American Sign Language (ASL) grammar

American Sign Language Grammar:

As with any language, ASL has its own grammar. Here are a few samples:

Expressions - Use to change the meaning of the sign.

Directionality and Placement - Use these to indicate who did what to whom or which.

Negation - Make your sign or entire statement negative.

Initialization - Using the first letter of word as the handshape for the sign..

Syntax - The order of presenting signs.

Comparatives and superlatives - Making comparisons.

Also check out the following topics to get more of a feel for how the language works:

Indexing - Use the index finger to indicate I-me, you, we, they, he-she-it

Possession - What belongs to whom.

Classifiers - Represent whole classes of objects or concepts with specific handshapes.

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Note to readers: I will be creating an expanded "grammar index" from the links below.

American Sign Language: Grammar Index

Language: ASL is a language. Linguists (people who study languages) have identified the characteristics that most languages tend to have. ASL is considered a language because it has the characteristics of a language. [If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck--it is a duck.]

Grammar: ASL has its own unique grammar system.

Voicing: Do not voice while signing. You can not speak English or speak any other language while signing ASL because the grammar systems are different.

ASL has a grammar system that is different from that of any spoken language. You will not be able to speak English at the same time as you sign ASL since the two languages have different grammar systems.

[Note: There are forms of communication that do use voice and sign at the same time, (simultaneous communication, bimodal bilingualism, etc.), but they are not ASL.]

Topic / comment

Subject Verb Object

Adjectives

Adverbs (degree and intensity)

Time indicators

Wh questions

Yes no questions

Statements

Rhetoricals

Exclamations: example: "I worked all day. I'm tired!"

indexing and pronouns

No state of being verbs: is are was were be being been. Existence is inferred, or you can sign "HAVE" FINISH ESTABLISH, TRUE, "LONG-AGO" "SINCE"

Plurality

Duration (temporal aspect) = inflection for intermittency

Directionality

Negatives (headshake or separate sign)

Reversal of orientation for negation
Chronology (events are described in the sequence in which they take place)

Roleshift

Location as a method of indicating the subject or object ("The three of them" vs "The three of us.")

Parameters: Handshape, Orientation, Location, Movement

Non-manual markers:

Mouth morphemes

Kinesthetic evolution (ergonomic) / economy of motion
Question expression: The expressions you use to indicate a sentence is a question tend to occur at the end of a sentence. This explains why you see sentences that look like: "ASL TEACHER YOU?" with the eyebrows raised while signing "YOU." Which basically means "ASL teacher (are) you (an)?" Which, in English, would be expressed as, "Are you an ASL teacher?"
Compare that with, "YOU ASL TEACHER, WHO?" with the eyebrows raised a bit to lowered while signing "WHO."