The Power of ASL
A Society Supporting Language, Literacy, and
Performing Arts in the Signed Modality
Summer 2018
A Newsletter of the Society for American Sign Language
Issue 10
Discussing the Difference between Sign and Signed
By Sherman Wilcox, University of New Mexico
Allow me to describe three hypothetical scenarios:
Scenario 1: I recently overheard a conversation at my university. Student A was excitedly telling
his friend, Student B, that he was taking a new foreign language class. Student B asked, “Which
language are you learning?” Student A replied, “Sign language. So I can communicate with deaf
people.” Student B replied, “That’s so cool!”
Scenario 2: I recently overheard a conversation at my university. Student A was excitedly telling
his friend, student B, that he was taking a new foreign language class. Student B said, “Cool! Which
language are you learning?” Student A replied, “Speech language. So I can communicate with hearing
people.” Student B replies, “Huh? That doesn’t make any sense at all! WHICH LANGUAGE are you
learning? Spanish, Japanese, Arabic?”
What’s my point?
Speaking, signing, and writing (I’ll offer a scenario about writing soon) describe ways that we
can produce a language. Speaking does not name a language, and that’s why in Scenario 2, student
A’s answer of “speech language” doesn’t make any sense. His friend wants the name of the language.
In Scenario 1, when student A replies “sign language,” he is also not naming a language. He’s
naming the way a language can be produced. And yet student B didn’t balk at his friend’s statement.
He thought he was naming a language, ‘sign language’.
It’s apples and oranges: the term for the way a language is produced is the apple, and the
name for the language is an orange. Don’t confuse apples for oranges.
(Continue on page 8)
The Power of ASL
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Summer 2018 – Issue 10