The influence of British Sign Language on Deaf English.
I found out from someone who is a member of DUK (Deaf-UK a yahoo maling list forum) that someone who did a corpus based study called The influence of British Sign Language on Deaf English.
Many deaf people are quite sensitive about someone analysing their English and would not want someone to make a research out of their own writings without permission.
In the past we were made to feel that our ‘grammar and verb mixed up’ state meant that we were mentally impaired.
The academics wade in “hi I am doing a research etc” and just do this to further their career on the back of our disability.
You can download this research, as it’s made available on DUK
However as you read it she is not criticising nor does she think deaf people are stupid but what worries me that these people carry out research improperly.
Her research about how BSL influenced Deaf English.
In some cases yes, but if she had done her research properly by contacting me, she would have found out that I am NOT an “identified BSL user”.
All the examples she cited are also common with oral deaf people and the fact she used me to prove her “BSL” point makes her arguments redundant.
Most BSL users have some encounters with spoken English and it is from there that these “mistakes” arise. To me, have/has/had sound the same, so I repeat those mistakes, and the/to/of/for etc is missing to my ears in spoken conversations.
I could go on….
What’s galling is that in a forum that I once participated in, a moderator had given her permission to download all the post for her analytics.
The DUK forum has its own policy, see below:
To quote from its policy
Whilst Deaf UK is a public forum, please respect Deaf people’s need for
space and not to be guinea pigs for research. It is not acceptable to just
join Deaf UK, and then post an e mail asking for information for research.
This makes Deaf people feel used and as if they are in a zoo.
If you wish to ask members of Deaf UK to contribute to a piece of research,
then you must clearly state: what the research is for, who you are, as well
as the usual questions relating to the subject of the research itself. If
subscribers of this group agree to your request, then cooperation and
information, is conditional to fulfilling an undertaking to publish the
research findings via Deaf UK
He often quotes this policy and yet never follows it himself.
However I don’t know if the researcher has contacted members not just the moderator.
I certainly wasn’t contacted nor did I wish to take part.
He has given her consent to do this so my emails along with others were analysed.
I do know that you have to join to be a member and read the archives and people are welcome to do so but to quote from http://www.cla.co.uk/
Copyright law stops other people from using and abusing your original work, this includes email messages
All your email messages are copyrighted to you (or your employer) automatically, you do not have to register this copyright
DUK does not own the copyright of messages sent to its lists, and neither does the list administrator
Messages sent to a list should not be, quoted out of context, changed in any way, reworded or mis-attributed
When you post to a public list you do not lose copyright, but your message may be, archived, forwarded to other lists and quoted by others
I am happy with this copyright law, but the moderator does not own the contents of the email. I own the contents of my own email.
Why was this study needed?
What does it benefit us?
She did her analytics on 2 blogs why is this, I suspect that the members were not forth coming.
Also its very misleading that DUK has over 2500 members, people change email address or close accounts and not bother to change it at the forum.
I’m sure such study is needed, but its common courtesy to ask if I wanted to take part.
In light of this I have now put up creative comments licence.
Another memeber of DUK have blogged about this see here.
You should complain to her tutors. They probably won’t realise she’s made an ass of herself, I doubt they are that deaf aware. I’d be interested to hear what they have to say about her methodology & theory.
Since anyone can plagaurise deaf forums simply by logging in, I fail to see how you can prevent it all happening, as it’s ‘public domain’. There was one student who wanted to use me as subject matter (Probably a bad example lol).
By and large most deaf people on forums and boards refuse to particiapte, so it could be argued assumption is then valid ? I’d think hearing people taking an interest in deaf issues is a vital part of deaf awareness, if you kick them out, then they will assume we are a negative lot won’t they ?
I was accused of using BSL as well Fintan, but by OTHER deaf, not on is it
She wasn’t plagiarising she was studying my Deaf English.
John thinks he owns the contents of my emails,no one owns them but my self.
He either has to delete mine to ensure it never happens again or get himself banned.
Once it’s public domain how can you prevent that ? I could and you could log into a site and copy anything (Deaf-UK excepted for me !). what is to stop fellow members copying your stuff and passing it on ? If I could call Kettles and pots black, That Australian idiot copied and kept responses I made when a member at Savva’s Deaf-UK, and boasted about it, so it doesn’t matter so long as a mate does it ? I find a lot of Hypocrisy in the the deaf worlds frankly.
This prson who copied your stuff then made a pigs ear of research, was simply ignorant, the OZ twit did it by design and intent.
MM
John Savva is being a total dick. He is being disrespectful and arrogant. He continues to refuse to engage honestly with people, and refuses to accept any accountability for his actions.
A lot like you really!
Regardless of the ins and outs of public domain etc, the very fact this person assumed Fintan was a BSL user shows they didn’t do their homework properly. In addtion…Suppose on Deaf-UK or any other Deaf Group for that matter, I was posting some very valid comments to do with Deaf Culture etc, even bringing my use of BSL into it. This person (or any other of similar nature) could quote me as a Deaf person presuming I am D/deaf because of my attitude, knowledge and content of what I have wrote. This would be wrong and could cause all manner of problems. What comes across is that the person just hasn’t thought through things properly before doing the research, and checked thoroughly, which has resulted in all this.
Americans regularly list my blogs under culture, while British deaf sites often refuse to acknowledge I am deaf. Should I be flattered or what ? when these people make up their mind what a deaf person is, we’ll all be happier…
Fintan is aggrieved because he knows how tetchy the BSL user is, I share your pain Fintan, next person to call me a sign user or cultural gets a bunch of fives
“Since anyone can plagaurise deaf forums simply by logging in, I fail to see how you can prevent it all happening, as it’s ‘public domain’.”
Simply posting in forums does not necessarily mean you are writing into the public domain. You have to look at the terms of the web site.
This site is quite interesting. At the bottom there is a notice that says everything here is copyright Fintan Ramblings, but unless that is a legal entity it is meaningless. At the same time, the sidebar indicates that all the text comes under a creative commons license, effectively making it public domain. Basically I think it all means that stuff here is unprotected hence actually is public domain, but I could be wrong…
The problem with you MM, is that you want things to be black and white, rigidly defined. Also you, as you have often said, do not accept that Deaf people have a culture, or that Deaf culture exists, and very critical of anyone who disagrees with your thesis or argument with evidence that Deaf culture exits.
So you can’t whinge when UK Deafies don’t accept you as a Deaf person with a capital D. You are considered to be a deaf person with a little d, or hearing impaired if you like.
You’re the one who keeps obfuscating matters, moving the goal posts in any debate, and generally being argumentative for a purpose that changes every time you post summat.
As for the Americans, well, the less said the better!
@MM
I am not aggrieved I merely pointed out that I am not a BSL user,just simply learning it.
I don’t know why plagiarising came into this as she wasn’t doing that!
I got this theme from Stephen Reinhardt and left everything as it is as all wordpress themes leave copyright in unless you remove them yourselves.
I actually did not notice this till you pointed it our Dale.
I added the creative commons after all this had happened!