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Existing State Of The Art Of Instructing The Deaf And Dumb

Creator: Frederick A.P. Barnard (author)
Date: September 1835
Publication: Literary and Theological Review
Source: Available at selected libraries

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The third is a still higher expansion of the second methodized and subjected to the laws of artificial syntax. It is not adapted to colloquial use, but is intended, as will hereafter be explained, to serve as a stepping-stone to alphabetic language.

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These forms of the sign-language will be best understood by example. Let a deaf-mute desire to call the attention of another person to some object in view; for instance, to a kite floating in the air. He will use such signs precisely, as would be chosen by a person possessed of speech, supposing any obstacle to prevent the use of his tongue. He will touch the individual and point to the kite, following the direction of his finger with his eye. This, then, is a sign natural, and universally intelligible. It is one of the simplest characters, and for convenience is denominated a sign of indication. On the following day, let the same deaf-mute desire to recall the kite to the mind of his companion. He will slowly describe before him the outline of the object, with the index fingers of both hands. He will seem to attach to the extremity of the figure thus delineated, the ornament called the tail, imitating its flexibility, and designating its length. He will next busy himself with the string, which he will seem properly to fasten, and then to pass along through his hands. At length he will launch his imaginary kite into the air, and mimic the action of the boy engaged in managing the play-thing. Should there be paper in sight, he will, in the early part of this process, point it out, and signify, by spreading his hands over the figure of the kite, that the filling-up is of that material. Otherwise, he may dispense with this part of the sign, unless his efforts to make himself understood should be fruitless without it. In this case, he must undertake a separate labour to recall the idea of paper to the mind of his friend. The means of doing this will be determined by circumstances. Reference to some place where paper is known to be deposited; allusion to a book or newspaper by describing its form, and seeming to open or unfold and read; imitating the flexibility of the substance; or, with those who have seen the process of manufacture, calling to mind the paper-mill, and the operations going on within it; these are some of the practicable means of arriving at the desired result. To make the description of the kite more complete, the fingers should be passed along the situation of the wooden part or frame; and the material of which it is composed, should be signified in some manner analogous to the foregoing. Thus we have at length the natural sign for a kite. It belongs to a class called descriptive. But such a mass of gestures to denote a single thing, must, obviously, very much obstruct rapidity of communication. Signs truly natural are, therefore, only occasionally used by deaf-mutes, in their intercourse with each other, and with their friends. Those which do really serve them as the instrument of communication, belong to the second of the classes named above. Out of the whole picture of the kite but a single feature will probably be retained, to stand as the representative of the object. In the institution with which the writer is connected, the attitude and manner of the boy holding the string is that in most common use.

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This is no longer a natural sign. It is called by Sicard, a sign of reduction. It has lost the property of universal intelligibility; and if it has not become, to appearance, quite as arbitrary as a word, it is no longer, to say the least, self-explanatory. Of signs similar to this consists, chiefly, the colloquial language found in institutions for the deaf and dumb, so far as it relates to material things.

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In the intellectual and moral world, the power of the truly natural language is considerably more limited than we have shown it to be in the material. It is in fact restricted to the designation of the stronger passions and emotions, and of those mental operations, which are usually accompanied by peculiar expressions of the countenance. Such expressions, combined with suitable attitude and gesture, constitute the corresponding natural signs.

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But the colloquial language of the institutions is not so feeble in its resources. It resorts to metaphor and allegory, and resting partly upon these helps, and partly upon tacit convention, it accumulates a very copious vocabulary. By metaphor, the straight line is put for rectitude: by allegory, the equal scale is put for justice. By metaphor, physical is put for moral feeling, the speaker pointing to his heart. By allegory, the circle, formed rapidly and repeatedly, represents eternity. These specimens are characteristic of a large class. Any one is competent to judge, how universally such signs are likely to be understood.

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But, beside the elements thus far described, the common, colloquial language of the deaf and dumb often admits signs totally arbitrary. Some of these seem to have been adopted unconsciously: indeed it is difficult, to trace their origin. Others, as for instance many proper names, both of persons and places, are the offspring of necessity. Signs of this class usually originate in little individual peculiarities; but, in large communities, such peculiarities are not sufficiently numerous or striking, to furnish a strongly distinctive sign for every individual. The sign by which the writer is known among the deaf and dumb, is purely arbitrary. It is formed by closing the hand, so as to represent the letter A of the manual alphabet, and placing the thumb-nail of the hand thus closed, against the chin.

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