Anyone else wish we used images instead of words?

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The vastajority of signs are done with one hand, and the ones that are not can be done with on hand anyway. You eat, you put down your fork, sign to a person and then start eating again.

We all have problems understanding the hidden meanings and the word games of spoken English, which sentext order is verb, subject, object. I.e, "go sit down in the chair"

Sign language is blunt and to the point most of the time, it is in the sentext order of object, subject, verb. I.e, "CHAIR, YOU SIT"(it is in caps, when writing out ASL you use what's called gloss which is the closest written form of ASL) I find this to the poit and simple.

ASL is NOT English turned into hand shapes, it is a language all it's own. Hence the order of the words(signs)

I still see this as a good first language and the English being a second one.

People who are Deaf are also very accepting of others, weather weird or not. I sat down and signed with sevrel people for an hour and we had no problems with misunderstandings and such that I normally have in a social situation, aside from some signs I did not know.

Sign language also has very easy body language, yes/no questions have raised eye brows and who,what,when,where,how questions are lowered eye brows, like your confused.

There are a few more but they are easy, it's such a better language then english.

oh master foo. yes this was relevant. glad i opened this link.

when it comes down to it, even pictures are symbols, just like words are, our brain still has to decode it to understand it's meaning, and just like with words, different minds can make different translations..
now if we could skip the entire process of coding, transmitting, decoding, and just stick with transmitting, like with say, telepathy, that would make my life so much easier.

Indeed.

Do you think society would advance due to the speed with which people could now think (without the burden of finding words for thoughts)? Or perhaps people would get lazy due to not having to label their thoughts any more? I think if someone transmitted a thought that they hadn't thought about enough and it was vague...I could transmit back, 'what the hell are you thinking?', so the same rigour would be there.

If people (partly) think in words though, we would still have different languages, like English and Spanish...but we would understand each other on a greater level. If we really wanted to understand exactly what people are trying to say, we'd have to learn their language (we just wouldn't have speaking and listening tests - we'd have thought transmission tests). I want to write a sci-fi story now.

I'm not trying to dismiss signing out of hand ( ) but I don't think you've really addressed its shortcomings as a direct replacement for spoken language. Spoken language allows communication when you have no direct visibility of the speaker such as amongst crowds and around corners or where some other barrier is in the way. Spoken language allows all of your hands to be usefully employed in other tasks whilst communicating concurrently. It is no accident that homo sapiens and our ancestors perhaps as long ago as 2 million years ago developed the vocal ability we have today.

In a crowd, most people are talking so it would be hard to make out what ther person would be saying, so long as you can see the person you can talk to them via ASL, windows no longer prevent you from communicating with a person on the other side. Say your in the car and a person you are with is inside. They are taking a long time to come out so when they pass by the window you could sign to them to find out what's up.

Otherwise you would have to get out of the car and go talk to them.

It has drawbacks, yes. However the few it does have are far less then what verbal comunication has.

Considering the options sign language would be better to use then any verbal one. No other options are available at this time.

So you have verbal which is misunderstood soooo much, or sign language which has very few drawbacks, and is not misunderstood often like verbal languages are.

So you can't imagine any circumstances where you can't see the other persons hands? Are you really being serious?

I'm frequently in the kitchen talking to my partner in the dinning room, but she can't see me whilst I'm cooking. Should we therefore put a completely unncessary window in between as you suggest? That's just bizarre.

I'm really, really not knocking sign language but you seem so chuffed with the idea that you're are ignoring all the obvious daily impracticalities.

You apparently did not read my full post, I said it has it's drawbacks, I know it's not perfect.

And the window thing was an example, I was not saying put windows everywhere, but that if there is a window that u can sigh to someone on the other side. Talking you would have to yell.

If your backs turned and you are cooking and the other persons in another room then chances are that you will not understand everything they say anyway. Sign language fall short here but it is still better over all I believe.

I am in no way saying it is perfect or the ultimate language, however it is better in so many ways then spoken language.

I did. I'm disagreeing with you because you seemed to be glossing over the inadequacies of signing.



I know it was an example and I realise you don't have to put windows everywhere, I was merely pointing out in return that you aren't going to find windows conveniently placed wherever you need them. I don't always need to yell when the other person is out of sight, but even if I do, so what? It still beats signing in this scenario because signing requires you see one another.

Typing at my keyboard I can still talk to the person next to me.

A waiter with his hands full with a tray can still talk to the customers.

A workman can still issue instructions to his colleague even when both hands are occupied with tools.

I could go on. These kind of things happen so many times a day with so many people.



No, I rarely have problems hearing when my back is turned. So spoken language trumps signing here.



I know you're not saying it's the ultimate; I'm just saying a think it is inferior in most situations, ok? Most. Not all.

I enjoy the visual aspect of communicating BUT there is a tantalizing beauty in the written language. Translating a simple word, a phrase, or a paragraph into a visual landscape is like a self induced exile into the very bosom of a rainbow flung from heaven.

TheSunAlsoRises