This article is concerned with the re‐channeling of language. It asks: what role does the material environment play in turning a visual language into a tactile language? To pursue that question, I examine language and infrastructure among DeafBlind people at Gallaudet University. Since 2005, aspects of the local urban landscape have been designed with the practices of Deaf people in mind. Recently, under the influence of the protactile movement, attention has turned to the tactile dimensions of design. As advisors, practitioners, and consultants contributing to these efforts, DeafBlind people seek not only to broaden the range of sensory channels linking them to their environment, but also to create environments that reinforce those connections across linguistic, sensory, and environmental domains. Drawing on the notion of “channel” as it has been applied and developed in linguistic anthropology and related fields, I argue that the re‐channeling of language among DeafBlind people at Gallaudet implicates channels of transmission. It cannot, however, be reduced to an effect of their affordances. Rather, the signer's perceptions of what is possible in communication are shaped by more general perceptions of what is possible in life, and what is possible in life depends on infrastructure.

中文翻译：

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重新引导语言：加洛德大学聋哑人语言和基础设施的相互重组

本文涉及语言的重新引导。它问：物质环境在将视觉语言转变为触觉语言中起什么作用？为了解决这个问题，我研究了加洛迪特大学（Galaudet University）聋哑人的语言和基础设施。自2005年以来，在设计本地城市景观时，都考虑了聋人的做法。近来，在触觉运动的影响下，注意力转向了设计的触觉尺寸。作为顾问，从业者和顾问为这些努力做出的贡献，聋哑人不仅寻求扩大将他们与周围环境联系起来的感觉渠道的范围，而且还寻求创造一种在语言，感觉和环境领域加强联系的环境。借鉴在语言人类学和相关领域中已被应用和发展的“渠道”概念，我认为加洛代特的聋哑人之间的语言重新安排牵涉到传播渠道。但是，它不能减少到他们的负担能力上。相反，签名者对通信中可能存在的感知的形成是由对生活中可能存在的更普遍的感知所决定的，而生活中可能的生存取决于基础架构。