OF ROLE SHIFTING AND INDEXING, OK? A LOT OF USING THE EYEBROWS UP, AS IN TOPIC SENTENCES, THAT'S IN HEAVY USE WITH SYMBOLS. AND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORY, ICON AND INDEXING INCREASES AND SYMBOL USE DECREASES, AND THEN YOU GET A NEW TOPIC IN THE MIDDLE. AND THEN YOU HAVE YOUR CONCLUSION, AND SYMBOL USE AGAIN RISES FOR THE CONCLUSION. SO I ANALYZED THE STORIES. THAT SUMMER, I WATCHED A LOT OF VIDEOTAPES, NEEDLESS TO SAY, AND DID A LOT OF ANALYZATION OF THE STORIES. ONE THING I NOTICED, ONE PATTERN THAT I NOTICED THAT DIDN'T FIT MY THESIS, DIDN'T FIT MY HYPOTHESIS, AND THAT WAS USING THE Y HANDSHAPE. I WONDERED WHY, WONDERED WHY. AND THEN I REALIZED THAT THERE WERE MANY CHARACTERS INVOLVED. AND THE CHARACTER--THERE ARE 5 CHARACTERS IN THE STORY. SO THAT'S TOO MUCH FOR A DIALOGUE. THERE'S TOO MANY CHARACTERS. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO USE THIS STRUCTURE WHEN THERE'S MORE THAN JUST A COUPLE OF CHARACTERS, MORE THAN 3 CHARACTERS. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE. THAT'S WHY THE STRUCTURE-- WE NEED TO RESEARCH THE STRUCTURE A LITTLE BIT MORE, THE STRUCTURAL COMPONENT A LITTLE BIT MORE. NOW, STRUCTURE, OF COURSE, IS CRITICAL. THAT CAN HELP US UNDERSTAND AND ANALYZE SIGNS, MENTAL ORGANIZATION, HOW WE INTERPRET, INTERNALIZE, INTERPRET, AND THEN PRODUCE THE LANGUAGE. SO...THERE'S A LOT OF WORDS WHEN YOU WRITE A PAPER, RIGHT? IT'S HIGHLY CONTEXTUALIZED. IT STILL HAS ITS OWN STRUCTURE, OK? THE OPENING, THE MIDDLE, THE CLOSING. OR THE INTRODUCTION, THE BODY, THE CONCLUSION. THEY ALL HAVE ITS OWN STRUCTURE, OK? IN ASL... ICONS AND INDEXES--I WONDERED WHERE THEY CAME FROM. IT COMES FROM CONTEXT. IT COMES FROM THE GENERAL WORLD, HOW WE SEE THINGS... HOW WE INTERNALIZE AND INTERPRET OUR WORLD. AND THEN IT BECOMES ICONIC. SO IT COMES FROM THE CONTEXT. SO THAT TELLS ME THAT HEARING PEOPLE AND DEAF PEOPLE THINK DIFFERENTLY. ASL AND DEAF PEOPLE ARE FOLLOWING A SEMIOTIC PROCESS. THAT'S WHY THE STRUCTURES ARE DIFFERENT. OK. NOW WE COME TO THE INTERESTING PART-- FUTURE RESEARCH. I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT THAT WE DO RESEARCH IN THE FUTURE ABOUT RESEARCHING HEARING STRUCTURE AND DEAF STRUCTURE, IF YOU WILL. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. IN WHAT WAYS THEY'RE SIMILAR, IN WHAT WAYS THEY'RE DIFFERENT AND WHY-- I THINK WE NEED TO DO A COMPARISON. THEN I WONDER WHEN WE DO THAT COMPARISON... WE NEED TO FIND WAYS THAT IT WILL INFLUENCE OUR TEACHING. WE'LL FIND NEW TEACHING TOOLS. WE'RE NOT GOING TO BE JUST TEACHING VOCABULARY WORDS TO HEARING STUDENTS. WE'RE GOING TO BE TEACHING THEM MORE IN DEPTH ABOUT THE STRUCTURE, THE PROCESS, AND THE SEMIOTICS, OK? I'M NOT SURE HOW MANY QUESTIONS ARE LEFT, BUT THE RESEARCH NEEDS TO CONTINUE. THAT RESEARCH IS HELPING ME TO GO AHEAD AND DEVELOP SOME FUTURE TEACHING TOOLS THAT WILL BE MORE EFFECTIVE IN THE CLASSROOM. NOW HERE WE ARE, MY CONCLUSION. THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS FOR MY GRADUATE'S THESIS. SO I HAD THIS BURNING QUESTION THAT I HAD NO ANSWER FOR, CARRIED IT WITH ME NIGHT AND DAY. THEN I WENT INTO THE RESEARCH, FOUND WHAT ELSE WAS INVOLVED IN THE ELOQUENCE OF ASL. THE SIGNS, YES, BUT THERE WAS THE INDEXING, THE ICONOGRAPHIC COMPONENTS. THE STRUCTURE WAS VERY RICH, VERY DEEP. THINK OF A SPIDER WEB. THINK OF THE WEB, A SPIDER WEB. THINK OF ALL THE CONNECTIONS. IT'S NOT JUST ONE STRAND. IT'S MANY STRANDS COMBINED IN A SPECIFIC WAY. IT HAS A SPECIFIC STRUCTURE. AND IF YOU TAKE ONE PIECE OUT, IT WILL FALL APART. SO THE SEMIOTIC METHOD IS HOW ONE RELATES TO THE WORLD, HOW ONE INTERPRETS THE WORLD. YOU ATTACH LABELS TO OBJECTS, YES--SIGNS TO OBJECTS, BUT THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN THAT. SO I WENT THROUGH PEIRCE'S STUDY, HIS THEORY. NOW I'VE GOT ALL THE DATA TOGETHER; WE'VE DONE SOME DATA ANALYSIS, COME UP WITH SYMBOLS, ICONS, INDEXES, AND HOW THOSE 3 INTERACT AND FORM A VERY COMPLEX STRUCTURE. IT'S MORE THAN JUST THE INTRODUCTION, THE BODY, AND THE CONCLUSION, MUCH MORE THAN THAT. NEXT, THE RESULTS, AS YOU'VE SEEN, THEN THE DISCUSSION. THE DISCUSSION LEADS TO FUTURE RESEARCH THAT I HOPE WILL HOLD MANY MORE ANSWERS. SO NOW, IF THERE'S A LINGUIST IN THE AUDIENCE OR WHATEVER, IT'S YOUR JOB, PERHAPS, TO GO ON AND DO SOME MORE RESEARCH. AND THANK YOU VERY MUCH. BARBARA RAY: I JUST WANTED TO ASK HER TO REWIND THE VIDEOTAPE SO YOU COULD SEE IT, WHERE IT HAD THE Y HANDSHAPE, THE 3 HANDSHAPE, AND THEN THE 5 HANDSHAPE IN THE MIDDLE. AND THANK YOU, ALL, FOR COMING TODAY. NOW, EVERYONE WHO WANTS RID CEUs, SIGN UP OVER WHERE THE FM UNITS ARE. AND THE NEXT "ASL LECTURE SERIES" WILL BE ON MAY 5th. AND IT'S GOING TO BE DIRKSEN BAUMAN. HE'S GOING TO BE OUR LAST PRESENTER, ON MAY 5th, FOR THE "ASL LECTURE SERIES" FOR THIS YEAR. NOW, IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE "ASL LECTURE SERIES," PLEASE SUBMIT ANY NAMES OR TOPICS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE COVERED. AND YOU CAN CONTACT MYSELF OR SUSAN FISCHER OR COLLEEN POULIOT. AND PLEASE SUBMIT THOSE IDEAS AND NAMES. CINDY: OK, SO HERE WE GO. ONCE AGAIN, "THE COW AND THE ROOSTER." BARBARA RAY: DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FOR CINDY? WE WILL BE MEETING IN ROOM 1530, JUST AROUND THE CORNER HERE. IT'S IN ROOM 1530. THANK YOU AGAIN, CINDY. AND LET'S HEAR IT FOR CINDY CAMPBELL! THANK YOU FOR COMING TODAY. THANK YOU.

"This project is supported by a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation."