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From: James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: ASL as a Conceptual Language
Message-ID: <15769@handicap.news>
Date: 23 May 91 19:25:24 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Wish I had more time on this, but. . . . Recent research is showing
that old notions of ASL as being primarily as conceptual language and
hence not given to expressing abstract ideas effectively are wrong.
Nope you did not say that this is what ASL is. I am mentioning it because
a lot of people get the implication that ASL is not "high order" enough
for "serious" communication. This is idea is mainly based on the old
concept that ASL is mainly pictorial, conceptual, or concrete. In general
terms; this is true. However, new findings show that ASL can be and
is used to express very abstract communication concepts in math, science,
and any other topic one wants to cover. In truth, ASL's high adaptability
allows it to convey some very complex concepts easier than spoken English
on the sheer basis of English's tendency to be ambigious in terminology.

I recently watched a fascinating debate on environmental issues done
in ASL. Some hearies present claimed that they understood the issues
better after watching the debate than they did from years of hearing
about the same ideas. Could be since humans are primarily visually-based
beings anyway. I am anxious to see where this new on-going research
will lead us.

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