“Talking Hands” by Margalit Fox
Monograph Review by RD HOBBS, dr.rdhobbs@gmail.com
Fox, M. (2007). Talking hands; What sign language reveals about the mind. New York,
NY: Simon & Schuster.
Cover: In a remote village where everyone speaks sign language, scientists are
discovering the essential ingredients of all human language – and uncovering the
workings of the human mind.
Introduction from page 1. Privacy of this Arab community is a primary goal. Sign
language of the Al‐Sayyid community is the goal of study. Odd numbered chapters
are narratives of the visits of linguists to the communities. “Even‐numbered
chapters chart course of sign‐language linguistics” p. 4.
1. In the Village of the Deaf, p. 5
2. What is this wonderful language? P. 15 intro to sign language
3. The Road to Al‐Sayyid, p. 38
4. The Sign‐Language Instinct, 46 intro to sign language
5. Starry Night, p. 74
6. The Atoms of Sign, 86 birth of scientific study of sign language
7. The House of Blue Roses, 111
8. Everyone Here Speaks Sign Language, 123 birth of scientific study of sign LN
9. Hyssop, 148
10. The Web of Words, 155 Grammar of Sign
11. The House Built from the Second Story Down, 170
12. Grammar in Midair, 178 Grammar of Sign
13. Hassan’s House, 206
14. A Sign in Mind, 218 Psychology of Sign
15. The House of 20 Children, 238
16. The Signing Brain, 246 Neurology of Sign
17. In a Wet Place, 272
Chapter 1 is an explanation of the linguistic environment of their target study area:
three sign languages of Israel, American, and Al‐Sayyid; and three spoken languages
of Hebrew, English, and Arabic. Of 3500 residents, 150 are deaf – a genetic anomaly.
Decoding Al‐Sayyid Sign offers a window to a fundamental aspect of humanity by
isolating formal linguistic elements to record evidence of ingredients essential to
human language.
Chapter 2. Sign languages include: Algerian, Brazilian, British, Chilean, Chinese,
Danish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hong Kong, Hungarian, Indonesian, Israeli,
Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Mozambican, Quebecois, Russian, Saudi Arabian,
Spanish, Swedish, Taiwanese, Thai, Turkish, and Zimbabwe.
Chapter 3. No social stigma for being deaf in Al‐Sayyid. So many hearing people sign
that it is not easy to discern who hears and who does not. Neurological research
reveals that neurons have specific codes for visual objects.
Chapter 4. Fox (2007) discusses the evolution of perspectives from Behaviorism to
Generative Grammar. Linguists study the Bedouin sign language because of the way
language evolved “out of nothing” (p, 72). The researchers believe they will find
universal features common to sign and spoken languages.
Chapter 5. The researchers say, “Signed languages convey grammatical information
not only in the hands, but also with the body, including the face, head and eyes” (p.
84). Eye contact is essential for signers and the hands are in the peripheral vision
because the whole body conveys information.
Chapter 6. In order to get authentic Al‐Sayyid Sign language on video, the
researchers have to pair a deaf child with a hearing child, because if two deaf
children sign, some of the signs they use are from the Israeli Sign language. The
reason for this difference is that deaf children learn sign language in school and
their hearing siblings learn sign at home [organically].
Chapter 7. Jump to Central America and the takeover of Nicaragua by the
Sandinistas resulting in deaf children staying at home and not acquiring Sign
language to going to school and learning a first generation Pidgin sign. Pidgin is a
basic language that can never be complex, but can develop into a Creole in a second
generation. Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) came from the second cohort of
students, especially young students under 7 who transformed the Pidgin into a
Creole resulting in NSL.
Chapter 8. Not all adults in Al‐Sayyid know their precise ages. “Age is not considered
salient information” (p. 148).
Chapter 9. This linguistic chapter reveals that deaf boys and girls went to gender
segregated schools resulting in 70% different terminology.
Chapter 10. Morphology is discussed. Inflection in English serves the purpose of
aspect in other languages. [In linguistics, English is an analytic language contrasted
with Latin which is a synthetic language, but the author does not discuss this point.
If she had, then this chapter would have been appropriate for this linguistic
discussion.]
Chapter 11. The author discusses the formation of declarative, interrogative, and
rhetorical questions in sign languages. Facial expressions determine questions or
statements. The language researchers observe in search of verb agreement.
Chapter 12. The author discusses the classifier system of American Sign Language as
evolving from iconic to arbitrary and asks relevant questions of the Al‐Sayyid
classifier system and its trend.
Chapter 14. American Sign Language is deemed a natural human language by
linguists in the 1970s. Mistakes or ‘slips of the tongue’ are windows to mental
representations. Typical mistakes are semantic or phonological. Mistakes involving
phonetics reveal that the slips of the tongue obey the phonological rules of language.
Thus, speakers reveal through their mistakes an unconscious awareness of the rules
of their language. Error types explained are anticipations, perseverations, and
spoonerisms. As small children learn pronouns, their first mistake is referring to
themselves by pointing outward as their parents to when referring to them, but
pointing outward is the sign for “you” and not “I” or “me”.
Chapter 16. Deaf stroke victims who become language impaired resort to
pantomime because their ability to sign has been interrupted.
In chapter 17, Fox takes the tone of summing up the book in a profound, yet
sentimental way. The deaf community and hearing community are integrated
because 4% of the population is deaf. Normally, one out of 10,000 may be deaf in
other populations.
There are 220 references and over 27 pages of notes. Odd‐numbered chapters are
narratives of visits to the integrated community of Al‐Sayyid and even numbered
chapters are devoted to linguistics and the linguistics of Sign language, the
psychology, acquisition, evolution, and grammars. Israeli Sign, Al‐Sayyid Sign,
American Sign, and Nicaragua Sign are each unique.
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Cristobal Bonelli
University of Amsterdam
Anna Horolets
University of Warsaw
Rodrigo Toniol
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
Filip De Boeck
KU Leuven
