LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

SIMILARITIES

According to Almeida (2014), sign languages and writing systems are crucial tools for communication, allowing people to express ideas and emotions from different perspectives. People similarly convey thoughts, actions, and feelings through American Sign Language (ASL) and Written English, which share the following linguistic aspects: visual representation, iconic symbols, abstract representation, and element combination.

Let's look at the following chart to understand these similar aspects better.  

DIFFERENCES

The main linguistic difference between ASL and Written English is how they communicate ideas.

• According to American Sign Language (2021), ASL is an entirely natural language with a grammar different from English since it uses hand and facial movements that many Deaf and hearing people in North America use to communicate. The form of sentences in ASL differs from Written English as they happen in real-time and are composed of many factors such as shape, orientation, location, movement, and facial expressions.

For example:

• Yules (2017) states that to describe the common sign “Thank you,” we use our dominant hand with a flat shape, keeping the fingers straight and together and orienting the palm facing upward. The palm should be near the chin, then the hand should move out and downward to about chest level. Moreover, while doing the sign, we must nod and smile to show appreciation. These elements convey precise meanings because they use physical gestures and facial expressions to express tone and emotions, ensuring communication even without spoken words.

• On the other hand, Written English is a visual-symbolic language that uses letters and words to represent sounds and ideas on paper or a screen. According to Parr (2023), symbols can convey meaning and emotion in written communication because exclamation marks (!) indicate excitement or emphasis, while ellipses (…) indicate hesitation or uncertainty. That means that unlike ASL, which focuses on gestures and facial expressions to express emotions, Written English uses punctuation marks to bring meaning and emotion to the message.

For example:

The sentence "I'm so happy!" uses the exclamation mark to show excitement, while "I am not sure… uses ellipses to show hesitation or doubt. Similarly, writers use other punctuation marks to clarify their messages, such as a period indicating the end of a sentence, a comma separating sentences, and question marks indicating questions.

These differences reflect how ASL depends on face-to-face interaction, making it more personal and direct. In contrast, people use Written English to communicate across distances and time, making it great for letters, emails, and other forms of written communication.