A
"grammar" is a set of rules for using a language. These rules guide users in
the correct speaking or signing of a language.
Who decides what is correct and incorrect grammar?
The
grammar of a language is decided by the group of people who use the
language. New grammar rules come into existence when enough members of the
group have spoken (signed) their language a particular way often
enough and long enough that it would seem odd to speak the language in some
other way.
If you don't want to seem odd to others in your group, you've got to speak (sign)
a language according to the rules which have been developed by the community
which uses the language.
American Sign Language is tied to the Deaf
Community. We use our language in a certain way. That
"certain way" is what constitutes ASL grammar.
American Sign Language has its own grammar system,
separate from that of English.
What this means is ASL grammar has its own rules for phonology, morphology,
syntax, and pragmatics.
In general, ASL sentences follow a "TOPIC" "COMMENT" arrangement.
Another name for a "comment" is the term "predicate." A
predicate is simply a word or phrase that says something about a topic. In
general, the subject of a sentence is your topic. The predicate is your
comment.
When discussing past and future events we tend to establish a time-frame before the rest of the sentence.
That gives us a "TIME" "TOPIC" "COMMENT" structure.
For example:
or "WEEK-PAST Pro1 WASH MY CAR "
[The "Pro1" term means to use a first-person pronoun. A first-person
pronoun means "I or me." So "Pro1" is just a fancy way of saying "I" or
"me." In the above example you would simply point at yourself to
mean "Pro1."]
Quite often ASL signers will use the object of their sentence as
the topic. For example:
"MY CAR, I WASH WEEK-PAST"
[Note: The eyebrows are raised and the head is tilted slightly forward
during the "MY CAR" portion of that sentence.]
Using the object of your sentence as the topic of the sentence is called
"topicalization." In this example, "my car" becomes the subject
instead of "me." The fact that "I washed it last week" becomes the comment.
There is more than one sign for
"WASH." Washing
a car or a window is different from the generic sign for "WASH"
to wash-in-a-machine, or to
wash
a dish. The real issue here isn't so much the order of the words as it
is choosing appropriate ASL sign to accurately represent the concept.
There are a number of "correct" variations of
word order in American Sign Language (Humphries & Padden, 1992).
For example you could say: "I STUDENT I" or, "I STUDENT" or even,
"STUDENT I."
Note: The concept of "I" in these sentences is done by pointing an index
finger at your chest and/or touching the tip of the index finger to your
chest.
You could sign:
"I FROM U-T-A-H I."
"I FROM U-T-A-H."
"FROM U-T-A-H I."
All of the above
statements are "ASL."
I notice that some "ASL" teachers tend to become fanatical about encouraging
their students to get as far away from English word order as possible and
thus focus on the version "FROM U-T-A-H I."
It has been my experience during my various travels across
the U.S. that the versions "I STUDENT" and "I FROM U-T-A-H" work great and
are less confusing to the majority of people.
The version "FROM UTAH I" tends to be used
only after the
subject of the conversation has been introduced. For example, suppose
two people are talking about a man named Bob. If one of them says he
"thought Bob was from California" and I happen to know he is really from
Utah, I would sign "FROM UTAH HE" while nodding.
ASL doesn't use "state of being" verbs.
The English sentence "I am a
teacher" could be signed: "TEACHER ME " or even "ME TEACHER"
while nodding the head. Since both are correct, my suggestion is to choose the second version.
However, if you are striving to pass an "ASL
test" like the American Sign Language Teachers Association certification test
(ASLTA), or the Sign Communication Proficiency Interview (SCPI) then by all means use the
first version ("TEACHER ME") --not because it is any more ASL but because it
"looks" less like English. Test evaluators are only human.
[And remember to use appropriate facial expressions!]
DrVicars: Let's discuss indexing, personal
pronouns, and directionality.
First off, indexing: It is when you point your index at a person who is or
isn't in the signing area. Sometimes we call that present referent or absent referent.
If the person is there, you can just point at him to mean "HE"
If the person is not there, if you have identified him by spelling his name
or some other method of identification, (like a "name sign"), then you can "index"
him to a point in space. Once you have set up a referent, you can refer back to that same point each time you want to
talk about that person.
Need clarification on that ?
Students: [a lot of "no" answers]
[Topic: "Personal Pronouns"]
DrVicars: Now lets talk about personal pronouns.
The simplest way is to just point. If I am talking to you and want to say
"YOU" then I point. To pluralize a personal pronoun, you sweep it. For example the concept of "THEY." I
would point slightly off to the right and sweep it more to the right. For "YOU ALL" I would
point slightly to the left and sweep to slightly to the right, (crossing my sight line).
Of course if the people are present then you can simply point to them. The
more people there are the bigger the sweep. Any questions about personal pronouns?
Art: Does the sweep dip?
DrVicars: It stays on a horizontal plane most of the time. If I am talking about a
group that is
organized vertically then I will sign (sweep) from top to bottom in an vertical motion.
But that is
rare.
DrVicars: Okay now let's see how this all ties into the principle of
"directionality."
Suppose I index BOB on my right and FRED on my left. Then I sign "GIVE-TO"
from near my body to the place where I indexed Bob. That means "I give
(gave) (something) to Bob."
If I sign GIVE TO starting the movement from the place off to the right and move it to
the left it means Bob gave to Fred. If I sign starting from off to the left and bring the sign GIVE TO toward my body what
would it mean?
Sandy: "Fred give to me?"
DrVicars: Right.
Sandy: How do you establish tense at that point?
DrVicars: Tense would be established before signing the rest of the sentence. I would
say, "YESTERDAY ME-GIVE-TO B-0-B" The fingerspelling of BOB would be immediately
after the ME-GIVE-TO and I would spell B-O-B slightly more to the right than normal. That way I
wouldn't need to point to Bob. However there are three or four other acceptable ways to
sign the above sentence. You could establish Bob then indicate that yesterday you gave it to
him, etc.
Lii: Can tense be done at end of sentence, or is that confusing?
DrVicars: That is confusing--I don't recommend it. I can however give you an example of
"appropriately" using a time sign at the end of a sentence. Suppose I'm talking
with a friend about a problem that occurred yesterday and I sign: TRY FIND-OUT WHAT-HAPPEN
YESTERDAY
DrVicars: That sentence talks about a situation that happened before now, but the
current conversation is happening now. Some people might try to put the sign "YESTERDAY"
at the beginning of that sentence, but I wouldn't--it feels awkward.
DrVicars: You can directionalize many different verbs. Hand-to is the best example, but
"MEET" is also useful. [To sign MEET, you hold both index fingers out in front
of you about a foot apart, pointed up, palms facing each other. Then you bring them together--it looks
like two people meeting. Note: The index fingers do not touch, just the lower parts of the hands.]
For example ME-MEET-YOU can be done in one motion. I don't need to sign "I"
"MEET" "YOU" as three separate words. But rather I hold my right Index finger near me,
palm facing you, and my left index finger near you, palm facing me. Then I bring my right to my left.
One motion is all it took.
Monica: How do we know which verbs to use?
DrVicars: That is the challenging part. Some just aren't directional in nature. For example:
"WANT." You have to sign it normal and indicate who wants what.
DrVicars: But if you are in doubt about whether or not to use indexing or
directionality, go ahead and index it works every time even though it takes more effort.
(If you are taking an "in-person" class and prepping for an ASL
test, it is in your best interest to become familiar with which of your
vocabulary words can be directionalized or else you might lose points for
not demonstrating proper ASL grammar.)
Monica: :-)
Art: Could you give examples for sweep, chop, and inward sweep diagrams used in [the
Basic Sign Communication book] please.
[Note, I used to use BSC as a of the text in one of my classes. I've used many
other texts as well. They all have their good points.]
DrVicars: Sure. The sweep would be to pluralize a sign like THEY.
DrVicars: The chop I'm not sure what you're referring to is it ...
[Clarification was made. The diagram in question is in the Basic Sign Communication
text, ISBN 0-913072-56-7, Level1, module 4, page 17]
Art: Yes, the center at the bottom
DrVicars: Hold...okay...got it. You are talking about the three diagrams below the
slightly larger one is that right?
Art: Yes
DrVicars: Good...we're making progress... If I were handing a paper to a number of
individuals, I would use several short ME-GIVE-TO-YOU motions strung
together in a left to right sweeping motion.
If I were talking about passing a piece of paper to the class in general I would use
a sweeping motion from left to right. If I were giving the paper to just two
people, I'd use two ME-GIVE-TO-YOU motions one slightly to the left, then
one slightly to the right.
Art: Thanks
[...various discussion...]
Lii: How does one go about using "ing, s, and ed endings?" Does it need to be done?
DrVicars: Good question Lii. Can I answer that next week during the grammar discussion?
Lii: You bet.
DrVicars: Thanks Lii
Sandy: Similar question - how do we use punctuation? Just pause - other than emphasis
with face?
DrVicars: Again a good question. Okay then, let me go ahead and answer both questions
now, then we'll hear comments from those of you who have them.
DrVicars: When you ask about "s," you are asking about pluralization.
In ASL you can pluralize any particular
concept in a number of ways. So far in our lessons we have been using a sweeping motion, (for
example we turn the sign
"HE" into the word "THEY" by adding a sweeping movement).
The suffix "ed" is established by using a "tense
marker" like the sign PAST or is understood by context. For example if I know you are talking about a trip you went on last week, You
don't need to keep signing "PAST," I would understand it was past tense. You could
sign "TRUE GOOD" and I would know you meant "The trip went really well."
If I sign, "YESTERDAY ME WALK SCHOOL," the word "walk"
would be understood as "walked."
About punctuation, you are right, you punctuate a sentence via your pauses and
facial expressions. One common type of punctuation is that of adding a
question mark at the end of a question by drawing a question mark in the air
or by holding the index finger in front of you in an "x" shape
then straightening and bending it a few times. This is called a
"Question Mark Wiggle." Most of the time people don't use Question
Mark Wiggle at the end of a question. Instead they rely on facial
expression to indicate that a question has been asked.
Suffixes such as "ing," "ed," and others are not used in ASL in the
sense that they are not separate signs that are added to a word. If I want to change
"learn" into
"learning" I simply sign it twice to show it is a process. Many times the
"ing" is implied. For example, "YESTERDAY I RUN" could be interpreted as "Yesterday I went for a
run," or you could interpret it as, "Yesterday I was running." How you interpret it would
depend on the rest of the message (context). ...more >
Grammar 2 | 3
Inflection
Notes:
What equals "correct grammar" is
determined by a type of group consensus. Consensus occurs when an
opinion or decision is reached by a group as a whole. Political or
governmental bodies try to "come to a consensus" on issues. For
example, I was a student senator for a while. Occasionally as a
group we would "come to a consensus" on some topic. Coming
to a consensus didn't mean that everyone agreed with every aspect of the
decision, but we were willing to go along with the group and support the
decision.
That is how it is in ASL. The older folks don't always
agree with signs used by the younger folks. Those who teach ASL classes
often don't agree with the general use of certain signs that they consider
to be "signed English." But it isn't "one person's or one instructor's
opinion" that determines what constitutes ASL -- it is the group.
Note: In this discussion the phrase "speaking a
language" is not limited to "voicing" but rather it also
includes signing or producing a language.
References:
Humphries, T., & Padden, C. (1992). Learning American sign
language. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall.