Daniel Greene's TerpTrans

Learning while interpreting

Daniel Greene — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:16:06 +0000

I’m interpreting a three-day seminar and learning while doing it. I love my job.

ASL is not a vague language

Daniel Greene — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:12:29 +0000

Nor is any language “a vague language.” Rather, every language has vague language, just as every language has specific language. Vagueness is a natural phenomenon; not everything in life is certain, specific, accurate, or clear. Since things are sometimes vague, people must be able to use language to express this vagueness. ASL has ways of expressing vagueness; therefore, ASL has vague language in it — just as English and every other language has vague language it it. Any language is too complex to be labeled “a vague language.” Conversely, it is not reasonable to say that any language is “not a vague language” — except insofar as to say there is no such thing as “a vague language.”

Until recently, people thought ASL was “a simple, concrete language incapable of expressing abstract thought.” Research has proved that wrong. My research into vague language (VL) in ASL dignifies ASL by proving that it is capable of expressing vagueness. Can you imagine if it were impossible for an ASL user to express vague or abstract thoughts? If that were the case, ASL would be a limited language. On the contrary, ASL is a healthy, natural language that affords its users the ability to express an infinite range of ideas. That is why I say ASL has vague language, and I support my point with the empirical research I conducted for my master’s thesis “Keeping it Vague: A Study of Vague Language in an American Sign Language Corpus and implications for interpreting between American Sign Language and English.”

I welcome discussion on this topic! Please use the comments section below to respond with whatever thoughts or feelings you have about vague language in ASL and/or other languages.

Deaf Heart, confidentiality, vagueness, and transparency

Daniel Greene — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 06:34:18 +0000

There is currently a discourse within the American Deaf community about the resignation of two Deaf members of the board of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). The members who resigned, Lewis Merkin and Naomi Sheneman, say that the confidentiality agreements they signed when they joined the board prevent them from discussing in detail what happened that they felt they had to resign. They say, vaguely, that they were reprimanded for something they did that was a trifling matter within the norms of Deaf culture, and that, in general, they do not feel the RID board has a Deaf Heart. The resigning members, and others who support embracing the values of Deaf Heart and Native View, demand more Deaf leadership in RID and more transparency from RID.

In an attempt to understand the term Deaf Heart, and to catch up on the conversation regarding Deaf members of the RID board, I sought, watched, and collected a playlist of videos about Deaf Heart on YouTube. I also Googled ‘Deaf Heart’ and read and listed two articles below (actually, I had read one of them when it came out last month, and I’m still not sure I understand). I’m sure this is not the complete discourse on Deaf Heart and the Deaf RID board member resignations; this is just all I was able to find. If you know of any other vlogs or blog posts I should add, please let me know. In the meanwhile, I hope these references help others who want to get the news and listen to the discourse.

Each of these videos touches upon the concepts of Deaf Heart and/or Native View, though none of them defines it. The first video in this playlists seeks clarification from the diverse membership of the Deaf community (including Deaf people, interpreters both hearing and deaf, people with Deaf family members, social service providers, and others) about Deaf Heart. Deanna Donaldson, the author of this first vlog, requests answers to four questions about Deaf Heart, and invites vloggers to make additional comments for up to two minutes. Her invitation goes out to Houston, Texas, but as it is on the World Wide Web it is a good prompt for vloggers everywhere, and I encourage people to post video responses. I would like to see what people have to say about this thing called Deaf Heart.

An observation that might make for another whole blog post is the vagueness in which these vloggers couch their discussion of these confidential issues. Anyone who thinks ASL is not a vague language, or there is no vagueness in ASL, will see that people can in fact use ASL to be vague. I invite those who know ASL — which, by the way, you have to do to be able to watch these videos (sorry) — to note the vague language and tell me what you see.

Searching for a colleague who’s searching for a colleague

Daniel Greene — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:05:18 +0000

I was struck by something my thesis advisor said about writing letters of recommendation for me today: “As a faculty member searching for a colleague, I like to see that a letter has been addressed to the institution” [emphasis added]. Even at 45, master’s degree in hand, I was thinking of applying for a job as begging to be someone’s underling. I needed reminding that I’m a big boy now; nay, I’m a gracefully graying, middle-aged, well-educated gentleman. Of course I know I will be an employee with an employer, and I will be accountable to a system greater than myself. Still, I am now a colleague of the people I’m applying to– I’m a colleague searching for a colleague who’s searching for a colleague. That’s a paradigm shift for me.

Writing about language using italics

Daniel Greene — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:20:54 +0000

When I wrote my master’s thesis on vague language, I often cited vague words and phrases. At first I put them in quotation marks, but the quotes cluttered the pages, and by the time I was ready to publish, I wondered if I should use italics instead. I used APA style*, so I consulted my APA Manual and I found that, indeed, you should use italics for “a letter, word or phrase cited as a linguistic example” (American Psychological Association, 2010, p. 105). Some examples offered in the APA Manual are:

words such as big and little
the letter a
the meaning of to fit tightly together
a row of Xs

Unfortunately, I didn’t learn this until the day before I submitted my thesis for publication, so I had to go through a hundred pages changing “sort of” to sort of, “threeish” to threeish, and so on. I hope this little blog post saves others the time I spent undoing my errors.

* Chicago and MLA style manuals call for the use of italics for linguistic examples as well.

References

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Greene, D. J. (2013). Keeping it vague: A study of vague language in an American Sign Language corpus and implications for interpreting between American Sign Language and English. (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/theses/2/

Modern Language Association. (2008). MLA style manual and guide to scholarly publishing (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Modern Language Association.

University of Chicago. (2010). The Chicago manual of style (16th ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Thesis published on vague language (VL) in ASL and English!

Daniel Greene — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:54:40 +0000

I am thrilled to announce that my thesis has been published online, available for all to read. The title is “Keeping it Vague: A Study of Vague Language in an American Sign Language Corpus and Implications for Interpreting between American Sign Language and English” and the URL is short & sweet: http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/theses/2/

Thanks to all who expressed interest in reading this work; thanks to the Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies with an emphasis in Teaching Interpreting program at Western Oregon University (WOU); and, thanks to WOU for venturing into digital publication with our program’s master’s theses. It is an honor to be the second postgraduate student to publish a thesis on WOU’s Digital Commons repository.

Please do email me@danielgreene.com with any questions or to discuss this thesis, and feel free to “talk amongst yourselves.”

References

Finished graduate school!

Daniel Greene — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 04:34:35 +0000

Last Friday morning, I successfully defended my thesis. This Wednesday afternoon, I submitted my thesis for publication on Digital Commons. The title is “Keeping it Vague: A Study of Vague Language in an American Sign Language Corpus and Implications for Interpreting Between American Sign Language and English.” Thanks to everyone who has cheered me on and expressed interest in my work! I will post the URL to the thesis paper as soon as it’s published. – Daniel Greene, MA.

P.S. I probably should mention the degree is the Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies with an emphasis in Teaching Interpreting, offered by Western Oregon University. I recommend it!

Tweets from symposium on teaching critical thinking

Daniel Greene — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:00:06 +0000

I went to a symposium on teaching critical thinking at VRSII, and these are the tweets I posted during the event:

First time seeing my colleague Joy Marks in a long time. We're both going to a teaching symposium!… instagr.am/p/Wk_SJpAdDy/—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 08, 2013

Interesting lunch on interesting plate with interesting fork. Good Thai food, actually. @ Sanderson… instagr.am/p/Wm9zzSAdIz/—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 08, 2013

Learning should be transformative, not just informative / additive. I learned that years ago from Landmark Education. landmarkeducation.com/landmark_forum…—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

How to teach critical thinking… Hm… Call my next workshop "Interpreting: You're doing it wrong." Would you go? knowyourmeme.com/memes/youre-do…—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

I and some colleagues here in VRSII Teaching Critical Thinking symposium will be live tweeting with hashtag #VRSIICT—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

I believe I can fly! No, a belief I have about air travel is that I would be a helpful leader in case of an emergency landing. #VRSIICT—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

I like these slides with big letters, graphics, and handwriting. #VRSIICT http://t.co/GaKokdQNpl—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

Good, healthy meal! #VRSIICT @ Sanderson Community Center of the Deaf & Hard of Hearing instagr.am/p/Wph0a1gdOJ/—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

We're analyzing A Day in the Life of an Interpreter for critical thinking assumptions. #VRSIICT youtube.com/watch?v=1cqv84…—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

We all pooled our money and donated about $3000 to the Sego Lily Center for Abused Deaf. #VRSIICT slcad.org—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

Beautiful snowy mountains @ Sanderson Community Center of the Deaf & Hard of Hearing instagr.am/p/Wpx4U6AdGh/—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 09, 2013

Now comes the pleasure & privilege of learning from each other's critical thinking lesson plans and curriculum inclusion ideas! #VRSIICT—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 10, 2013

Hans und Franz smarted us up about critical thinking instilled throughout ASL curriculum. Funny! #VRSIICT—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 10, 2013

My former mentor Jean Kelly presenting her group's plan to teach CT in performing arts interpreting #VRSIICT #slides http://t.co/lwbswNmjSk—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 10, 2013

Group activity introduced by @LWiesman about using gesture & ball game to cause Disorienting Dilemma for CT. #VRSIICT http://t.co/N4Ij8nSQRk—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 10, 2013

Jimmy Beldon "interprets" in the "thought bubble" of an ASL student's mind. Funny! #VRSIICT http://t.co/OyHbFRjnNA—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 10, 2013

Au revoir, SLC! Loved the symposium! Looking forward to implementing everyone's critical thinking lessons. #VRSIICT http://t.co/GrHnX63JDN—
Daniel Greene (@danielgreene) March 10, 2013

Thesis defense scheduled

Daniel Greene — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:53:21 +0000

It’s settled! I’m defending my master’s thesis on Friday, March 15, at 9am UTC -7. Send good thoughts my way!

Teaching a workshop in Albuquerque

Daniel Greene — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:00:41 +0000

Flying to Albuquerque to teach a workshop on interpreting into English. I call it “Tripplingly on the tongue” after Hamlet’s speech to the players.

Daniel Greene's TerpTrans

Learning while interpreting

ASL is not a vague language

Deaf Heart, confidentiality, vagueness, and transparency

Related Articles

Searching for a colleague who’s searching for a colleague

Writing about language using italics

References

Thesis published on vague language (VL) in ASL and English!

References

Related articles

Finished graduate school!

Related Articles

Tweets from symposium on teaching critical thinking

Thesis defense scheduled

Teaching a workshop in Albuquerque