TerpTopics: ASL GRAMMAR Introduction to ASL and Sign Language Interpreting

ASL is "“a visual-gestural language which incorporates facial grammatical markers, physical affect markers, spatial linguistic information and fingerspelling, as well as signs made with the hands” (Humphrey and Alcorn).

Because we are professional sign language interpreters (not professional linguists), we will use a very simple definition of grammar. Here, grammar means how a language works, or its system of use.

Many people cannot cite grammatical details where their native-language is concerned, yet are fluent users of it. Typically, children are surrounded by native-users of their first language, and easily acquire it through constant exposure and immersion. An infant or very young child knows nothing of how a language works; only that it does or does not, and then makes adjustments (corrections or changes) as needed.

A child acquires fluency through exposure and use; s/he is not learning language in the academic sense (through study). From the child's perspective, the experience feels seamless and natural as breathing.

When we acquire a language via exposure (attempts at use and correction received directly or indirectly in the form of modeling by others) there is no need to learn about its inner workings, its system, until much later when we try to improve upon acquired skill-levels or decide to learn an entirely different language. Such purposeful efforts to learn call for knowledge of how the language in question works, bringing the notion of grammar to our attention, perhaps for the first time.

The grammar of a language is its infrastructure, the foundation for its form, organization, and functionality. Without grammar, language is reduced to simply words that cannot extend meaning beyond themselves.

Learning a new language requires at least a basic knowledge of its rules of use, or the student is wasting his or her time. After all, why learn a string of vocabulary if you are unable to use it to form a meaningful utterance, actually communicate? In fact, linguists do not consider a string of vocabulary to be a true language if no distinct and consistent rules of use are in place.

The human body includes parts that function in specialized ways and work together in support of the whole. Languages, too, have parts with specialized functions that work together in support of effective communication. Signs, in accordance with their individual functions, work together to form a phrase or sentence. Sentences, in accordance with their functions, work together to form paragraphs, and so on.

A fundamental component of grammar is a sign's "part of speech" - its assigned function (purpose). At this sign-level, the term "part of speech" might just as easily have been called "function of speech," or "role of speech."

Parts of speech for ASL include:

NOUN
Person, place, thing (includes concept, idea, or animal).
(e.g. UNCLE, GIRL, LAKE, OCEAN, BOOK, SNAKE, SUGGESTION, PROBLEM)

ADJECTIVE
Describes a noun.
(e.g. GROSS, ORANGE, INVISIBLE, BRIGHT, UNCLEAR)

ADVERB
Modifies a verb.
(e.g. CLEARLY, TENTATIVELY, HORRIBLY, NEARLY, QUITE, GLEEFULLY)

PREPOSITION
Describes the relationship of two or more nouns/pronouns in terms of time, distance, or location.
(e.g. IN, ON, ABOVE, UNDER, ACCORDING-TO, RATHER-THAN, DURING, SINCE, UNTIL, WITHOUT)

CONJUNCTION
Used to connect words, phrases, or clauses.
(e.g. BUT/ALTHOUGH/HOWEVER, IF, YET)

INTERJECTION
Exclamation without grammatical connection.
(e.g. WOW, WHEW, WHAT, OH-I-SEE)

ASL does not use passive voice. Instead, responsibility is assigned, clarified, and expressed.

Examples of passive voice in English include: "The book was placed upon the table;" and "The client was driven to the appointment."

The topic of syntax is complex. Language is complex, so it follows that syntax is. Here, we will discuss only the very basics. At this stage of the game you want to form grammatically correct sentences (you are not yet ready to enter a scholarly competition in linguistics). The information in this section will support you in expressing your thoughts accurately and of understanding the expressed thoughts of other signers.

Quick Refresher?
If you would like a refresher on what is an object, subject, or other function of speech, go ahead and get that now (try TerpTopics here or St. Cloud State University here). If you are confident in your understanding, skip the refresher. If you're only fairly confident, go for the refresher before reading about syntax. We can think of few things less productive than having to un-learn something that you invested energy in learning to do wrong.

You know how to obtain meaning from English word-order (if you did not, you would be unable to understand this sentence). And, you know that the syntax (i.e. word-order, order of expression, or organization) of other languages can be very different.

When features of a first language appear during second language production, we say the person has an accent. The use of incorrect syntax is a strong indicator that the speaker did not grow up within our language-community. Among hearing users of American English, language-community means the United States. For deaf users of ASL, language-community means the signing community within the United States.

When a native English user first attempts ASL, all manner of syntactic chaos can (and often does!) erupt, from minor accent-related issues to monstrous misunderstandings. A prerequisite for interpreters is proficiency in ASL.

When preparing to launch into ASL discourse about a new topic, topicalize it. Most topicalized sentences look like this: Object

Subject Verb. There is often a grammatical pause for emphasis after announcing the object. The pause grammatically establishes the topic. Then, go ahead with the remainder of the sentence, which is referred to as the comment.

After the topic has been established and/or clarified (using topicalization), syntax can comfortably be Subject Verb Object (which is typical of English sentences).

Time is established at the beginning of discourse, and then updated / reestablished as warranted. If not yet established, time must be the opening element of a sentence.

SUPPOSE WEEK-NEXT PAPER me-GIVE-you, YOU ACCEPT WILL?
(Eng: Can I hand in the paper next week?)

Most often, events are conveyed in sequential order (the order in which they will, should, or did occur). In contrast, English-users conjugate verbs to convey tense, and are as likely to convey events out of order as they are to convey them sequentially. The present tense is assumed, unless otherwise established.

Therefore, the English equivalent of "YESTERDAY ME SWIM" might be "I went swimming yesterday" or "I swam yesterday." The tense (YESTERDAY) was established, followed by the activity (SWIM), which followed the established tense. Accordingly, the English equivalent of, "NEXT-WEEK ME SWIM" might be, "I will go swimming next week."

            Tense can also be established using:

                SIGN CHOICE

                        FINISH

                        BEFORE

                        SINCE/UNTIL NOW

                        FROM-THEN/NOW-ON

                        BACK-UP

                SIGN LOCATION

                        Toward the rear of the signer's body: Past tense

                        Very near to the front of the signer's body: Present tense

                        At some distance from the front of the signer's body: Future tense

In a sentence, the subject is the doer. The subject is the actor, the one behaving. Subjects carry-out activities; they do things.

In the example, the Subject is DOG-MINE because s/he is doing the activity (HAVE). The Subject HAVE FLEA⁺⁺. If the FLEA⁺⁺were to have DOG-MINE, then the flea-group would be the Subject of the sentence and it would be written, FLEA⁺⁺DOG-MINE HAVE.

Often referred to as "the comment" about the subject of the sentence. For example, if we want to comment about the day, we might say:

In the above sentence, "A collection of hours" (subject) was "never so memorable as this" (predicate). Hmmm. Must have been quite a day, eh?

In a sentence, the Object is the receiver of what the subject does. The Object is the victim of the subject. Poor Object , haplessly struck by the activity of a subject. In a sentence, it is the Object that can truthfully protest, "I didn't do it!" <wink>

In the example, the Object is WASHINGTON-D-C because it received our visit. The Object was visited by WE. If WASHINGTON-D-C were to have visited WE, then WE would be the Object WE WASHINGTON-D-C TOUCH-FINISH.

You might say that verbs in ASL are assumed to be (or are always) in the infinitive, or that there is no infinitive form of verbs in ASL.

Examples of the infinitive (basic) form of a verb in English include: to cook and to jump.

Examples of present participle or past participle verb endings in English include: -ing and -ed.

This page was edited: 09/15/2009
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