This paper discusses some "linguistic" conceptions about Sign Language which were current in the Modern Age, based mostly on two texts: one a book written by a deaf typographer and published in Paris in 1779; the other an essay written in 1840 by a deaf professor. Similarities will be shown to hold between their statements and several extant concepts and prejudices about what is generically called "Sign Language" from a linguistic point of view. Based on those same texts, considerations which are pertinent to the present will be made regarding the role of Sign Language in Deaf Education.
Sign Language; Deaf Education; Philosophy of Language; Education