Earlier, we reported on the Guardian’s story about sign language users becoming more politically correct in the way they use their signs. This has also been reported in the Daily Mail.
However, the way the research has been reported has prompted DCAL (The Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre at University College in London) to write this letter to the editor of the Guardian, which we can exclusively reveal in full below:
Dear Editor:
We would like to thank The Guardian for recently covering our research, and issues relevant to the study of BSL, in the article Signs of the times: deaf community minds its language (08.10.12). We welcome opportunities to bring our research to the attention of the general public. However, your coverage contained a number of inaccuracies, unsupported claims and (most importantly) misrepresentations of our research.
The aim of the BSL Corpus Project, directed by Dr. Adam Schembri and Dr. Kearsy Cormier, was to create a collection of BSL signing and to find how BSL varies and how it is changing, not just in vocabulary but also in aspects of the grammar. The Guardian article uses findings from this research (and observations unrelated to this project) to create a story about political correctness.
The BSL Corpus Project did collect data about signs for 102 concepts from 249 deaf signers from 8 cities across the UK. This included signs for some countries (USA, Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland and Italy). However, we did not collect data on signs about Jewish or gay or disabled people.
The explanations given for signs for countries are not accurate and should not be reported as fact. Iconicity is a visual link between the meaning and the form of a sign. As signs change over time this link can become more obscure and explanations of these links are often inaccurate or a matter of conjecture. Furthermore, the actual history behind most signs is unknown.
We have never described BSL as becoming more ‘culturally sensitive’ (to do so would imply that deaf people were insensitive before and there is no evidence of this), but ‘cultural sensitivity’ is touted as a ‘discovery’ that appears to be attributed to our research. The claim that such changes in BSL have ‘caused the deaf community concern’ is also unfounded.
Finally we, as language researchers, are absolutely not concerned about the rate of change of British Sign Language: all languages change and this is a natural process. However, we are concerned about the misrepresentation of academic research to create another ‘story’ about political correctness.
Sincerely,
Professor Bencie Woll FBA
Director of the Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL)
Dr Kearsy Cormier (DCAL)
Dr Adam Schembri (La Trobe University, Melbourne)
Directors of the British Sign Language Corpus Project
The Limping Chicken is supported by Deaf media company Remark!, provider of sign language services Deaf Umbrella, the Deaf training and consultancy Deafworks, the RAD Deaf Law Centre, and BID’s upcoming 5th anniversary performance by Ramesh Meyyappan on 12th October – don’t miss it!
Linda Richards
October 8, 2012
Thank you for this refution as I was livid when I first read the original posting and was going to draft a letter later. The dangers of misrepresentation of DCAL is serious.
Thanks Bencie.
E. A. Hughes
October 8, 2012
Another example of over-zealous journalists going after any copy they think might sell a paper, true or not (or even well researched, for crying out loud). Thanks to DCAL for a swift and concise response. There is still far too much misunderstanding around BSL in the world.
E. A. Hughes
October 8, 2012
* or any sign language, for that matter (apologies to international readers!).
Saranga (@SarangaComics)
October 9, 2012
I knew it! I knew it was bad journalism! Hah! I’m very glad it got refuted.
Bobs
October 9, 2012
Ah, thank goodness for your immediate response to The Guardian… Rather angry after reading how the article had been twisted in the paper… I only hope they print your response Bencie or make a published apology. (Though I won’t be holding my breath!)
Shane Kieran Gilchrist
October 9, 2012
As a sign linguist, I was baffled by the original article however I am really delighted to know that it is not the case.
Robert Duncan
October 13, 2012
Has The Guardian published the refutation? The Guardian was very good at exposing the misdeeds of the tabloid press in misrepresenting celebrities and other people. But this kind of misrepresentation of the language and culture of a minority group can do even more long-term damage. Time for a linguistic Leveson Enquiry?!
Anna Komarova
October 13, 2012
Completely agree with Bencie’s response to the Guardian. I am not a native BSL user but similar things, I think, happen with journalists and mass media in many countries. Russian SL has also been “misrpresented” many times, especially by TV. I have also noticed that many people are very interested in signs’ etymology which often is just legends. While tearning a foreign language one does not ususally ask why “table” is “table” or “babushka” is “babushka” Anna, Moscow Centre for Deaf Studies and Bilingual Education
Anna Komarova
October 13, 2012
Sign languages do change as other languages and geographical signs are often influenced by international signing… Anna Komarova