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Sign Language Quotes

Browse 50 quotes about Sign Language.

Sign Language Quotes

“There must be something in here that can drill through eight miles of solid rock.” He considered a hand drill, a tape measure, a corkscrew, and the iron staff we’d almost died retrieving from Geirrod’s fortress. He threw them all to the floor. “Nothing!” he said in disgust. “Useless junk!” Perhaps you could use your head, Hearthstone signed. That is very hard. “Oh, don’t try to console me, Mr. Elf,” said Thor.”

FunnyMythologyRick RiordanThorMagnus ChaseFunny QuoteSign LanguageThe Hammer Of ThorNorse Gods
Book:The Hammer of Thor
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“I would expect a significant development and elaboration of language in only a few generations if all the chimps unable to communicate were to die or fail to reproduce. Basic English corresponds to about 1,000 words. Chimpanzees are already accomplished in vocabularies exceeding 10 percent of that number.”

LanguageSign LanguageAnimal CommunicationAnimal Intelligence
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“In addition to Ameslan, chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates are being taught a variety of other gestural languages. And it is just this transition from tongue to hand that has permitted humans to regain the ability-lost, according to Josephus, since Eden-to communicate with the animals.”

CommunicationSign LanguageAnimal CommunicationAnimal Intelligence
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“Thus we do not yet have experience with the adult language abilities of monkeys and apes. One of the most intriguing questions is whether a verbally accomplished chimpanzee mother will be able to communicate language to her offspring. It seems very likely that this should be possible and that a community of chimps initially competent in gestural language could pass down the language to subsequent generations.”

Sign LanguageAnimal CommunicationAnimal Intelligence
Book:The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“Most Deaf kids have home signs; they develop their own ways to get what they need. I have my own, too. My colleagues in the science fiction world who sign can get my attention, can communicate with me if they really need to. A lot of the signs we use aren't "real," but they're the ones I use, and that's why we use them together. (Page 33)”

BlindnessDeafnessAbleismSign LanguageAsl
Book:Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism
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“Falitz began running seminars for the group, but she never understood why Terrace was hiring people who did not know ASL for an ASL project. Wambach's criticism went further. She thought that Nim should have been raised in a deaf family from infancy. Giving him to the LaFarges was like putting a child in an Italian family to learn German.”

LinguisticsSign LanguageAslChimpanzeeNim
Book:Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human
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“Wambach's concerns raised questions about the impact that deaf signers could have on Project Nim, and perhaps inadvertently about how Terrace's study might compare with the work done by the Gardners in Nevada, who had expressly designed their experiments to include deaf signers. Simply having Falitz sign at the weekly meetings and interpret for Wambach in the discussions brought a new dimension to their work. Wambach was not particularly critical of Terrace, who was older and far more established than she, but she wanted the staff to have a better understanding of the world of deaf speakers—those who used ASL because they needed a language. Thanks to Wambach, the chimp project began attracting deaf volunteers (including one who is remembered for having love and hate tattooed on his knuckles), who formed a small subculture within Terrace's staff. In an attempt to bridge these two worlds, one night the deaf volunteers arranged to plug up the ears of the hearing staff and take them out to a restaurant for dinner. They were instructed to communicate exclusively in ASL from the moment the plugs were placed in their ears on the way to the restaurant, during the meal, and all the way back to Delafield. The hearing group found the experience to be a terrible struggle. But what made an indelible impression on Johnson was the way that everybody in the restaurant spoke really slowly and loudly to them, treating them as if they were all mentally incapacitated.”

ChimpanzeesLanguage LearningSign LanguageAslNim Chimpsky
Book:Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human
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“The English language is perniciously ableist. We speak in metaphor that constantly puts down disabled bodies, with phrases like "turning a blind eye" and "it fell on deaf ears" falling from our lips so easily. People often tell me it's not that big of a deal. But, of course, if you've been listening to your language make you sound stupid, ignorant, and useless for your entire life, when you've made a profession out of the craft of language, you cannot help but find pain in the ways that language cuts you to the quick. ASL has its own barbs. All languages do. But English is troublingly ableist. (Page 42)”

LanguageMediaDisabilityBlindnessDeafnessSign LanguageAsl
Book:Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism
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“Strong evidence for a genetic language ability comes from the observation that children who are not exposed to any speech, but are able to interact with each other, will invent their own language, which is complex in syntax and meaning. This has been seen in deaf children who were not exposed to sign language. Amazingly, as long as they had someone to interact with, they managed to communicate complex thoughts by inventing their own system of signing.”

LanguageCommunicateSign LanguageA Users Guide To The BrainJohn J Ratey
Book:A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain
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“Chimpanzees are incredibly intelligent. They can learn more than 400 signs of American Sign Language. They have memories for spatial distribution, like numbers on a TV screen, way better than ours. You come onto the emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, and despair - all the things for which I was accused of being anthropomorphic when I ascribed them to chimpanzees.”

WayLanguageMemoriesNumbersEmotionSadnessTvsDespairIntelligentScreensDistributionAccusedChimpanzeesSpatialSign LanguageHappiness Sadness
Author:Jane Goodall
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“The visual is sorely undervalued in modern scholarship. Art history has attained only a fraction of the conceptual sophistication of literary criticism. Drunk with self-love, criticism has hugely overestimated the centrality of language to western culture. It has failed to see the electrifying sign language of images.”

LoveArtSelfCultureLanguageModernSelf LoveCriticismWesternDrunkVisualsScholarshipFractionsSophisticationLiterary CriticismArt HistoryWestern CultureUndervaluedSign Language
Book:Sexual Personae
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