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ASL is not a vague language

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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.

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Searching for a colleague who’s searching for a colleague

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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.

More about introducing oneself as an interpreter

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Another need to introduce myself as an interpreter came up recently: a little CODA asked me what I was doing while I was interpreting for their parent. I forgot that little bilingual children might not understand that their parent speaks a different language, much less that they need an interpreter. The more aware I become of an interpreting issue (such as the need to explain one’s role as an interpreter), the more I recognize it when it arises, and the more I have to think about how to handle it.

In this situation, which was low key and interactive, I simply took a moment to say sweetly, “I’m interpreting for your [parent].” I realized at that moment that, in the future, I would make sure small children — and all participants in interpreting for — understand what I am doing there.

2012: It could have been worse

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I sit here this early morning not as happy as I have felt in new year’s past. I ended 2012 more in debt than I have been in a decade, having taken on student loans in pursuit of my master’s degree. My mother died on October 26th. My husband is still disabled and still unemployed, and I ended the year with a cold/flu/who-knows-what that lasted two weeks. I made less money than in the previous nine years. Yet… my husband and I are still together, and our love is one year longer, deeper, and stronger. I completed all the courses for my master’s degree. I taught at Phoenix College again for the first time since 2005. I presented at the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Region V conference for the second time and I presented at the Conference of Interpreter Trainers for the first time. I traveled to Minneapolis to teach workshops. I took another cruise and visited New York again. Although my mom is dead, I still have my dad, and my husband Andy & I still have our two dogs and a new member of our family, my mom’s cat Callie. We re-elected Barak Obama. Still… we’ve fallen off the fiscal cliff. More lunatics are arming themselves with military grade weapons and killing innocent people, including children. Senseless wars still rage around the world. Global warming is causing more natural disasters. Okay, stop me now. Point is, 2012 was not my favorite year, but it could have been worse.