American Sign Language: Grammar (4)

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Also see: Inflection
 

Question:
Heather writes:  Can you leave out words like "it" "so" "the", etc. when signing?

Dr. Bill: Yes.  Signed English strives to include all those words as separate signs, but ASL simply incorporates them into other signs, non-manual markers (body language and facial expressions), or uses indexing.

When you sign ASL your aren't really "leaving those signs out.  You are simply expressing them in other ways.  For example, the sign "to."  If I want to say, "Do you like to eat ice-cream?"  I would raise my eyebrows slightly, tilt my head forward a bit, and sign, "YOU LIKE ICE-CREAM?"  The word "to" is not necessary for that sentence.  Even in English I can get rid of the word "to" by simply choosing different English words, for example:  "Do you like eating ice-cream," or "You like ice-cream? [while inflecting my voice]"

Another example using "to" is the sentence "I am going to the store."  You would simply sign, "I GO STORE."  The sign "STORE" following the sign "GO" makes perfect sense.  The word "to" is incorporated into the sign "GO" and doesn't need an extra sign.  So rather than thinking of the sign "GO" as the sign "GO" you should think of it as the sign "GO-TO."  That same idea applies to many ASL signs like "WANT-TO" "HAVE-TO" "NEED-TO" "LIKE-TO" "REMEMBER-TO."   For example the sentence, "You need to remember to go to the store" could be signed "YOU NEED REMEMBER GO STORE" or it could be signed, "HEY, STORE YOU GO NEED REMEMBER."  (In real life, if I were communicating with my wife, I'd simply sign "REMEMBER STORE.")

Another example, the word "it" can be done as an indexed motion, (pointing at the "it").  

 "A, an, the" and "be verbs" are also either incorporated into other signs, indexed (pointed at), signed as "TRUE," or indicated through non-manual markers such as a nod of the head.

So remember, even though ASL is not using a specific sign to show these English words, the functions they serve are "still expressed," but in a different form, (body, language, facial expression, syntax, directionality, pointing, etc.)

One more example, with the "head-nod," I can say, "I am a teacher" by signing "ME TEACHER <head-nod>" the function of the words "am a" are taken care of by the head-nod.

Heather: Good! That helps a lot, because it's easier to get the point across without them.

Dr. Bill: Well, actually you are not getting your point across without the little words, rather, the little words are often expressed in a different form (nodding, pointing, changes in the movement path). They aren't gone.  Just different.
However, yes, such changes do help make signing much easier than trying to attach a separate sign to each and every English word.

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Grammar Note:
If you were sitting in a room with other signers waiting for the class to begin and you wanted to know the name of your teacher you would sign: "WHO TEACHER?" This would be understood as: "Who is our teacher?" Notice how we don't need the sign OUR? You would only need the sign OUR if you had to distinguish between your group's teacher and some other group's teacher.

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A student at csus.edu writes:

Dr Bill,
I was studying and it occurred to me that sometimes when someone asks a question in English they furrow their brow when they are asking the question in disbelief, or concern.  Is it legitimate to use the same method to punctuate an ASL sentence if that is the energy you want to put on question?  It seems to me that both the raised brow and furrowed would work to show concern.  Am I completely off base in regard to ASL?
Aaron

Aaron,
Indeed, both English speakers and ASL signers generally show on their face the emotion they are feeling.

Keep in mind that your eyebrows can do double duty.   You can show emotion and you can also use your eyebrows to help with "punctuation" of signed sentences.

For example:
In both ASL and English you show surprise by raising the eyebrows. 
You show concern by lowering your eyebrows. 

In ASL you ask yes or no questions by raising your eyebrows.
In ASL you ask who, what, when, where, when, why and similar "wh-" type questions by lowering your eyebrows.

The challenge comes when you want to ask a sentence such as "Who was surprised?" 

Sure, you could try just signing "SURPRISED-[brows-up] WHO-[brows-down]?" and "hope" that your conversation partner understands you. If there is plenty of context your conversation partner or audience may understand you.

However to reduce ambiguity (in low context situations) you need to restructure your sentence to something like this:
PERSON THEM-SELF FEEL SURPRISED, WHO?

That sentence simply won't work as: YOU MAD?
(Due to the conflict between the yes/no question expression being eyebrows up while the "mad" facial expression is eyebrows furrowed and face scrunched.)

To do "Are you mad?" in ASL it works best to sign:
"MAD-[scowling face], YOU-[eyebrows-up-question-face]?
We put the "are you" at the end to allow for the raising of the eyebrows to create the "yes/no" question punctuation.

From my casual observations it seems to me that English speakers do furrow their brows for questions involving "wh-" type questions (such as who, what, when, etc.) but not as much and not as consistently as ASL users do.
I suspect that if you were to video-record Hearing people asking wh-type questions you would find many do furrow their brows at least slightly. For example, watch Hearing signers ask someone "What time is it?" -- and note what they do with their eyebrows.
Dr. Bill

p.s.
"Surprised concern" is a weird combination of raising and furrowing your eyebrows.
You can express skepticism or question the accuracy of something by lowering one eyebrow and raising the other eyebrow.
(However, not everyone has the physical ability to raise one eyebrow while lowing the other.)