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Article

Open Access

Balinese Spatial System: Evidence From Bengkala Village Sign Language

Author(s)

I Nyoman Aryawibawa, I Gusti Ngurah Parthama, Ida Bagus Putra Yadnya

Full-Text PDF Download XML 383 Views

DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2023.05.001

Affiliation(s)

Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia
Clifton L. Pye
Kansas University, Lawrence, USA

ABSTRACT

The present study was designed to show how language affects human cognition by investigating frames of reference used in Bengkala sign language. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) Adult signers in the village employ an absolute system of spatial reference to respond to linguistic tasks; (2) the child signers use the intrinsic, relative, or absolute system of spatial reference in response to the linguistic tasks; and (3) adult and child signers use the absolute system of spatial reference in the nonlinguistic tasks. This study employed two linguistic tasks (i.e., object rotation and asking direction) and one nonlinguistic task (i.e., object rearrangement), involved 10 deaf children and 12 deaf adults, and was administered in both indoor and outdoor settings. The results showed that the child and adult deaf subjects consistently used pointing in the linguistic tasks in the two conditions. In contrast to these results, the child and adult deaf subjects used absolute responses in the nonlinguistic task. The results from the current study demonstrate how language, in this case the signed language, structures linguistic responses independently of cognition. The use of absolute responses by the deaf subjects seems to suggest that cultural practice guides spatial reference in nonlinguistic tasks.

KEYWORDS

sign language, spatial system, absolute system, relative system, spatial cognition

Cite this paper

US-China Foreign Language, May 2023, Vol. 21, No. 5, 167-179 doi:10.17265/1539-8080/2023.05.001

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