Adverbial Morphemes in Tactile ASL - Gallaudet University

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PDE – Steven D. Collins Introduction _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Imagine being totally Deaf and totally blind and walking into a room where you are about to partake in a presentation of a subject that is of interest to you. You have engaged a fully certified and qualified interpreter who will act as your personal interpreter for the proceedings. What is the atmosphere within the room? What is the apparent level of enthusiasm of the other persons attending the presentation? What is the physical description of the person making the presentation? It has always been a matter of deep personal concern to me that many interpreters consider their only duty to be to deliver a verbatim translation of the words that the presenter says without conveying all of these other very important and interesting factors. So much additional "message" is contained in the facial expressions and mannerisms of the presenter as well as the reaction of the audience. How much of this will actually be conveyed to the Deaf- Blind 1 person during the session? What will be the worth of the total experience to the Deaf- Blind person? In the above scenario, one can appreciate the information that facial expressions communicate at the paralinguistic level. However, in American Sign Language (ASL), facial expressions, or what are commonly called non-manual signals (NMS), communicate much more. Emotions and moods are shown, but so are grammatical features such as question types, adverbial and descriptive features (i.e., adjectives). NMS are also used to help remove the ambiguity of meanings in such words as “recommend”, “propose”, or “suggest”. This linguistic information, if not accurately conveyed, will distort the message drastically thus impacting the Deaf-Blind individual in social and personal ways. I have an intense interest in researching and improving the quality of interpreting for persons that are Deaf-Blind. For the past thirteen years, I have been working with Deaf-Blind persons both in the capacity as an interpreter and as a researcher, studying their techniques for 1 Throughout this PDE, there are references to Deaf, deaf, Deaf-Blind, and deaf-blind. A culture is generally considered distinct when it has its own unique language, values, behavioral norms, arts, educational institutions, political and social structures, etc. In this respect, Deaf people have a unique culture and, in this context, the use of the word Deaf or Deaf-Blind is used with the capital letter “D” or “B”. The word deaf is being used to refer either to those who are unable to hear or, refers to a context unrelated to the Deaf culture, it is used with a small letter “d”. Likewise, the term deaf-blind will refer to those who are deaf and blind but are not associated with the Deaf or Deaf-Blind cultures. 1

PDE – Steven D. Collins Introduction _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ communication. In looking back at my earlier experiences at the North Carolina School for the Deaf, a residence school that I attended, I realized that my Deaf-Blind friends had a significant influence on me. My observation is that there is very little ongoing research in this area. Additionally, only a small amount of work related to understanding and describing the actual process of deaf-blind communication is being undertaken. The process of interpreting for a Deaf-Blind person is somewhat different from the more conventional process of interpreting for a Deaf person. Although each use American Sign Language as a basis for communication, a Deaf-Blind person must depend on tactile reception of signing as a replacement for those aspects of the language that are customarily conveyed through such sight-dependent functions as facial expressions. I have spent many research hours videotaping Deaf-Blind persons and sighted Deaf persons in order to gather data that will demonstrate the subtle nuances of their communication. I regularly collaborate with linguistic experts who have an interest in this area and I have made it a specific professional goal of mine to research this field in depth in an attempt to evolve a formal approach to the linguistic process discussed in the PDE. By doing so, it is my goal to garner an understanding of the process to a degree that I may provide high-quality training for interpreters who have a desire to interpret for Deaf-Blind clients. In my current position as a faculty member at Gallaudet University in the Department of Linguistics and Interpretation, I have an excellent opportunity to carry out these research objectives. I plan to develop a curriculum and refine it to a specific course of study for interpreters, as part of their training, so that they may better serve Deaf-Blind consumers. I have determined that my pursuit of a Ph.D. will provide a strong research foundation that includes a multi-disciplined educational approach to successfully meet my goals. This PDE reflects on three types of learning: 1) experience, 2) learning by studying, and 3) research. The experiences that have greatly influenced this work came primarily from being a part of the Deaf-Blind community as a result of living with Deaf-Blind people, and attending deaf-blind conferences, meetings and lectures with deaf-blind (and Deaf-Blind) people. Part of this experience also included having close friends in the deaf-blind community who have had a great influence on my life. As well, I have observed the communication difficulties that Deaf- Blind persons have with members of their own family and other sighted persons. These 2

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gallaudet

www.gallaudet.edu

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