Sign language impacts deaf culture because of its classification as a language. The sapir-whorf hypothesis states that humans are influenced by the language that they use. This hypothesis applies to the deaf view of reality because sign language is a language of gestures rather than words. This influences the deaf community because they appear to be more expressive when communicating than those who can hear. one example of this is deaf poetry. when one of the people being interviewed on the program Through Deaf Eyes, signs a poem, some say that it is based on gestures that get to the true meaning of the poem. this could be argued because with sign, the words of the poem are more expressive to the view because the person who is reciting the poem can choose to put either less or more enthusiasm into certain gestures which would change depending on the reciter. this would change because each person who recited the poem would have different thoughts and ideas on what gestures would be emphasized more or less. also in the program, it is explained that deaf people have dialects to the way that they sign depending on where the person is from. these dialects may be the reason why some are more expressive in signing or more fluid in their movements. oralism also impacts the deaf community and its view of reality, but not as much as signing does. with oralism, a person does not use gestures, but reads the movement of lips. this method of learning to communicate limits the use of expression on behalf of the deaf person. this is so because in the hearing world, most expressions are utilized by the volume that we assign to each word.
deaf culture is impacted by these two methods of learning in that they have some sort of impact on the way that deaf people think. Signing has both its direct values and limitations on the view of reality. First, signing's impact on the way deaf people think is that they were forced to interpret with thier eyes and not their ears. this use of their eyes could also train their eyes to be more attentive to details in everyday life. therefore deaf people tend to be more aware of the sights that are surrounding them. even though sign language may allow deaf people to view their surroundings in an altered reality, it restricts deaf people to remain in their own reality of "eyeth." this limits their thinking as to how other people perceive reality like those who live on "earth." oralism also has its values and limitations. with the method of oralism, deaf people people can community with hearing people. one example of this is Marlee matlin's role at the Oscars. she may be deaf, but through the oral method she was able read the nominees to everyone who was watching and listening. this allows them to perceive both views of reality on "earth" and eyeth." it also can train the deaf on different ways to analyze. however, the oral method limits the total view of reality on both worlds.
sign language and oralism both depend on the language that they are associated with. oralism is based on an audible language, such as English or french. this means that persons who learn oralism is confined to the language that is taught to him or her. so the deaf people who learn English are confined to those who speak English. however, sign language assigns one gesture for a situation or action so it can be communicated in many different countries
even though sign language and the oral method have an impact or reality, some people could claim that the impact is very in severe. the claims that a person arguing the impact would be that everyone sees the same reality, so how can some people claim that we all perceive differently.
sign language has a large implication on the deaf view of reality. their thought of meaning is not on namings words to the things, but rather using a gesture that fits what a person is trying to describe.
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