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American Sign Language or ASL is a natural language that is used by many d/Deaf people not only in the United States of America, but some parts of Canada as well. One may think that British Sign Language is very similar to ASL, but this is an incorrect assumption. In fact, ASL was derived from langue des signes française. Over the many years since LSF was brought to America and taught by Laurent Clerc, ASL has transformed into a natural language capable of communicating complex ideas as well as simplistic ones. Also, it has a very distinct grammatical structure, which contrary to popular belief is not similar to the English syntax, but is more closely related to spoken Japanese.

Contents 1 Nouns 2 Pronouns 3 Verbs 4 Adjectives and Adverbs 4.1 Placement of Adjectives 4.2 Placement of Adverbs 5 Usage of Conjunctions, Interjections, and Prepositions 5.1 Conjunction 5.2 Interjections 5.3 Prepositions 6 Syntax 6.1 Placement of Time Words 6.2 Word Order of Questions 6.3 Negation in ASL 6.4 Modal Verbs 7 Fingerspelling and Numbers 7.1 The Role of Fingerspelling 7.2 The Role of Numbers 8 Further Reading

Nouns allow a signer to talk about things and ideas. Nouns in ASL do not have grammatical gender, and they are not marked for number or case. Adding an s to a signed noun is Signing Exact English and is improper usage in ASL.

Because ASL is a visual language, its pronouns are simple when the referent is physically present. Pronouns are constructed by simply pointing at the referent with different handshapes to indicate the type of pronoun. A one handshape is a personal pronoun, an extended B handshape with an outward palm orientation is a possessive pronoun and an extended A handshape is a reflexive pronoun.

If the referent is not physically present, speakers of ASL use what is called contrastive structure. The speaker identifies the referent (perhaps by fingerspelling a name) and then points to a location near their body. This location can subsequently be pointed at in order to refer to the referent. More than one location can be used if the speaker would like to refer to more than one referent.

Verbs are another common concept in all natural languages. They allow the speaker to express actions, occurrences, and states of being. Some (but not all) verbs in ASL can be inflected to indicate the object and possibly also the subject of the verb. Verbs that are not inflected in this way are called plain verbs; verbs that are so inflected are called inflecting verbs. Additionally, there is a third type of verb, called spatial verbs, which allow the signer to specify where things are or how he or she moved them around. Examples of spatial verbs are put-up and put-bellow. By adding a motion to the verb, temporality can also be indicated.

Descriptive words are adjectives and adverbs. They help us describe things in detail. They also add imagery to our writing, speech, and signing.

Typically, ASL puts the adjective after a noun, but one may place the adjective before the noun for stylistic purposes. The concept of placing these words after the noun is similar to that of many of the Romance languages, but not the same in English. The English language requires that the adjective precedes the noun that it is describing.

English: I have a brown dog.

ASL: DOG BROWN I HAVE

In English the adverb is placed after the verb, whereas in ASL it is placed before the verbs. Most of the time adverbs are simple the same sign as an adjective, only it is distinguished by the context of the sentence.

English: I enter the house quietly.

ASL: HOUSE I QUIET ENTER

Adding -LY to the end of the adjective to form an adverb is improper and is considered Signing Exact English. One should avoid slipping into other portions of the sign continuum at all costs.

These three concepts are probably the least used in ASL, because it is a high contextual language. Despite this fact, they are still used in signing to an extent.

The combining of two sentences in ASL is different based on the conjunction needed. For example, the concept of the word and does not exist in ASL. Simply, sign a sentence, take a short pause and then sign the next sentence. Similar conjunctions such as or and but have signs.

English: I have two cats and they are named Billy and Bob.

ASL: TWO CATS I HAVE. NAME #BILLY #BOB.

English: I like to swim, but I don't like to run.

ASL: SWIM I LIKE, BUT RUN I LIKE-NOT

Interjections such as WOW! or OH! can be fingerspelled or they may have a sign like WOW. They are usually made into a separate statement such as: WOW. YOUR BIKE RED ME LIKE.

Now, most prepositions are not used in ASL at all, because it is reserved more for Signing Exact English. It is a good idea to avoid prepositions when signing in ASL, because they are shown in context.

With background on how parts of speech are used in ASL, we can now evaluate the syntax, or word order, of ASL. As stated previously in the article, the word order of ASL is different from that of English. English follows a SVO, Subject-Verb-Object sentence pattern, whereas ASL uses a Topic-Comment pattern.

English: I go to the store.

ASL: STORE I GO

Signing is a heavily visual language and does not require as many words as spoken English. In the above example one can see that the words to and the are deemed unnecessary for an ASL sentence. However, the inclusion of these words is called Signing Exact English and is therefore not ASL.

Time words are the only thing that comes before the topic of the sentence in ASL. So, adding time words makes our ASL word order now Time-Topic-Comment. Also, the concept of AM and PM does not exist in ASL. They simply sign MORNING or AFTERNOON to denote AM or PM.

English: I'm going to the store at 9:00AM.

ASL: 9:00 MORNING STORE I GO

In other natural languages such as English, French or German statements are given in a particular word order. Then for questions they either invert the word order or add in a few words such as: do or est-ce que. ASL does not invert its word order nor does it add in any helping words, it uses non-manual signals to display a question asked. These non-manuals can consist of body movements, facial expressions, or eyebrow movements. Let's examine a simple YES/NO question in ASL and English.

English: Did you go to the store?

ASL: STORE YOU GO?

English added our helping verb to do, but ASL didn't change or add anything. This is because in a YES/NO question the eyebrows are raised and the body leaned forward slightly. These non-manuals show the receptive signer that the statement is actually a question.

Another type of question is a WH-question. These types of question require more of a response than yes or no. They always include signs like WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW, or WHY? These WH-words always come at the end of the question, unlike in English where it is the first word in the question.

English: What are you eating?

ASL: YOU EAT WHAT?

Similar to a YES/NO question, WH-word questions also have non-manual markers, however this time instead of raising your eyebrows, you must lower your eyebrows. In addition to lowering your eyebrows the signer must lean the body in slightly and extend the last sign for a couple seconds. This allows the receptive signer to understand they are being asked a question that requires more of a response.

The final type of question is called an RH-question. The use of an RH-question is like an English speaker using the word because. There is no sign for the word because in ASL, therefore they sign a question and answer it themselves. The non-manual markers for an RH-question are the same as a YES/NO question.

English: I like to play tennis, because it is fun.

ASL: TENNIS I LIKE PLAY WHY? #FUN

The role of negation in ASL is a fairly easy concept to grasp. There are only two signs one needs to know to be able to negate a sentence. These two signs are NOT and NONE. The non-manual marker for a negated sentence is simply a shake of the head when signing the word NOT or NONE. Also, one must remember that in ASL syntax negation words always come at the end. The only exception to this rule is a WH-word.

NONE is typically used when talking about possession of a noun. It functions similar to the English words none or any.

English: I don't have any dogs.

ASL: #DOG I HAVE NONE

NOT functions the exact way it does in English. Except that in English it is typically found in contractions like don't.

English: I don't like to play tennis.

ASL: TENNIS I LIKE PLAY NOT

The concept of modal verbs is essentially the same in ASL and English. In ASL the modal always comes after the other verbs in the sentence. However, in English it is the very first verb.

English: I can go to the store for you.

ASL: FOR YOU, STORE I GO CAN

The English alphabet has 26 letters and ASL uses a manual alphabet the mimics that of English. Signing numbers is different than the hand-signs that most English speakers use.

Fingerspelling is used for proper nouns. They may include, but are not limited to movie titles, books, names, and street names. When glossing ASL or writing it down, we denote fingerspelled words like this: #DOG. Fingerspelling should not be used in place of a sign. If you do not know what a sign is do not immediately fingerspell. First, one should gesture or attempt to describe the object. If that does not work, then you can fingerspell.

All numbers under one thousand are signed using a single hand, and the second hand is only used to designate that a number is in the thousands or millions. There are separate signs that need to be learned in order to talk about age, time, money, and other concepts. Numbers are used the same way that they are in English.

• Signing Naturally Level 1 by Ken Mikos
• Signing Naturally Level 2 by Ken Mikos
• Signing Naturally Level 3 by Ken Mikos
• The Syntax of American Sign Language: Functional Categories and Hierarchical Structure by Carol Jan Neidle
• Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language by Scott K. Liddell
• Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction, 4th Ed. by Clayton Valli