TONE AND GESTURE.
Tone and Gesture, considered as means of communication, may be
dealt with simultaneously. For while it cannot be said that either
historically or psychologically one is prior to the other, no more
can it be said that in the earliest phases of their development one
is more expressive than the other. All the more intelligent of the
lower animals employ both; and the hissings, spittings, growlings,
screamings, gruntings, cooings, &c., which in different species
accompany as many different kinds of gesture, are assuredly not less
expressive of the various kinds of feelings which are expressed. Again,
in our own species, tone is quite as general, and, within certain
limits, quite as expressive as gesture. Nay, even in fully developed
speech, rational meaning is largely dependent for its conveyance upon
slight differences of intonation. The five hundred words which go to
constitute the Chinese language are raised to three times that number
by the use of significant intonation; and even in the most highly
developed languages shades of meaning admit of being rendered in this
way which could not be rendered in any other.
Nevertheless, the language of tone, like the language of gesture,
clearly lies nearer to, and is more immediately expressive of the
logic of recepts, than is the language of articulation. This is easily
proved by all the facts at our disposal. We know that an infant makes
considerable advance in the language of tone and gesture before it
begins to speak; and, according to Dr. Scott, who has had a large
experience in the instruction of idiotic children, “those to whom
there is no hope of teaching more than the merest rudiments of speech,
are yet capable of receiving a considerable amount of knowledge by
means of signs, and of expressing themselves by them.”[67] Lastly,
among savages, it is notorious that tone, gesticulation, and grimace
play a much larger part in conversation than they do among ourselves.
Indeed, we have some, though not undisputed, evidence to show that
in the case of many savages gesticulation is so far a necessary aid
to articulation, that the latter without the former is but very
imperfectly intelligible. For example, “those who, like the Arapahos,
possess a very scanty vocabulary, pronounced in a quasi-intelligible
way, can hardly converse with one another in the dark.”[68] And, as Mr.
Tylor says, “the array of evidence in favour of the existence of tribes
whose language is incomplete without the help of gesture-signs, even
for things of ordinary import, is very remarkable.”[C] A fact which, as
he very properly adds, “constitutes a telling argument in favour of the
theory that the gesture-language is the original utterance of mankind
[as it is ontogenetically in the individual man], out of which speech
has developed itself more or less fully among different tribes.”[69]
In support of the same general conclusions I may here also quote the
following excellent remarks from Colonel Mallery’s laborious work on
Gesture-language:—[70]
“The wishes and emotions of very young children are conveyed in a
small number of sounds, but in a great variety of gestures and facial
expressions. A child’s gestures are intelligent long in advance of
speech; although very early and persistent attempts are made to give
it instruction in the latter but none in the former, from the time
when it begins _risu cognoscere matrem_. It learns words only as they
are taught, and learns them through the medium of signs which are
not expressly taught. Long after familiarity with speech, it consults
the gestures and facial expressions of its parents and nurses, as
if seeking thus to translate or explain their words. These facts
are important in reference to the biologic law that the order of
development of the individual is the same as that of the species....
The insane understand and obey gestures when they have no knowledge
whatever of words. It is also found that semi-idiotic children
who cannot be taught more than the merest rudiments of speech can
receive a considerable amount of information through signs, and can
express themselves by them. Sufferers from aphasia continue to use
appropriate gestures. A stammerer, too, works his arms and features as
if determined to get his thoughts out, in a manner not only suggestive
of the physical struggle, but of the use of gestures as a hereditary
expedient.”
Words, then, in so far as they are not intentionally imitative of
other sounds, and so approximate to gestures, are essentially more
conventional than are tones immediately expressive of emotions, or
bodily actions which appeal to the eye, and which, in so far as
they are intentionally significant, are made, as far as possible,
intentionally pictorial. Therefore, either to make or to understand
these more conventional signs requires a higher order of mental
evolution; and on this account it is that we everywhere find the
language of tone and gesture preceding that of articulate speech, as
at once the more simple, more natural, and therefore more _primitive_
means of conveying receptual ideas.
We find the same general truth exemplified in the fact that the
language of tone and gesture is always resorted to by men who do not
understand each others’ articulate speech; and although among the
races in which gesture-language has been carried to its highest degree
of elaboration most of the signs employed have become more or less
conventional, in the main they are still pictorial. This is directly
proved, without the need of special analysis, by the fact that the
members of such races are able to communicate with one another in a
manner so singularly complete that to an onlooker the result seems
almost magical.
Thus “the Indians who have been shown over the civilized East have
often succeeded in holding intercourse by means of their invention
and application of principles, in what may be called the voiceless
mother utterance, with white deaf-mutes, who surely have no semiotic
code more nearly connected with that attributed to the Indians than is
derived from their common humanity. They showed the greatest pleasure
in meeting deaf-mutes, precisely as travellers in a foreign country are
rejoiced to meet persons speaking their language.”[71]
Again, Tylor says, “Gesture-language is substantially the same all the
world over,” and Mallery confirms this by the remark that “the writer’s
study not only sustains it, but shows a surprising number of signs for
the same idea which are substantially identical, not only among savage
tribes, but among all peoples that use gesture-signs with any freedom.
Men, in groping for a mode of communication with each other, and using
the same general methods, have been under many varying conditions and
circumstances which have determined differently many conceptions and
their semiotic execution, but there have also been many of both which
were similar.”
Such being the case, it is a matter of interest to determine the syntax
of this language; for we may be sure that by so doing we are at work
upon the root-principles of the sign-making faculty where it arises
out of the logic of recepts, and not upon the developed ramifications
of this faculty where we find it wrought up into the more highly
conventional logic of concepts characteristic of speech. But before I
enter upon this branch of our subject, I shall say a few words to show
to what a high degree of perfection gesture-language admits of being
developed.
Tylor observes:—“As a means of communication, there is no doubt that
the Indian pantomime is not merely capable of expressing a few simple
and ordinary notions, but that to the uncultured savage, with his
few and material ideas, it is a very fair substitute for his scanty
vocabulary.”[72] And Colonel Mallery, in the admirable treatise already
referred to, shows in detail to what a surprising extent this “Indian
pantomime” is thus available as a substitute for speech. The following
may be selected from among the numerous dialogues and discourses which
he gives, and which all present the same general character. It is
communicated by Mr. Ivan Pehoff, who took notes of the conversation at
the time. The two conversers were Indians of different tribes.
“(1) _Kenaitze._—Left hand raised to height of eye, palm outward,
moved several times from right to left rapidly; fingers extended and
closed; pointing to strangers with left hand. Right hand describes a
curve from north to east.—‘Which of the north-eastern tribes is yours?’
“(2) _Tennanal._—Right hand, hollowed, lifted to mouth, then extended
and describing waving line gradually descending from right to left.
Left hand describing mountainous outline, apparently one peak rising
above the other. Said by Chalidoolts to mean, ‘Tenan-tnu-kohtana,
Mountain-river-men.’
“(3) _K._—Left hand raised to height of eye, palm outward, moved from
right to left, fingers extended. Left index describes curve from east
to west. Outline of mountain and river as in preceding sign.—‘How many
days from Mountain-river?’
“(4) _T._—Right hand raised towards index, and thumb forming first
crescent and then ring. This repeated three times.—‘Moon, new and full
three times.’
“(5) Right hand raised, palm to front, index raised and lowered at
regular intervals—‘Walked.’ Both hands imitating paddling of canoe,
alternately right and left.—‘Travelled three months on foot and by
canoe.’
“(6) Both arms crossed over breast, simulating shivering.—Cold,
winter.’
“(7) Right index pointing toward speaker.—‘I’; left hand pointing to
the west—‘travelled westward.’
“(8) Right hand lifted cup-shaped to mouth—‘Water.’ Right hand
describing waving line from right to left gradually descending,
pointing to the west.—‘River running westward.’
“(9) Right hand gradually pushed forward, palm upward, from height of
breast. Left hand shading eyes; looking at great distance.—‘Very wide.’
“(10) Left and right hands put together in shape of sloping
shelter.—‘Lodge, camp.’
“(11) Both hands lifted height of eye, palm inward, fingers
spread.—‘Many times.’
“(12) Both hands closed, palm outward, height of hips.—‘Surprised.’
“(13) Index pointing from eye forward.—‘See.’
“(14) Right hand held up, height of shoulder, three fingers extended,
left hand pointing to me.—‘Three white men.’
“(15) _K._—Right hand pointing to me, left hand held up, three fingers
extended.—‘Three white men.’
“(16) Making Russian sign of cross—‘Russians.’—‘Were the three white
men Russians?’
“(17) _T._—Left hand raised, palm inward, two fingers extended sign of
cross with right.—‘Two Russians.’
“(18) Right hand extended, height of eye, palm outward, moved outward a
little to right.—‘No.’
“(19) One finger of left hand raised.—‘One.’
“(20) Sign of cross with right.—‘Russian.’
“(21) Right hand, height of eye, fingers closed and extended, palm
outward a little to right.—‘Yes.’
“(22) Right hand carried across chest, hand extended, palm upward,
fingers and thumb closed as if holding something. Left hand in same
position carried across the right, palm downward.—‘Trade.’
“(23) Left hand upholding one finger, right pointing to me.—‘One white
man.’
“(24) Right hand held horizontally, palm downward, about four feet from
ground.—‘Small.’
“(25) Forming rings before eyes with index and thumb.—‘Eye-glasses.’
“(26) Right hand clinched, palm upward, in front of chest, thumb
pointing inward.—‘Gave one.’
“(27) Forming cup with right hand, simulating drinking.—‘Drink.’
“(28) Right hand grasping chest repeatedly, fingers curved and
spread.—‘Strong.’
“(29) Both hands pressed to temple, and head moved from side to
side.—‘Drunk, headache.’
“(30) Both index fingers placed together extended, pointing
forward.—‘Together.’
“(31) Fingers interlaced repeatedly.—‘Build.’
“(32) Left hand extended, fingers closed, placed slopingly against
left.—‘Camp.’
“(33) Both wrists placed against temples, hands curved upward and
outward, fingers spread.—‘Horns.’
“(34) Both hands horizontally lifted to height of shoulder, right
arm extended gradually full length, hand drooping a little at the
end.—‘Long back, moose.’
“(35) Both hands upright, palm outward, fingers extended and spread,
placing one before the other alternately.—‘Trees, dense forest.’
“(36) Sign of cross.—‘Russian.’
“(37) Motions of shooting again.—‘Shot.’
“(38) Sign for moose (Nos. 33, 34); showing two fingers of left
hand.—‘Two.’
“(39) Sign for camp as before (No. 10).—‘Camp.’
“(40) Right hand describing curve from east to west, twice.—‘Two days.’
“(41) Left hand lifted height of mouth, back outward, fingers closed as
if holding something; right hand simulating motion of tearing off, and
placing in mouth.—‘Eating moose meat.’
“(42) Right hand placed horizontally against heart; fingers closed,
moved forward a little and raised a little several times.—‘Glad at
heart.’
“(43) Fingers of left hand and index of right hand extended and
placed together horizontally, pointing forward height of chest. Hands
separated, right pointing eastward, and left westward.—‘Three men and
speaker parted, going west and east.’”
And so on, the conversation continuing up to 116 paragraphs. No
doubt some of these gestures appear conventional, and such is
undoubtedly the case with a great many which Colonel Mallery gives
in his _Dictionary of Indian Signs_. But this only shows that no
system of signs can be developed in any high degree without becoming
more or less conventional. The point I desire to be noticed is,
that gesture-language continues as far as possible—or as long as
possible—to be the natural expression of the logic of recepts.
As Mallery elsewhere observes, “the result of the studies, so far
as presented is, that that which is called the sign-language of
Indians is not, properly speaking, one language; but that it, and the
gesture-systems of deaf-mutes, and of all peoples, constitute together
one language—the gesture-speech of mankind—of which each system is a
dialect.” As showing this, and at the same time to give other instances
of the perfection of gesture-language, I may quote one instance of the
employment of such language by other nations, and one of its employment
by deaf-mutes. The first which I select is recorded by Alexander Dumas.
“Six weeks after this, I saw a second example of this faculty of mute
communication. This was at Naples. I was walking with a young man
of Syracuse. We passed by a sentinel. The soldier and my companion
exchanged two or three grimaces, which at another time I should not
even have noticed; but the instances I had before seen led me to give
attention. ‘Poor fellow!’ sighed my companion. ‘What did he say to
you?’ I asked. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘I thought that I recognized him as
a Sicilian, and I learned from him, as we passed, from what place he
came; he said he was from Syracuse, and that he knew me well. Then
I asked him how he liked the Neapolitan service; he said he did not
like it at all, and if his officers did not treat him better he should
certainly end by deserting. I then signified to him that if he ever
should be reduced to that extremity, he might rely upon me, and that I
would aid him all in my power. The poor fellow thanked me with all his
heart, and I have no doubt that one day or other I shall see him come.’
Three days after I was at the quarters of my Syracusan friend, when he
was told that a man asked to see him who would not give his name; he
went out and left me nearly ten minutes. ‘Well,’ said he on returning,
‘just as I said.’ ‘What?’ said I. ‘That the poor fellow would desert.’”
The instance which I select of gesture-language as employed by a
deaf-mute occurred in the National Deaf-Mute College at Washington, to
which Colonel Mallery took seven Uta Indians on March 6, 1880.
“Another deaf-mute gestured to tell us that, when he was a boy, he went
to a melon-field, tapped several melons, finding them to be green or
unripe: finally, reaching a good one, he took his knife, cut a slice
and ate it. A man made his appearance on horseback, entered the patch
on foot, found the cut melon, and, detecting the thief, threw the melon
towards him, hitting him in the back, whereupon he ran away crying. The
man mounted and rode off in an opposite direction.
“All of these signs were readily comprehended, although some of the
Indians varied very slightly in their translation. When the Indians
were asked whether, if they (the deaf-mutes) were to come to the Uta
country, they would be scalped, the answer was given, ‘Nothing would be
done to you; but we would be friends,’ as follows:—
“The palm of the right hand was brushed toward the right over that of
the left (‘nothing’), and the right made to grasp the palm of the left,
thumbs extended over, and lying upon the back of the opposing hand
(‘friends’).
“This was readily understood by the deaf-mutes. Deaf-mute sign of
milking a cow and drinking the milk was fully and quickly understood.
“The narrative of a boy going to an apple tree, hunting for ripe fruit,
and filling his pockets, being surprised by the owner and hit upon the
head with a stone, was much appreciated by the Indians and completely
understood.”
Innumerable other instances of the same kind might be given;[73]
but I have now said enough to establish the only points with which
I am here concerned—namely, that gesture-language admits of being
developed to a degree which renders it a fair substitute for spoken
language, where the ideas to be conveyed are not highly abstract; and
that it admits of being so developed without departing further from
a direct or natural expression of ideation (as distinguished from a
conventional or artificial) than allows it to be readily understood by
the sign-talkers, without any preconcerted agreement as to the meanings
to be attached to the particular signs employed.
Such being the case, it is of importance next to note that, as all
the existing races of mankind are a word-speaking race, we are not
now able to eliminate this factor, and to say how far the sign-making
faculty, as exhibited in the gesture-language of man, is indebted
to the elaborating influence produced by the constant and parallel
employment of spoken language. We can scarcely, however, entertain any
doubt that the reflex influence of speech upon gesture must have been
considerable, if not immense. Even the case of the deaf-mutes proves
nothing to the contrary; for these unfortunate individuals, although
not able themselves to speak, nevertheless inherit in their human
brains the psychological structure which has been built up by means of
speech; their sign-making _faculty_ is as well developed as in other
men, though, from a physiological accident, they are deprived of the
ordinary means of displaying it. Therefore we have no evidence to show
to what level of excellence the sign-making faculty of man would have
attained, if the race had been destitute of the faculty of speech. I
shall have to return to this consideration in the next chapter, and
only mention it here to avoid an undue estimate being prematurely
formed of the importance of gesture as a means of thought-formation, or
distinct from that of thought-expression.
I shall now proceed to analyze in some detail the syntax of
gesture-language. And here again I must depend for my facts upon the
two writers who have best studied this kind of language in a properly
scientific manner.
Mr. Tylor says:—“The gesture-language has no grammar, properly so
called; it knows no inflections of any kind, any more than the Chinese.
The same sign stands for ‘walk,’ ‘walkest,’ ‘walking,’ ‘walked,’
‘walker.’ Adjectives and verbs are not easily distinguished by the deaf
and dumb. ‘Horse, black, handsome, trot, canter,’ would be the rough
translation of the signs by which a deaf-mute would state that a black
handsome horse trots and canters. Indeed, our elaborate system of parts
of speech is but little applicable to the gesture-language, though, as
will be more fully said in another chapter, it may perhaps be possible
to trace in spoken language a Dualism, in some measure resembling that
of the Gesture-language, with its two constituent parts, the bringing
forward objects and actions in actual fact, and the mere suggestion
of them by imitation.... It has, however, a syntax which is worthy of
careful examination. The syntax of speaking man differs according to
the language he may learn, ‘equus niger,’ ‘a black horse;’ ‘hominem
amo,’ ‘j’aime l’homme.’ But the deaf-mute strings together the signs
of the various ideas he wishes to connect, in what appears to be the
natural order in which they follow one another in his mind, for it
is the same among the mutes in different countries, and is wholly
independent of the syntax which may happen to belong to the language
of their speaking friends. For instance, their usual construction is
not ‘Black horse,’ but ‘Horse black;’ not ‘Bring a black hat,’ but ‘Hat
black bring;’ not ‘I am hungry, give me bread,’ but ‘Hungry me, bread
give.’...
“The fundamental principle which regulates the order of the deaf-mutes’
signs, seems to be that enunciated by Schmalz: that which seems to
him the most important he always acts before the rest, and that which
seems to him superfluous he leaves out. For instance, to say, ‘My
father gave me an apple,’ he makes the sign for ‘apple,’ then that for
‘father,’ and then that for ‘I,’ without adding that for ‘give.’ The
following remarks, sent to me by Dr. Scott, seem to agree with this
view: With regard to the two sentences you give (I struck Tom with a
stick—Tom struck me with a stick), the sequence in the introduction
of the particular parts would in some measure depend on the part that
most attention was wished to be drawn towards. If a mere telling of
the fact was required, my opinion is that it would be arranged so,
‘I-Tom-struck-a-stick,’ and the passive form in a similar manner with
the change of ‘Tom’ first.
“Both these sentences are not generally said by the deaf-and-dumb
without their having been interested in the fact, and then, in coming
to tell of them, they first give that part they are most anxious to
impress on their hearer. Thus, if a boy had struck another boy, and the
injured party came to tell us, if he was desirous to acquaint us with
the idea that a particular boy did it, he would point to the boy first.
But if he was anxious to draw attention to his own suffering, rather
than to the person by whom it was caused, he would point to himself
and make the act of striking, and then point to the boy; or if he was
wishful to draw attention to the cause of his suffering, he might sign
the striking first, and then tell us afterwards by whom it was done.
“Dr. Scott is, so far as I know, the only person who has attempted
to lay down a set of distinct rules for the syntax of the
gesture-language. ‘The subject comes before the attribute, the object
before the action.’ A third construction is common, though not
necessary, ‘the modifier after the modified.’ The first construction,
by which the ‘horse’ is put before the ‘black,’ enables the deaf-mute
to make his syntax supply, to some extent, the distinction between
adjectives and substantives, which his imitative signs do not
themselves express.
“The other two are well exemplified by a remark of the Abbé Sicard’s:
A pupil to whom I one day put this question, ‘Who made God?’ and who
replied, ‘God made nothing,’ left me in no doubt as to this kind of
inversion, usual to the deaf-and-dumb, when I went on to ask him,
‘Who made the shoe?’ and he answered, ‘The shoe made the shoemaker.’
So when Laura Bridgman, who was blind as well as deaf-and-dumb, had
learnt to communicate ideas by spelling words on her fingers, she would
say, ‘Shut door,’ ‘Give book;’ no doubt because she had learnt these
sentences whole, but when she made sentences for herself, she would go
back to the natural deaf-and-dumb syntax, and spell out ‘Laura bread
give,’ to ask for bread to be given her, and ‘Water drink Laura,’ to
express that she wanted to drink water....
“A look of inquiry converts an assertion into a question, and fully
seems to make the difference between ‘The master is come,’ and ‘Is
the master come?’ The interrogative pronouns ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ are made
by looking or pointing about in an inquiring manner; in fact, by a
number of unsuccessful attempts to say, ‘he,’ ‘that.’ The deaf-and-dumb
child’s way of asking, ‘Who has beaten you?’ would be, ‘You beaten;
who was it?’ Though it is possible to render a great mass of simple
statements and questions, almost gesture for word, the concretism of
thought which belongs to the deaf-mute, whose mind has not been much
developed by the use of written language, and even to the educated one
when he is thinking and uttering his thoughts in his native signs,
commonly requires more complex phrases to be recast. A question so
common amongst us as, ‘What is the matter with you?’ would be put, ‘You
crying? You have been beaten?’ and so on. The deaf-and-dumb child does
not ask, ‘What did you have for dinner yesterday?’ but ‘Did you have
soup?’ ‘Did you have porridge?’ and so forth. A conjunctive sentence
he expresses by an alternative or contrast; ‘I should be punished if
I were lazy and naughty,’ would be put, ‘I lazy, naughty, no!—lazy,
naughty, I punished, yes!’ Obligation may be expressed in a similar
way; ‘I must love and honour my teacher,’ may be put, ‘Teacher, I beat,
deceive, scold, no!—I love, honour, yes!’ As Steinthal says in his
admirable essay, it is only the certainty which speech gives to a man’s
mind in holding fast ideas in all their relations, which brings him to
the shorter course of expressing only the positive side of the idea,
and dropping the negative....
“To ‘make’ is too abstract an idea for the deaf-mute; to show that
the tailor makes the coat, or that the carpenter makes the table, he
would represent the tailor sewing the coat, and the carpenter sawing
and planing the table. Such a proposition as ‘Rain makes the land
fruitful,’ would not come into his way of thinking: ‘rain fall, plants
grow,’ would be his pictorial expression.... The order of the signs by
which the Lord’s Prayer is rendered is much as follows:—‘Father our,
heaven in—name Thy hallowed—kingdom Thy come—will Thy done—earth
on, heaven in, as. Bread give us daily—trespasses our forgive us, them
trespass against us, forgive as. Temptation lead not—but evil deliver
from—Kingdom power glory thine for ever.’”[74]
I shall now add some quotations from Colonel Mallery on the same
subject.
“The reader will understand without explanation that there is in
sign-language no organized sentence such as is in the language of
civilization, and that he must not look for articles or particles,
or passive voice or case or grammatic gender, or even what appears
in those languages as a substantive or a verb, as a subject or a
predicate, or as qualifiers or inflexions. The sign radicals, without
being specifically any of our parts of speech, may be all of them
in turn. Sign-language cannot show by inflection the reciprocal
dependence of words and sentences. Degrees of motion corresponding
with vocal intonations are only used rhetorically, or for degrees of
comparison. The relations of ideas and objects are therefore expressed
by placement, and their connection is established when necessary by
the abstraction of ideas. The sign-talker is an artist, grouping
persons and things so as to show the relations, and the effect is that
which is seen in a picture. But though the artist has the advantage
in presenting in a permanent connected scene the result of several
transient signs, he can only present it as it appears at a single
moment. The sign-talker has the succession of time at his disposal,
and his scenes move and act, are localized and animated, and their
arrangement is therefore more varied and significant.”[75]
The following is the order in which the parable of the Prodigal Son
would be translated by a cultivated sign-talker, with Colonel Mallery’s
remarks thereon:—
“‘Once, man one, sons two. Son younger say, Father property your
divide: part my, me give. Father so.—Son each, part his give. Days
few after, son younger money all take, country far go, money spend,
wine drink, food nice eat. Money by and by gone all. Country everywhere
food little: son hungry very. Go seek man any, me hire. Gentleman
meet. Gentleman son send field swine feed. Son swine husks eat,
see—self husks eat want—cannot—husks him give nobody. Son thinks,
say, father my, servants many, bread enough, part give away can—I
none—starve, die. I decide: Father I go to, say I bad, God disobey,
you disobey—name my hereafter _son_, no—I unworthy. You me work give
servant like. So son begin go. Father far look: son see, pity, run,
meet, embrace. Son father say, I bad, you disobey, God disobey—name my
hereafter _son_, no—I unworthy. But father servants call, command robe
best bring, son put on, ring finger put on, shoes feet put on, calf fat
bring, kill. We all eat, merry. Why? Son this my formerly dead, now
alive: formerly lost, now found: rejoice.’
“It may be remarked, not only from this example, but from general
study, that the verb ‘to be’ as a copula or predicant does not have
any place in sign-language. It is shown, however, among deaf-mutes
as an assertion of presence or existence by a sign of stretching
the arms and hands forward and then adding the sign of affirmation.
_Time_ as referred to in the conjunctions _when_ and _then_ is not
gestured. Instead of the form, ‘When I have had a sleep I will go to
the river,’ or ‘After sleeping I will go to the river,’ both deaf-mutes
and Indians would express the intention by ‘Sleep done, I river go.’
Though time present, past, and future is readily expressed in signs,
it is done once for all in the connection to which it belongs, and
once established is not repeated by any subsequent intimation, as
is commonly the case in oral speech. Inversion, by which the object
is placed before the action, is a striking feature of the language
of deaf-mutes, and it appears to follow the natural method by which
objects and actions enter into the mental conception. In striking
a rock the natural conception is not first of the abstract idea of
striking or of sending a stroke into vacancy, seeing nothing and having
no intention of striking anything in particular, when suddenly a rock
rises up to the mental vision and receives the blow; the order is that
the man sees the rock, has the intention to strike it, and does so;
therefore he gestures, ‘I rock strike.’ For further illustration of
this subject, a deaf-mute boy, giving in signs the compound action
of a man shooting a bird from a tree, first represented the tree,
then the bird as alighting upon it, then a hunter coming toward and
looking at it, taking aim with a gun, then the report of the latter
and the falling and the dying gasps of the bird. These are undoubtedly
the successive steps that an artist would have taken in drawing the
picture, or rather successive pictures, to illustrate the story....
Degrees of comparison are frequently expressed, both by deaf-mutes and
by Indians, by adding to the generic or descriptive sign that for ‘big’
or ‘little.’ _Damp_ would be ‘wet—little’; _cool_, ‘cold—little’;
_hot_, ‘warm—much.’ The amount or force of motion also often indicates
corresponding diminution or augmentation, but sometimes expresses
a different shade of meaning, as is reported by Dr. Matthews with
reference to the sign for _bad_ and _contempt_. This change in degree
of motion is, however, often used for emphasis only, as is the raising
of the voice in speech or italicizing and capitalizing in print. The
Prince of Wied gives an instance of a comparison in his sign for
_excessively hard_, first giving that for _hard_, viz.: Open the left
hand, and strike against it several times with the right (with the
backs of the fingers). Afterwards he gives _hard, excessively_, as
follows: Sign for _hard_, then place the left index finger upon the
right shoulder, at the same time extend and raise the right arm high,
extending the index finger upward, perpendicularly.”
I have entered thus at some length into the syntax of gesture-language
because this language is, as I have before remarked, the most natural
or immediate mode of giving expression to the logic of recepts; it is
the least symbolic or conventional phase of the sign-making faculty,
and therefore a study of its method is of importance in such a general
survey of this faculty as we are endeavouring to take. The points
in the above analysis to which I would draw attention as the most
important are, the absence of the copula and of many other “parts of
speech,” the order in which ideas are expressed, the pictorial devices
by which the ideas are presented in as concrete a form as possible, and
the fact that no ideas of any high abstraction are ever expressed at
all.[76]