By William G. Vicars, EdD, (2021)
There is an ongoing myth that "in order to be correct" American Sign Language
signs should be limited to their depictive root meanings and not allowed to take
on other meanings.
The right way to use language isn't determined by etymologies, historical usage,
books, or the opinion of well-meaning outsiders.
The right way to use language is determined by the community who use that
language for daily communication.
When enough people sign something in the same way to the extent that it becomes
highly recognized and adopted by those for whom the language is their main
method of communicating in face-to-face conversations then the signing can be
considered to be correct -- regardless of how the concept used to be signed,
what your ASL teacher taught you, what you read in a book, or what the sign
looks like it should mean.
Often we Deaf need or want to sign something during a low context situation and
we do not wish to waste time establishing unnecessary context just so we can
pretend that ASL and English never overlap.
I get it -- many of you go to college for four years desperately trying to avoid
signing anything that even remotely looks like English so you can please your
ASL teachers and get the grades necessary to graduate and get a job and not be
hungry and homeless. Many of you (often Hearing) ASL teachers out there are
scared crapless about signing anything remotely English-looking for fear that
the other faculty are going to out you for not signing true (cough) ASL and
having cooties.
Let's consider briefly the phrase "spend time."
Sure, yes, to create the meaning of "spend time" -- lots of Deaf sign things
like:
ASSOCIATE
SOCIALIZE
CONTINUE
or even just let context from our sentence or inflection of specific signs
create the meaning of "spending time."
However, when we get beyond the myth and the "my ASL is better than your ASL"
comparisons and take a look at the signing being done by real Deaf we will note
that quite a few Deaf do sign "SPEND" + "TIME" to mean "spend time."
I'll draw your attention to the 13:56 time code of the following video where we
see Alex Abenchuchan, Deaf host of the Daily Moth, signing "spend less time" by
using one of the three main versions of "SPEND" and common signs for LESS and
TIME.
https://youtu.be/IEf4PpwwHFY?t=835
You might be thinking, "Well, yah, but he is quoting someone speaking English."
So take a look at more examples from other Deaf. The simple fact is that many
Deaf vloggers sign "SPEND" "TIME" to mean "spend time."
https://youtu.be/3qoUPfKt6cE?t=265
https://youtu.be/EEAB0lMqPJM?t=316
https://youtu.be/zxFzSViDMHU?t=231
https://youtu.be/mNerfLeRFSY?t=18
https://youtu.be/hi_xN3SY3gs?t=296
https://youtu.be/wN0b6X8Uu2E?t=101
Does that mean SPEND TIME is the "right way" to sign "spend time?"
Please don't think in all or nothing terms.
I'm saying that is "a" way -- one of many!
Just because SPEND TIME maps closely to English doesn't mean it hasn't also been
adopted into ASL -- particularly for use in low-context situations.
One of the ways languages continue and grow is via borrowing. Chances are 99% or
more of the Deaf originally watching that Deaf Moth newscast recognized and did
not give the SPEND TIME phraseology a second thought. In other words -- it was
within the scope of what we consider to be the ASL spectrum.
Yet if you were to ask an ASL teacher how to sign "spend time" chances are 99%
of them will bend over backwards to avoid signing "SPEND TIME."
Another example of this is the sign for ISLAND. Deaf households that have
a "kitchen island" will often just sign ISLAND to refer to that particular
counter. However, if you ask an ASL teacher how to sign "kitchen island"
they go through all sorts of contortions and end up showing you various
classifiers -- despite the fact that it is much faster and more efficient to
just sign "ISLAND" in the context of a kitchen.
I encourage all to remember it is not ASL teachers, interpreters, and Hearing
wannabe experts that get to decide what is and isn't ASL.
It is the Deaf Community that decides.
Notes:
Nicole, an ASL interpreter, writes:
"I remember the first time I saw my Deaf teacher
(multi-gen deaf family, grew up in residential school and graduated from
Gallaudet) sign BEAUTIFUL GOOD ("pretty good"). I was asking if he liked a meal
at a specific restaurant. I was sure he was messing with me! It wasn't
until I saw several other Deaf people in the community sign it that I actually
believed him! A great lesson for us to learn!"
Source: Valcarce, Nicole Cook (11/27/2021) Facebook post, group: Lifeprint-ASLU,
comment_id=4370373036395190
(shared with permission)
Bill Vicars writes: Yes! "PRETTY GOOD" = "pretty good" is a perfect
example of what we are discussing here. Excellent! Thanks for sharing that!
May I quote your comment over at Lifeprint? If you'd rather I share the
example but make it anonymous I can do that too.
Nicole Valcarce writes: Absolutely, you can quote
me! You can even quote me with a name I used in a previous life, that you may
recognize- Nicole Cook
Also see: SPEND
Notes: