Sign Language Trivia 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'International Sign' (IS)?
- A universal sign language created by the United Nations
- A contact sign language used informally at international deaf events (Correct answer)
- The official sign language of the International Olympic Committee
- A simplified version of ASL used for global communication
Correct answer: A contact sign language used informally at international deaf events
International Sign is an ad hoc contact signing system that emerges when deaf people from different countries interact, drawing on various sign languages and gestural communication — it is not a fully standardized language.
Question 2: What is the primary criticism of the 'Total Communication' approach to deaf education?
- It is too expensive to implement in public schools
- It can result in a confusing mix that does not fully respect either ASL or English grammar (Correct answer)
- It excludes children with additional disabilities
- It overemphasizes fingerspelling at the expense of signs
Correct answer: It can result in a confusing mix that does not fully respect either ASL or English grammar
Total Communication uses all available methods simultaneously, but critics argue that simultaneously signing and speaking forces sign production into English word order, corrupting both languages.
Question 3: What is a 'name sign' in Deaf culture?
- The fingerspelled version of a person's name
- A personalized sign given to an individual, typically assigned by a member of the Deaf community (Correct answer)
- A sign used to get someone's attention in a crowd
- The official sign for a proper noun like a city or country
Correct answer: A personalized sign given to an individual, typically assigned by a member of the Deaf community
A name sign is a unique sign given to an individual that often reflects something about their appearance or personality, and it is traditionally assigned by a member of the Deaf community.
Question 4: What does it mean when a sign is described as 'iconically motivated'?
- The sign was created by a famous deaf icon or leader
- The form of the sign visually resembles or imitates what it represents (Correct answer)
- The sign is used exclusively within a specific cultural icon group
- The sign requires an iconic handshape from the ASL alphabet
Correct answer: The form of the sign visually resembles or imitates what it represents
An iconically motivated sign has a visual relationship to its meaning, such as the sign for 'tree' resembling a trunk and branches, making it somewhat intuitive to non-signers.
Question 5: What is the 'Deaflympics'?
- A film festival celebrating Deaf culture and performing arts
- An international multi-sport event for deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes (Correct answer)
- An academic olympiad testing knowledge of sign languages
- A competition for the best sign language interpreters worldwide
Correct answer: An international multi-sport event for deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes
The Deaflympics (formerly the World Games for the Deaf) is an international sporting event for deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes, first held in Paris in 1924.
Question 6: Which organization, founded in 1880, is the oldest national organization of, by, and for the deaf in the United States?
- Gallaudet Alumni Association
- National Association of the Deaf (NAD) (Correct answer)
- Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID)
- American Society for Deaf Children
Correct answer: National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD), founded in Cincinnati in 1880, is the oldest and largest civil rights organization of deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans.
Question 7: What is 'prosody' in sign language, and how is it expressed?
- The rhythm and flow of a signed message, expressed through speed, pausing, and non-manual signals (Correct answer)
- The vocabulary size and richness of a signer's repertoire
- The accuracy of handshape formation during fingerspelling
- The cultural rules about when and where signing is appropriate
Correct answer: The rhythm and flow of a signed message, expressed through speed, pausing, and non-manual signals
Prosody in sign language refers to the rhythmic, temporal, and stress features of signing, conveyed through variation in speed, size of movement, pausing, and facial expressions.
Sign Language Trivia 5
What is 'International Sign' (IS)?