Can artificial intelligence reveal why languages change over time?
American Sign Language (ASL) signs that are challenging to perceive — those that are rare or have uncommon handshapes — are made closer to the signer’s face, where people often look during sign perception. By contrast, common ones, and those with more routine handshapes, are made further away from the face, in the perceiver’s peripheral vision. The findings suggest that ASL has evolved to be easier for people to recognize signs. …read more
