Strange Bedfellows

Deafness, Language, and the Sociology of Knowledge

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2480943
AutoresAngela D Evans (0000-0003-3409-5979, Mercer University, autor de correspondencia)
Año1988
Volumen11
Número2
Páginas235-255
Fecha de publicación1988-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSymbolic Interaction (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0195-6086 • E-ISSN: 1533-8665
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/si.1988.11.2.235
OpenAlexW2030400409
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas25

Most deaf children lack mundane knowledge of the world because of language deprivation and, sometimes, social isolation. Most of these children acquire language late and, therefore, remain longer in the Unwelt (the world of stimuli and physical objects) along with non-symboling animals. This ethnographic study of a State School for the Deaf (SSD) presents a picture of a relatively closed linguistic community and its limited fund of knowledge. Wittgenstein's (1973) aphorism, 'The limits of my language mean the limits of my world', is perfectly realized and illustrated at SSD. Some high school students did not know names for parts of a human face. The findings indicate that deaf children live in a world of 'gaps' and 'blanks' as they maneuver among a disproportionate number of physical (as opposed to social) objects. Their multiple sign language systems and funds of knowledge are relatively more holistic, concrete, and context-bound than are the language and knowledge systems of their English-speaking counterparts. Education at SSD is more a preparation for life at SSD than it is for life in the outlying economic and high-tech society

Ethnography · Linguistics · Sign language · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Hearing Impairment and Communication · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology