THE GESTUUE-LANGUAGE. 27 



So when Laura Bridgmarij who was blind as well as deaf-and- 

 dumb, had learnt to communicate ideas by spelling words on 

 her fingers, she would say " Shut door/' " Give book ; " no 

 doubt because she had learnt these sentences whole, but when 

 she made sentences for herself, she would go back to the 

 natural deaf-and-dumb syntax, and spell out "Laura bread 

 give," to ask for bread to be given her, and "water drink 

 Laura," to express that she wanted to drink water. ^ 



It is to be observed that there is one important part of con- 

 structioti which Dr. Scott's rules do not touch, namely, the re- 

 lative position of the actor and the action, the nominative case 

 and the verb. Dr. Schmalz attempts to lay down a partial rule 

 for this. " If the deaf-mute connects the sign for an action 

 with that for a person, to say that the person did this or that, 

 he places, as a general rule, the sign of the action before that 

 of the person. For example, to say, " I knitted," he moves 

 his hands as in knitting, and then points with his fore-finger to 

 his breast.^ Thus, too, Heinicke remarks that to say, " The 

 carpenter struck me on the arm," he would strike himself on 

 the arm, and then make the sign of planing,^ as if to say, " I 

 was struck on the arm, the planing-man did it." But though 

 these constructions are, no doubt, right enough as they stand, 

 the rule of precedence according to importance often reverses 

 them. If the deaf-mute wished to throw the emphasis not upon 

 the knitting, but upon himself, he would probably point to him- 

 self first. Kruse gives the construction of " The ship sails on 

 the water" like our own, " ship sail water j" and of " I must go 

 to bed," as "Ibedgo."^ 



A look of inquiry converts an assertion into a question, and 

 fully serves to make the difference between " The master is 

 come," and "Is the master come?" The interrogative pro- 

 nouns, "who?" "what?" are made by looking or pointing 

 about in an inquiring manner ; in fact, by a number of unsuc- 

 cessful attempts to say, "he," "that." The deaf-and-dumb 

 child's way of asking, "Who has beaten you?" would be, 

 "You beaten; who was it?" Though it is possible to render 



1 Steinthal, Spr. der T., p. 923. 



" Schmalz, pp. 274, 58. ^ Heinicke, p. 



56. ■• Kruse, p. 57. 



