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Topic: Mouthing (advanced discussion) / Mouth morphemes
Go watch half-a-dozen random videos by Deaf and/or simply some of the hundreds of video clips of "Deaf Service Announcements" or "explanations of cool things by Deaf" posted in this group and watch their mouth movements. Seriously -- 20 minutes of research and you will become absolutely convinced that real / genuine / socially active native adult Deaf who post videos online also happen to do a lot of mouthing!
It is my assertion that:
1. Sometimes mouthing interferes with signed communication by causing signers to make signing choices that are less 3D (and therefore less efficient) than they would otherwise have made.
2. In the absence of a 3D signing choice the use of mouthing can have a clarifying effect on certain aspects of the overall message. (For example, when using signs that commonly have multiple meanings.)
3. Often the use of mouthing is immaterial -- meaning it has no impact either way.
Thus mouthing is:
1. sometimes noise
2. sometimes signal
3. sometimes redundant
Whether or not redundancy is valuable depends on the audience. If the audience knows the sign then redundancy is wasted. if the audience doesn't know the sign but can catch the mouth movement then the redundancy (the use of mouthing with signing) performs a very valuable function. For example, when Bee Vicars is able to figure out that someone is signing "town hall" instead of "Thursday" by watching mouthing.
Skilled signers tend to turn on mouthing for signal and redundancy and turn off mouthing (and opt for 3D signing) in cases where 3D signing is more efficient.
At this point there are those of you who are desiring a definition of "3D signing." My viewpoint: 3D signing refers to "three dimensional" signing grammar and is a book-length topic (that I'm currently working on). It is an umbrella term that I'm developing to explain how location, direction, path, speed, orientation, proximity, and other aspects of depictive signing are used (by skilled signers) to create meaning (which is to say -- such aspects of signing can of themselves be morphemes). Do I expect a beginner to understand what a "morpheme" is? No.
Tip: If beginners want to understand the big words then they need to become "not beginners." The way to do that is to do the "work" of either taking a class, reading a book (not a paragraph), or looking up words online. When something is a book length topic you don't get to "understand it" until you read the book (or done an equivalent amount of work).
Notes: It is all nice and well for "ASL experts" to proclaim that "such and such" sign is done with "this particular" facial expression or mouth morpheme.
The problem is the lack of flexibility in the words "is done."
It is done this way!
Except when it isn't.
In the "real world" the rule is almost always: "It depends."
My wife just walked into the room. I asked her how she would sign "send an email out to everyone." She did the sign SEND-digitally-to-all WITHOUT doing the plosive mouth morpheme! When I asked her about it she replied that "Oh, yah, Some people do it -- I don't."
(Actually sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. It ... depends.) Most of us Deaf are the same way. If we are feeling dramatic or the need to be emphatic (or precise) we add more "emotion" (or precision) via facial expressions. Sometimes we are tired or feeling some other emotion that needs access to the face.
ASL instructors will tell newbies that when you sign FISH you add a fishlips-looking mouth shape as if you were partially saying the word "fish." Then we call it "vestigial." -- Oh really? Vestigial from what?
Vestigial is defined as "forming a very small remnant of something that was once much larger or more noticeable." (Source: Lexico.) Are such instructors claiming that people in the Deaf Community used to say the whole word "fish" and then over time said it less and less until it is now just a remnant on the lips? Perhaps the mouthing of "fish" isn't vestigial at all. Perhaps it is the product of bimodal diglossia?
At some point it would be nice if we all collectively took a deep breath and admitted that we Deaf Americans live in a "diglossic" world.
Diglossia is defined as "a situation in which two languages (or two varieties of the same language) are used under different conditions within a community, often by the same speakers. The term is usually applied to languages with distinct "high" and "low" (colloquial) varieties," (Source: Lexico.) Bimodal means "using two different modes" (Source: my memory). In this case the two modes being "signed" and "mouthed" (but not voiced).
To thrive in the Deaf Community we need to know the "high" form of communication -- "ASL." To thrive in the larger American Society we have to know English.
An internet commenter asked for an etymology regarding the "plosive" used with the sign "send digitally."
Let me be blunt.
People spit.
Spitting projects spittle.
Projection then comes to be associated with the "plosive" movements of the mouth when spitting.
So when projecting (spitting) out emails we use a mouth morpheme that looks like you are spitting.
Except when we don't.
Also see: Mouthing in ASL
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