The book presents information on focal vocabulary, which consists of words or terms that are associated with important concepts in a specific culture. If that concept is not as important in a different culture, there will be relatively fewer words associated with it. This illustrates the close relationship between culture and language. In ASL, there is a large collection of vocabulary terms associated with the Deaf experience, which holds great import to Deaf Culture. Examples of Deaf-related vocabulary include: DEAF, HARD-OF-HEARING, SIGN-FLUENTLY, DEAF-SCHOOL (a Deaf person who proudly grew up in a residential school), SIGN-RIGIDLY (a Deaf person who is a relatively newcomer to signing); INTEGRATED (a Deaf person who is an social animal); MAINSTREAM (a Deaf person who was mainstreamed all his life); MAINSTREAM-ALONE (a Deaf person who was oppressed in a mainstream environment); and many more. These single signs require several words of explanation in English. By contrast, there are many words in English associated with Music. Music, sing, song, and concert are few examples. In ASL, there is only one sign, MUSIC for these four English words. |