Blog #6: NO V/BLOG

Blog #5: ASL poetry

American Sign Language Poetry: "Hearts and Hands"


Lori Hawk

8/22/2007



Hearts and Hands: ASL Poetry



ASL poetry is a literary form that evolved from the art of sign-language storytelling. Like English oral poetry, signed performance poetry uses the conventions of repetition, rhyme, alliteration, rhythm, and meter to construct linguistic patterns that add emphasis, meaning, and structure to word forms. Unlike traditional verse, modern ASL poetry transforms “phonetic nuances into visual ones and one-dimensional words into three-dimensional shape[s]” (Burch, 1997). Put simply, ASL poets use their hands to sign words and their bodies to express vivid images, related concepts, sudden realizations, conflicting thoughts, and underlying emotions.



Susan Burch, a Gallaudet University history professor, believes that it is precisely this extended use of physical space that allows ASL poetry to expand beyond the conventional framework of written and spoken verse. Rather than simply stringing words together in an abstract fashion, ASL poets combine dynamic handshapes, facial expressions, and body movements that provide simultaneous narrative and commentary during the performance of a work. As a result, ASL poetry is rich in multi-layered meaning yet pristine in its fluid simplicity. However, this literary form did not simply arrive on the scene in its current sophisticated state. Many poets, linguists, and performance artists have played substantial roles in defining, developing, and refining ASL poetry.



Dr. Clayton Valli, a Deaf linguist, author, and poet, was one of the first individuals to analyze and define the basic characteristics of ASL poetry. Identifying traits in signed poetry that corresponded to conventions found in spoken and written forms, Dr. Valli developed the foundational principles for constructing and analyzing ASL works.



Rhyme, according to his findings, is “formed through the repetition of particular handshapes and [the] movement paths of signs” along with the non-manual signals such as facial expressions and body movements (Bauman, 2003). Signs that repeat the same handshape create the basis for ASL’s rhyme scheme which is somewhat similar to English alliteration. In a DVD presentation of Valli’s poems, the narrator, Lon Kuntze, clarifies the idea that this repetition does not refer to the reiteration of initial letters contained in a sign’s English translation, such as the letter “b” in “boy,” “baby,” and “bad” (Valli, 1995). Instead, ASL rhyme refers to the recurrence of a single handshape that is fundamental to a variety of signs, such as the “b” shape used to sign “birth,” “children,” and “adult.” Just as English poetic rhythm is created through stressed and unstressed syllables of verse, ASL poetic rhythm is produced by the intentional action or inaction of signs. By adjusting the pace of a sign, repeating its movement, or pausing to hold it suspended in the air, recurring patterns of motion and stillness shape the rhythm of a poem and structure the meter of its phrases.



Bernard Bragg, a Deaf actor and one of the founders of the National Theatre of the Deaf, uses the terms “spatial-kinetic grammar” and “cinematic poetics” to describe the dramatic application of these movement conventions in ASL poetry (Baumann, 2003). According to Bragg, when a performer signs a work, he makes use of the space around his body in much the same way that a film actor occupies a frame. Framing techniques in movies range from extreme close-up shots to medium, full-body, and expansive long shots. Bragg believes that the large sweeping movements featured in signed poetry are analogous to the close-up shots employed in many films. A tight focus on an actor’s face reveals his inner thoughts just as the unrestrained movement of a poet conveys her genuine emotion. To achieve this level of cinematic variation, poets expand and contract their gestures depending on the audience perspective that is most appropriate to the lines of poetry being delivered. Bold gestures draw observers close and enable intimacy. Discreet movements distance audiences and provide context. Bragg’s research introduced ASL poets to a world of cinematic language and validated the use of non-manual markers and modified signs for performance purposes.



As in most literary forms, current artistic thought and creation is often inspired by the work of that genre’s predecessors. While ASL storytelling and poetry have existed in one form or another since the middle of the twentieth century, it was not until the 1980s that a modernist philosophy took hold. In 1984, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) invited the beat poet, Allen Ginsberg to participate in a workshop focused on poetry and deafness. Ginsberg stirred attendees with his genuine enthusiasm about the visual nature of signed poetry. “Unlike wit and rhyme…a picture can be translated into another language,” he told the crowd (Krentz, 1999). One of the workshop attendees, Patrick Graybill, a Deaf poet dedicated to translating English works into sign language, volunteered to spontaneously interpret a few lines from Ginsberg’s poem, “Howl.” This daring act set the modernist ASL poetry movement on fire.



With his approach toward literature newly altered by Ginsberg’s ideas, Graybill stopped translating English poetry and began composing works of his own in ASL. Graybill’s poetry, in turn, encouraged a generation of emerging ASL poets. One poet named Peter Cook, motivated by the work of Graybill, went on to create a performance duo called Flying Words Project that inspired a hearing poet named Jim Cohn to explore the theoretical parallels between ASL poetry and the modernist writings of Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Allen Ginsberg in a book called Sign Mind: Studies in American Sign Language Poetics.



As ASL poetry moves into the 21st century, Valli’s notion of the “poetics of visual language” continues to guide authors toward a future that is not reliant upon verbal or written forms for definition or validation (Valli, 1995). New techniques and analyses will undoubtedly continue to emerge to meet the needs of ASL poets who are shaping this exciting literary form.



Works Cited

ASL Poetry: Selected Works of Clayton Valli. (1995). Dir. Clayton Valli. Prod. Joe Dannis. DVD. Dawn Pictures, 1995.



Bauman, H-Dirksen, L. (2003). Redesigning literature: the cinematic poets of American Sign Language poetry. Sign Language Studies. Vol. 4, No. 1 Fall 2003, 34-47.



Burch, Susan. (1997). Deaf poets’ society: subverting the hearing paradigm. Literature and Medicine. 16.1, 121-134.



Krentz, Christopher. (1999). Sign Mind: Studies in American Sign Language Poetics by Jim Cohn. Sign Language Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3, Spring 2006, 347-354.





Watch these following ASL poems. After you have completed watching them discuss your favorite and why. After your discussion, create your own based on the concept that your favorite poem used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIkf89zC7qw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LweTSdv5mpM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYzJLBk234A&feature=related

http://vimeo.com/30840690

Blog #4: Crowded Dirty City

Bison TV is a student media production at Gallaudet University.  Students are given an opportunity to run the organization with a variety of positions set, gaining experence to work with media. They entertain viewers with different things such as short skits, latest sports and news report, advertisements, and TV shows.  The mission statement is:

“It is the mission of the Bison TV to provide an avenue for every member of Gallaudet community to express themselves, to bring information of events to the community, and to share ideas through the medium of television.”

Recently, Bison TV has created a new sitcom called, "Crowded Dirty City". I would like you to watch the first episode and answer the following questions.



1) How was this signed sitcom different from spoken sitcoms? (watch how the footage is shot)
2)What examples of Deaf culture did you see without it being directly discussed.
3) Who was your favorite character and why?
4) Where do you think that cultures would clash (understanding of humor, cultural norms and behaviors, etc)
5) What did you learn from this sitcom?
6) What did you struggle with as you watched? What was comfortable for you?

http://deaftv.com/film/1-Crowded/

Blog #3: Translate

I adore Rosa Lee's work. I think she is exceptional and very brave. Loving music in the Deaf community has not always been well received. Separation from music could be seen as strong dedication to Deaf Culture and Deaf identification. Only recently in the last ten years, have I seen more acceptance and performances featuring Deaf people.




Rosa Lee is one of these performs that helped paved the way. I would like you to have the opportunity to see Rosa Lee's work and discuss it. She is amazing. Her style and interpretation of music sets her apart. She channels experiences she has as a Deaf person through her art. I would love to bring her to CSS.



Now a look at Rosa Lee....






Rosa Lee Timm is a Deaf actress who currently lives in Worcester MA. She was born deaf in 1976 in a small country town in California. She grew up in a very close-knit, religious, bi-racial, Deaf family whose first language was American Sign Language. With the constant support of her family and the Deaf community around her, her deafness created no communication or social barriers to her throughout her childhood. Rosa Lee attended a state school for the Deaf for her high school years and she graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Social Work. It was at the Rochester Institute of Technology where she discovered her love for acting. She founded and acted in an acting troupe named Dangerous Signs. Currently, she stars in a one-woman show that she produced entitled The Rosa Lee Show. She is married to a musician/interpreter named Damon Timm and they have one son.





"I’m very proud that I did the one-woman show. When I first started, I was afraid. You know the Deaf community can be very critical. They would criticize if I used too many songs in my show, if the show was boring, if they didn’t really get it, and the deaf community is a close-knit group. And it’s very easy for the opinion of one to influence the entire group. If they didn’t like my show, I would take it personally that they didn’t like me so that didn’t do a lot for my ego. Then I had a conversation with myself and I told myself that’s a challenge for me. If I want to be strong and develop confidence I have to just go ahead and do it anyway. It doesn’t matter if the deaf community likes me or don’t like me, this is my work, this is my art, I have to try. So I am proud of the fact that I did do it, I’m proud of the accomplishments that I made from then to now". -Rosa Lee Timm







Watch this music video by Rosa Lee and her husband Damon Timm. Watch how in the beginning Rosa Lee signs in Signing Exact English then later she changes to ASL. Why do you think she did this? What is her message? Did it express the message of this song? When she switches to ASL, watch her sign selections, look at the words, and finally hear what is being said. What message is she trying to convey? I want you to then summarize her message. Pick out areas of the song and discuss them throughly. You should select at least 5 lyrics. Your vlog response needs to be 3 minutes or more. Select one student's work and watch their video. Disagree and Agree with their summaries and express why.







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-9tBKf87qs&playnext=1&list=PL49071E90559739C5&feature=results_main



Here is her blog. She has several videos to watch. They are very good and very powerful.



http://rosaleeshow.com/tag/video/

Blog/Vlog #2: Why Sign?

This is a great clip to watch about sign language and how treasured it is by Deaf people. Please watch this clip carefully. I suggest you watch it in groups and work your way through it. You may either write or sign your response. Students that decide to sign every comment on this blog/vlog will receive extra credit. However, you must sign ALL of the blogs/vlogs assignments to receive this extra credit.

Here is the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT28OYEqJ0s

I want you to discuss what you understood in this clip (what is being "said", what you feel is the most important message that people should take from this video, and why others should watch it.

If you sign your response it must be at least a minute long.

If you write your comment it needs to be at least a paragraph long.

I look forward to your responses!

~M

Helpful Grade Sheet

Intermediate ASL

Name__________________________________________________________________________________________


Paricipation/attendance_____%

A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D D- F


Vlogs_________%

#1_____/10 #2_____/10 #3_____/10 #4_____/10 #5_____/10 #6_____/10 #7_____/10

#8_____/10



Weekly Assignments_________%

#1_____/10 #2_____/10 #3_____/10 #4_____/10 #5_____/10 #6_____/10 #7_____/10

#8_____/10 #9_____/10 #10_____/10 #11_____/10 #12_____/10 #13_____/10

#14_____/10 #15_____/10



Tutor Sessions___________%

1_____ 2_____ 3_____ 4_____ 5_____ 6_____ 7_____



Midterm_____/_____%

How-To_____/____%


Final_____/____%

Final Receptive Exam_____%

Final Expressive Fairy Tales_____%

Weekly Assignments

Weekly Assignments 5%:
The assignment corner on our class blog will have our weekly assignments posted. These assignments will be posted weekly. The assignments will be from Building ASL interpreting and Translation Skills: Narratives for Practice or I will create them based on the topic we are focusing on that week. Assignments will be given in class and then posted on Monday following our class meeting. Assignments will always be due at the beginning of our class meeting on Friday of the week it was assigned. It is expected that students provide written ASL translations and be ready to sign to the class.

*******Assignment Reminders will be posted in Orange*****
*******Week# will be posted in red*******

*******websites in purple******

******END will be placed at the end of each weekly assignment so you know where each week starts and stops******



Fall Semester Weekly Agenda and Assignments
ASSIGNMENT #1!
Assignment is Due: Friday, September 14th

Week #2: Pronoun Placements, Chapter 1
Select on exercise on the assigned homework. You must translate this assignment into ASL, Draw placements of pronouns and be ready to demonstrate to the class on Friday, September 14th. Place assignment outside my door.

END

ASSIGNMENT#2 !
Assignment is Due: Friday, September 21st
Week #3: Working with Spatial and Locative Space, Chapter 1
Guess my Space:
Create a new assignment for Friday, September 20.
Select a place of your choice to sign to the class. Pay special attention to relationhips of objects.

***4 basic reality principles must be followed to promote correct use of space:
****General to Specfic (creat the background)
****Concrete information before abstract (objects must be placed in space
before actions can occur
****Spatial relationships (how are concepts related to one another?)
****Chronological order (create scenes in actual order they occured)

Record and post recording here, be ready to share this place with your classmates, bring a detailed drawing of your space. This assignment is due on Friday, September 20.

Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHe68tZbiwM

END


ASSIGNMENT #3!
Assignment is Due: Friday, September 28th
Week #4: Verb Types Practice and Demonstration, Chapter 2
Complete the assignment on verb types below for Friday, September 28th.

3 common verb types in ASL
How do you use space to change meanings in ASL????

Plain verbs= “Have to point/index to indicate who or what”

- a verb sign used with indexing or other pronouns to tell who did what to whom

Examples: LAUGH, BE-RAISED, SMILE, OPEN-BOOK, TO - SMELL, BUY, THINK,

ACT, TALK, CHAT

Assignment part #1: Translate  these into ASL and demonstrate them in your video:

Those four boys laughed at the girl.                

 I bought a car last night.

My teachers laughed at me.                             

She smiled at me.

I laughed at my mom.                                    

I was raised in Duluth.

Directional/Inflecting verbs= “Person to Person”

A verb sign that indicates the people involved in the action by where the sign starts and stops in space.

Can be used to “set up” a person in space to be referred to later

The movement indicates two people in different spaces.

Where the sign begins indicates the person doing the action, where it ends indicates the person who the action is being done to.

Examples: TELL, ASK, GIVE, LOOK-AT, SHOW, HELP, GIVE-GIFT, PICK-ON, MAKE-FUN-OF, TEASE, JOIN

Assignment part #2: Practice using in ASL sentences with different verb signs (use a different inflecting verb each time), sign them on your video:

1. I- ___________- you                       
2. I- ___________- him
3. he- ___________- him           
4.  I- ___________- her
5. she- ___________- her            
6. they- ___________- you
7. he- ___________- her             
8. she- ___________- him           
9. she- ___________- you           
10. he- ___________- you

Locational/Spatial verbs = “Place to Place”

A verb sign that indicates the places/locations involved in the action by where the sign starts and stops in space.

Can be used to “set up” a place in space to be referred to later

The movement indicates two places in different spaces.

Where the sign begins indicates the beginning location, where it ends indicates the ending location.

Examples: MOVE, FLY-TO, COMMUTE-TO, ARRIVE, ENTER, MEET, BRING, GO-TO, DRIVE-TO

Assignment part #3: List what type of verb is shown below. Also demonstrate each on on your video

                           

STAR - Plain Verbs

BOX - Directional Verbs

UNDERLINE - Locational Verbs

COMMUTE-TO  (thumbs up handshape move to locative space)     TELL-TO     INFORM-TO

TO-IRON         TO-THINK        TO-SMELL

MISUNDERSTAND   TO-BE-FRUSTRATED    GO-TO

DRIVE-TO            ARRIVE-AT       ENTER

TTY-CALL-TO     RESPECT-TO      BUY

SEND-TO         TO-BE-LATE      ASK-TO

TALK-TO         EXPLAIN-TO      BRING-TO

MEET            CHAT-WITH       LAUGH

MAKE-FUN-OF     LEAVE-QUICKLY       COMPLAIN
BREAK           LOOK-AT         WASH

TO-HAVE         TO-DIE          PAY-TO

LOOK-FOR/SEARCH     PICK-UP         TO-ACT

CL:1' approched me' FALL            PRACTICE

END

ASSIGNMENT #4!
Assigment is Due: Friday, October 5th

Week #5:  Descriptive Adjectives, Chapter 3

American Sign Langauge like other languages provide many ways for descriping people, places or things through the use of adjectives. It is important to note that in ASL adjectives may appear before or after the noun.

Let's take a look at describing people. Listed below are the steps you are to follow when describing people.

First Step:

1. Gender

2. Unique characteristics (nose, eyes, tattoos, etc)

Second Step:

3. Height

4. Body type

5. Hair (color and hairstyle)

  ***This is done largely with classifiers***

6. Eyes (color)

The above descriptives can be placed BEFORE or AFTER the noun

Third Step:

7. clothing (patterns, stripes, plaid, length, ruffles, kind of shirt, kind of pants, etc.)

  ***this is done largely with classifiers***

Before you begin your assignment, I want you to watch and read these links.

How to Describe People in ASL: http://learn-sign-language.wonderhowto.com/how-to/describe-people-with-sign-language-226562/

ASL Classifers: http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/c/classifiers.htm

 

Short Descriptives In ASL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWZS2lj4pfo

The Prirate and the Ninja: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6PZJXlLQsA

Assignment part #1 : Describe 5 famous people in detail following the steps above. Be sure that your descriptions go beyond ASL 1111 and 1112 information. Add details, decriptions and classifiers to your people. Your classmates should be able to guess who you are describing.

Assignment part #2: Create a short story similiar to the Prirate and the Ninja. Your story needs to be 3-4 minutes in length. Watch the Prirate and the Nina several times and tune into the descriptives adjectives and classifiers that are used. Now that you are in the second year of ASL you should be able to spot quickly which are signs and which are classifiers.

Here are your themes:

The Joker and Batman

Harry Potter and He Who Shall Not Be Named

Peter Pan and Captin Hook

Arial and Ursula

Cinderella and the Evil Step Mother

Batman and Robin

Adam and Eve

Woody and Buzzlightyear

Lucy and Ethel

Honey Boo Boo and Mama June

Burt and Ernie

Jack and Jill

Rose and Jack (Titanic)

Jekyll and Hyde

Clark Kent and Lois Lane
Will and Grace

Dorothy and the Wicked Witch
Pick your own

End

Assignment #5
Assignment due: Friday, October 12, 2012


Week #5 October 8-12:  Topic/comment Chapter 5

ASL Topic/Comment & Topicalization




Topic/Comment and topicalization structure can be tricky. Here I attempt to help you better understand how to structure your sentences in ASL.

Information from Bill Vicar at: http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/grammar5.htm

Let me state up front: ASL follows several different word orders depending on what is needed.

Which word order you choose depends on what you are trying to do: explain, remind, confirm, negate, cause to consider, etc.

Much of your confusion (and that of others) has to do with the fact that you can use either a subject or object as your "topic" in a sentence.

If you use the subject as your topic, you are using "active voice."

Example: The boy threw the ball. (BOY THROW BALL)

If you use the object as your topic your are using "passive voice."

Example: The ball was thrown by the boy. (BALL? BOY THROW).



Note that the active voice: BOY THROW BALL is definitely SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT word order.

The passive voice is: OBJECT-SUBJECT-VERB word order.



Both of those can be considered TOPIC COMMENT:

Topic: BOY Comment: THROW BALL (active voice)

Topic: BALL Comment: BOY THROW (passive voice)



In the passive voice sentence the "ball" which is actually the object is being used as the topic, and the comment is that it "was thrown by the boy."



So, you can see that the topic can be either a subject or an object.

A "topic" is simply that to which a comment is referring. A topic is what you are talking about.

My topic can be a "BOY" or it can be the "BALL" he is throwing.

The BOY can be the subject of the sentence: BOY THROW BALL

The BOY can be the object of the sentence. BALL HIT BOY

The BALL can be the subject of the sentence. BALL HIT BOY

The BALL can be the object of the sentence. BOY THROW BALL

My comment can be "THROW BALL"

My comment can be "HIT BOY"

Therefore a TOPIC-COMMENT sentence structure can use either a SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT word order, or it can use an OBJECT, SUBJECT VERB word order.

When you use "OBJECT, SUBJECT VERB" order you are doing something called "topicalizing" or you are using "topicalization." Topicalization simply means to take the object of your sentence and turn it into your topic.

You do this by using "yes/no question expression" (raised eyebrows) while signing the topic, and then making a comment about the topic. During the comment portion of your sentence your facial expression should match the intent of the comment, (negation, affirmation, declaration).

At this point in the discussion you might be wondering:

"When should I use passive voice instead of active voice?"

Another way to ask that same question is, "When should you use topicalization?"

Another way to ask that same question, "When should you put the object at the front of the sentence while raising your eyebrows?"

There are several situations when you should topicalize. A few examples applying to ASL are:

1. Unknown subject: When the subject is unknown: MY WALLET? GONE! (I don't know why it is missing, if it was stolen, or who stole it. Thus to state this with active voice I'd have to sign something to the effect of, "SOMONE STOLE MY WALLET" – which takes longer.)

2. Irrelevancy: MY CAR? SOLD! (It doesn't really matter who sold it. Just that the process is over. So why should I waste time explaining who sold it? Maybe it was my friend's uncle that sold it to his coworker. So what. It's gone!)

3. Expediency: MY SIDEKICK? FOUND! (If I explained to you last week that was at the county fair and lost my text messaging device I don't want to have to explain it to you again if you still remember what I told you before. So I sign "SIDEKICK" with my eyebrows up and then when you nod in recognition that tells me you do indeed remember the conversation, then I go ahead and tell you that it was found.)



Unfortunately some instructors overemphasize topicalization or give the impression that the majority of ASL communication is topicalized. The fact is many (if not most) ASL sentences are simply SUBJECT-VERB (transitive)-OBJECT, example: "BOY THROW BALL" or are SUBJECT-VERB (intransitive), for example: "HE LEFT."

Now let's be clear that TOPIC COMMENT is not the same thing as topicalization.

TOPIC COMMENT means stating a topic and then making a comment.

Topicalization means that you are using the object of the sentence as the topic.



You can use TOPIC COMMENT sentence structure without using topicalization.

You can use TOPIC COMMENT sentence structure by using topicalization.

You can use TOPIC COMMENT sentence structure by using SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT

You can use TOPIC COMMENT sentence structure by using SUBJECT-VERB (HE RUN.)

You can use TOPIC COMMENT sentence structure by using SUBJECT-NOUN (HE HOME = "He is home.")

You can use TOPIC COMMENT sentence structure by using SUBJECT-ADJECTIVE (HE TALL = "He is tall.")

You can use TOPIC COMMENT sentence structure by using OBJECT, SUBJECT-VERB ("MONEY? she-GIVE-me).

All of the above constitutes only a partial list of ways to express grammatically correct ASL. In each case the topic is simply what you are "talking about



Assigment:

Translate and sign the following:

1. Last night my boyfriend/girlfriend and I went out to eat. Do you know that new resturant called, Noodles and Company? It is amazing. You can get whatever kind of pasta you want, they have the coolest pop machine, and their prices are not that bad. Anyways, we really liked it and I think we will go there again soon.

Hint: Remember the sign for KIND looks like TYPES

2. Have you seen the movie called, Breaking Dawn? It is a movie that is about vampires. A human and a vampire fall in love. No Anyways, I do not like it but so many people are crazy about it. I am not sure why. I think it is kind of stupid.

Hint: CRAZY-ABOUT is one sign
        FALL-IN-LOVE is one sign

3. Do you see that man over there? He has brown hair with a little grey, blue eyes, freckles and a beard. he is sitting over there near a woman in the red coat. He is the pastor at my church. He is so nice and very friendly. Last week he gave a wonderful sermon. His sermon inspired me to volunteer this week. You should meet him.

Hint: SERMON/LECTURE are the same sign

4. My sister has the coolest broom. It is magic. If you tap it three times it will flash blue, green and purple lights. Last week, she took me for a ride all over the city. I wish I had a broom like her.

Hint: Classifiers will be needed to show riding (two people)

5.  Do you know my teacher named, Monica? She teaches ASL. She has long brown hair and brown eyes. She always wears her hair up and has black on. Do you know where Monica's office is? I think it is on the third floor but I am not sure.

Hint: Office is signed like BOX with two "O" handshapes or like COP (this sign is regional)

6. Create your own. Introduce a topic to me and comment on it.

Topic/Comment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0AvJadl85Y&feature=related

END


ASSIGNMENT #6!
Assignment is Due: No Assignment this week
Week #7: STUDY FOR MIDTERM (weeks 1-7)

end

 Assignment #7: Informative Presentation
Assignment is Due: October 26
Week #8: First Draft of Presentation
end

Assignment #8: Informative Presentation

Assignment is Due: Nov. 5

Week #9: Discuss one thing from each presentation that you felt was beneficial and interesting. Provide feedback to each student. Each student should be given constructive feedback as well as feedback on something they performed very well.

end

Assignment #9: Classifiers

Assignment is Due: Nov. 12

Week #10:

Interpret English to ASL Sentences:

Activity 1: Which classifier would you choose for the following items:

1.buttons

2. toothbrush

3. dress with polka dots 13. brushing your hair

4. a V neck top 14. taking off your glasses

5. coins 15. sharpening a pencil

6. two people walking along a path 16. a long hallway

7. a thick tree trunk 17. a tree being chopped

8. a person walking with a limp 18. a staggering walk

9. racing bike handles 19. a cat sneaking around

10. toes wiggling in the sand 20. carrying a big dog

11. scar on arm

 12. a drinking straw

Activity II: Which classifier would you use to interpret these English sentences into ASL?

1. The car is parked in front of the tree.

2. I saw Fred coming toward me.

3. She has two necklaces (of differing lengths) on.

4. Please hand me the dictionary.

5. He drank his mug of beer in 15 seconds!

6. The house has four pillars in front.

7. I saw six birds sitting on a telephone line.

8. The automatic sliding glass door kept opening and shutting. (It was

broken).

9. There were four people following a leader through the maze.

10. The little boy struggled through the deep snow.

11. Would you please fine tune the radio?

12. Take the full soup tureen to the table.

13. The top shelf has trophies, the middle shelf has books and the bottom

shelf has stacks of paper.

14. A bird was sitting on a tree.

15. I saw a house being built on top of a hill.

16. Do you eat pizza with your fingers or with a fork?

17. A lion was pacing back and forth in his cage.

18. I watched the motorcross race across rough terrain.

19. The kids were laughing as they sledded down a snowy hill.

20. Please flip the burgers.

21. I saw a person walking in circles.

22. This guy has a hat with many political campaign buttons on it.

23. As a wedding gift, they got a set of juice glasses.

24. The sculpture is unusual. It is a huge mound with many straight

and zig zag lines going every which way on it.

25. There were three pictures on the wall, one is hung crookedly.

26. Have you ever drunk coffee from a demitasse cup?

27. The submarine submerged and you can only glimpse a small

periscope in the water.

28. The frightened horse galloped and jumped over a fence. The rider fell

off but luckily landed on thick brush.

29. The young boy struggled through the marshy swamp.

30. The old crooked man walked slowly down the street.

Assignment #10: Tenses

Assignment is Due: Nov. 19

Week #11:Translate these sentences in ASL. Be sure to add tenses (the concept may be present in the English sentence but not the specific tense indicator)

1. I went to the store yesterday.

2. I want to marry my girlfriend someday.

3. I will do my homework, calm down.

4. Have you seen the movie called, "Arthur's Christams"? 

5. I am sorry, I have to leave soon. Is that ok?

6. My parents met many years ago.

7. Last night I was sick, I threw up 10 times.

8. I will do my homework later. I am busy now with work.

9. What do you want to become when you graduate

10. What do you think the world will look like in 50 years?

11. Last month I met your mother. She is nice.

12. I am not yet finished with my homework. I will be finished in two hours.

13. My brother is late. Do you know why?

14. Everyday I go to work. I am tired of it.

15. Today I am going to the store, do you want to join me?

16. I already did my homework. Why do you not believe me?

17. Have you been to New York?

18. Yesterday I went to the doctor, tomorrow I need to go to the dentist. Wow it is a busy week!

19. Last week I got an A on my test.

20. I took my drivers test a long time ago. I know how to drive!

Assignment #11: Fairy Tales

NO ASSIGNMENT WORK ON FAIRY TALES

 

Our Class Week By Week

Course Overview is a long list of ASL components we will learn this year. Please highlight as we learn those areas.

Week #1
Class information
Welcome Back
Game: It's Just a Deaf life

Agenda:
Get back into the flow

Course Overview:

The grammar of American Sign Language (ASL) is the best studied of any sign language, though research is still in its infancy, dating back only to William Stokoe in the 1960s. Stokoe was the first linguist to approach any sign language as a full natural language with its own grammar, an approach which is now accepted practice for all Deaf-community sign languages. Stokoe's phonological model, for example, has been successfully applied to several other sign languages, such as British Sign Language, which is not closely related to ASL.

Phonology
Stokoe concentrated primarily on establishing the phonology of ASL, calling the building blocks of signs 'cheremes', from the Greek cheir- 'hand', by analogy with the phonemes and tonemes of oral languages. However, it has since been recognized that these are cognitively equivalent, and linguists since Stokoe's time have used the terms 'phoneme' and 'phonology' for all languages, oral and sign. All of these linguists divided ASL signs into several phonemic features: hand shape, palm orientation, hand movement, hand location, as well as non-manual features such as facial expression, posture, and mouthing. In early theoretical approaches, movement was treated as simultaneous or sequential motions of the hand, on par with other features; while in many more recent approaches, movement is treated as the tempo of the language rather than as a feature per se: Signs are divided into segments of movement and hold, each of which consists of a set of the other features of hand shape, orientation, location, and any non-manual features.[1]
Non-manual signs and prosody
ASL conveys prosody through facial expression and upper-body position. Head position, eyebrows, eye gaze, blinks, and mouth positions all convey important linguistic information in sign languages.

Some signs have required facial components that distinguish them from other signs. An example of this sort of lexical distinction is the sign translated 'not yet', which requires that the tongue touch the lower lip and that the head rotate from side to side, in addition to the manual part of the sign. Without these features it would be interpreted as 'late'.[2]

Non-manual signs show grammatical information such as question markers, negation or affirmation, topicalization, conditional clauses, and relative clauses. For example, raised eyebrows with a forward head tilt and lengthened final sign in the sentence mark that sentence as a yes/no question. Raised eyebrows are also used to mark the topic of a sentence when it is marked, usually at the beginning of the sentence, and conditional or relative clauses.[3] Eye gaze is used to mark the object of agreement verbs, though it is not used to mark arguments of other types of verbs.[4]

A third function of non-manual signs is to show adjectival and adverbial information. An open mouth, squinted eyes, and tilted back head show that something is far away in time or space, while a mouth pulled to one side and that cheek and shoulder moved close show that something is very close. If the tongue is visible in the corner of a slightly open mouth while an action is being described it shows that it was done carelessly.[3]

Additionally, non-manual signs perform discourse functions. Eye gaze and head shakes are used to regulate the flow of conversation and to signal self-repair.[5][6]

Though there are some non-manual signs that are used for a number of functions, proficient signers don't have any more difficulty decoding what raised eyebrows mean in a specific context than speakers of English have figuring out what the pitch contour of a sentence in context means. The use of similar facial changes such as eyebrow height to convey both prosody and grammatical distinctions is similar to the overlap of prosodic pitch and lexical or grammatical tone in a tone language.[7]

Hand orientation, movement, and hold
Phonologically distinctive sign movements include linear, internal, and complex movements. The six fundamental directions of linear movement are up, down, in (toward the signer), out (away from the signer), contralateral (toward the center or the opposite hand), and ipsilateral (outward toward the side of the signing hand). Diagonal movement is considered to be composed of those fundamental directions. Internal movements include twisting of the wrist, bending of the wrist or fingers, opening the hand, closing the hand, and wriggling the fingers. Complex movements include touching a location, crossing hands or fingers, grasping, entering (inserting the hand or fingers between the fingers of the other hand), approaching a location (or the hands to each other), separating from a location (or the hands from each other), brushing a location, exchanging hands, and circling motion of the hand or arm. These movements may involve 'salient' forearms, so that crossing the hands is realized as crossing extended arms.
When both hands are actively used for motion (instead of the 'weak' hand acting as a passive location for the 'dominant' hand), their motions may be parallel (both to the left or right), mirror images (approaching or separating), or alternating (180° out of phase, like legs pedaling a bicycle).

Stokoe et al. (1965) described signs as simultaneous, each segment of which is composed of one or more of the movement phonemes listed above, such as a fist moving outward while opening and then moving downward while closing again. Orientation was conflated with handshape into a feature called the designator or dez. However, since that time a variety of other approaches have refined that model. Orientation is now generally considered a feature in its own right, separate from handshape. Liddell (1982) divides signs into phonological sequences, which may be either movements or holds. Liddell likens this to the division of oral language into consonants and vowels, with the Stokoe approach likened to the division of speech into syllables. For Liddell and those who follow him, each movement or hold consists of a set of the other features: Shape, orientation, location, and non-manual. A sign may consist of just a hold (that is, it may be without movement), or of movement plus a hold, or a hold plus movement, or more complex sequences. This simplifies the description of ASL morphology considerably.

Handshape
While it can be approximated that there are around 150 handshapes, not all are phonemically distinct in ASL. This is very similar to how there are hundreds of linguistically producible sounds, but only some are considered phonemically distinct in English. Phonemically distinct ASL handshapes (not considering finger spelling and initialization) are:
fist with thumb on side (the shape of the ASL letters A, or 10),
fist with thumb on front (S),
fist with thumb between index and middle finger (T)
flat hand with fingers together (B),
flat hand with fingers apart (4),
spread (and sometimes clawed) hand (5 or E),
cupped hand (C),
thumb touching fingertips (O),
pointing index finger with fist hand (1 or Z),
pointing index finger with lotus hand (D),
hooked index finger (X),
pointing pinky finger (I or J),
index and middle fingers together (U or H),
index and middle fingers apart (V or 2),
'chopsticks' hand (K or P),
thumb and index finger apart (L),
thumb, index, and middle finger extended (3),
thumb touching pinky (6 or W),
thumb touching index finger, other fingers extended (F or 9),
crossed fingers (R),
fist with pinky and thumb extended (Y),
flat hand with middle finger bent (open 8),
fist with pinky and index finger extended (horns),
fist with pinky, index, and thumb extended (ILY), and
fist with bent index and middle finger extended (snake classifier).

These handshapes are constrained in their interactions. For example, the 5 and F handshapes usually make contact with another part of the body through the tip of the thumb, whereas the K and Y/8 handshapes usually only make contact through the tip of the middle finger, and the X handshape with the flexed joint of the index finger. The L hand usually makes contact by means of the thumb, though contact with the index finger would be just as easy: when contact is made with the index finger, the position of the thumb is unimportant, so the same signer may sometimes use a handshape closer to a letter G, and sometimes closer to a letter L; the G shape is considered more basic, and therefore these are considered allophones of the G hand.

Classifiers
The movement or shape of certain signs can be modified in such a way as to include information about a referent's type, size, shape, movement, or extent. Those signs which have this ability are "classifiers." It might be more accurate to call them "potential classifiers" since whether or not these "potential classifiers" become actual classifiers depends on how they are used in context. Some linguists use the term polycomponential or polymorphemic signs.[8]
In terms of acquisition of classifiers, there is some debate when talking about the age of acquisition. Some researchers argue that there is evidence of children using classifiers as early as 1–3 years of age.[9][10] Others argue that deaf children do not master the classifier system until years later.[11][12][13] The researchers that argue that acquisition of classifiers comes earlier often admit that not all classifier constructions are acquired at such early ages, with some constructions not being mastered until 5–12 years of age. The researchers that argue for later acquisition of classifiers wait until this point of mastery. Thus, we get two differing positions on the acquisition of classifiers. Separate from this debate, some researchers instead just propose criteria necessary for determining mastery of classifiers. These criteria include: learning the structure and constraints for each type of classifier handshape, which classifier handshapes can be used to represent various entities, how to represent multiple objects, how to incorporate movement with the classifier handshapes, and how to represent different scales and viewpoints.[14] More research needs to be done to determine if these factors are acquired in stages, and if so, the ordering of the stages.

Location
Of all the possible locations on the body or in space, twelve are used to distinguish signs in ASL:
the whole face or head,
the upper face (forehead or brow),
the mid face (eyes or nose),
the lower face (chin or mouth),
the side face (cheek, temple, or ear),
the neck,
the trunk (shoulders, chest, and belly),
the upper arm,
the forearm (including the elbow),
the inside of the wrist,
the back of the wrist, and
the other (weak) hand: In this case, the weak hand may take one of the simpler handshapes listed above, such as the A, O, B, G, H, V, or L handshapes, but not others such as X or R.
In addition, the sign may be made in 'neutral' space in front of the chest (zero location).
For example, a 5 hand tapping the forehead means 'father', a 5 hand tapping the chin means 'mother', and a 5 hand tapping the sternum (upper chest) means 'fine'.
Signs may be made with two active hands, oriented in a specific way both to each other and to the body locations.

Referent locus system
In addition to phonological location, there is also indexic location. For example, the 2nd/3rd-person pronoun points to its referent, or to a point in space (a 'locus') that has been designated to represent that referent. Directional (indexic) verbs [see below] are similar. However, no words are distinguished by such divisions of signing space.
A referent locus may be set up by signing a noun and then pointing to a certain spot in sign space. The signer can later refer back to that noun by pointing to its associated location (that is, by using an indexic pronoun), or by incorporating the location into the motion of an indexic verb. For instance, if the signer points to a spot over their right shoulder when referring to their grandmother in another city, they can then mention her again by pointing over their shoulder instead of repeating 'my out-of-town grandmother'. Perhaps as many as eight loci may be productively used to distinguish pronouns in a conversation, before the speakers become overloaded, whereas English is restricted to three third-person pronouns: he, she, and they.
Nouns can be set up without the need for initially pointing by making a sign for them at a salient point in space near the signer. This is often accompanied by the facial expression that indicates a topic. (See below.) For example, when discussing football, a signer can sign 'college' on their left (most likely by signing 'college' in neutral space and extending the final hold to the locus being set up), fingerspell P-R-O at a locus on their right (that is, off to one side rather than in neutral space), and then ask whether the addressee prefers collegiate or professional games by signing 'you like which?', with the indexic pronoun 'which' oscillating between the two loci.

Morphology
ASL morphology is to a large extent iconic. This shows up especially well in reduplication and indexicality.
While many oral languages have both inflectional and derivational morphology, ASL appears to have only derivational morphology (Liddell 2004). There are no inflections for tense, number, or person. Person is indicated indexically with some verbs, but the form this takes is specific to each verb, and cannot be arbitrarily extended to new verbs the way verbal inflections can. A similar situation exists with verbal number.

DegreeMouthing (making what appear to be speech sounds) is important for fluent signing, and it has morphological uses. For example, one may sign 'man tall' to indicate the man is tall, but by mouthing the syllable cha while signing 'tall', the phrase becomes that man is enormous!
There are other ways of modifying a verb or adjective to make it more intense. These are all more or less equivalent to adding the word "very" in English; which morphology is used depends on the word being modified. Certain words which are short in English, such as 'sad' and 'mad', are fingerspelled rather than signed to mean 'very sad' and 'very mad'. Others are reduplicated. Some signs are produced with an exaggeratedly large motion, so that they take up more sign space than normal. This may involve a back-and-forth scissoring motion of the arms to indicate that the sign ought to be yet larger, but that one is physically incapable of making it big enough. Many other signs are given a slow, tense production. The fact that this modulation is morphological rather than merely mimetic can be seen in the sign for 'fast': both 'very slow' and 'very fast' are signed by making the motion slower and more deliberate than it is in the citation forms of 'slow' and 'fast', not by making it slower for 'very slow' and faster for 'very fast'.

ReduplicationReduplication (morphological repetition) is extremely common in ASL. Generally the motion of the sign is shortened as well as repeated. Nouns may be derived from verbs through reduplication. For example, the noun chair is formed from the verb to sit by repeating it with a reduced degree of motion. Similar relationships exist between acquisition and to get, airplane and to fly (on an airplane), also window and to open/close a window.
Reduplication is commonly used to express intensity as well as several verbal aspects (see below). It is also used to derive signs such as 'every two weeks' from 'two weeks', and is used for verbal number (see below), where the reduplication is iconic for the repetitive meaning of the sign.

Compounds
Many ASL words are historically compounds. However, the two elements of these signs have fused, with features being lost from one or both, to create what might be better called a blend than a compound. Typically only the final hold (see above) remains from the first element, and any reduplication is lost from the second.

An example is the verb AGREE, which derives from the two signs THINK and ALIKE. The verb THINK is signed by bringing a 1 hand inward and touching the forehead (a move and a hold). ALIKE is signed by holding two 1 hands parallel, pointing outward, and bringing them together two or three times. The compound/blend AGREE starts as THINK ends: with the index finger touching the forehead (the final hold of that sign). In addition, the weak hand is already in place, in anticipation of the next part of the sign. Then the hand at the forehead is brought down parallel to the weak hand; it approaches but does not make actual contact, and there is no repetition.

AffixesAffixes are extremely common in oral languages, which except for suprasegmental features such as tone are tightly constrained by the sequential nature of voice sounds. In ASL, however, morphemes may be expressed simultaneously, and perhaps consequently there are only a few affixes.

One of these, transcribed as '-er', is made by placing two B or 5 hands in front of the torso, palms facing each other, and lowering them. On its own this sign means 'person'; in a compound sign following a verb, it is a suffix for the performer of the action, as in 'drive-er' and 'teach-er'. However, it cannot generally be used to translate English '-er', as it is used with a much more limited set of verbs. It is very similar to the '-ulo' suffix in Esperanto, meaning 'person' by itself and '-related person' when combined with other words.

An ASL prefix, (touching the chin), is used with number signs to indicate 'years old'. The prefix completely assimilates with the initial handshape of the number. For instance, 'fourteen' is signed with a B hand that bends several times at the knuckles. The chin-touch prefix in 'fourteen years old' is thus also made with a B hand. For 'three years old', however, the prefix is made with a 3 hand.

Numeral incorporation and classifiers
Rather than relying on sequential affixes, ASL makes heavy use of simultaneous modification of signs. One example of this is found in the aspectual system (see below); another is numeral incorporation: There are several families of two-handed signs which require one of the hands to take the handshape of a numeral. Many of these deal with time. For example, drawing the dominant hand lengthwise across the palm and fingers of a flat B hand indicates a number of weeks; the dominant hand takes the form of a numeral from one to nine to specify how many weeks. There are analogous signs for 'weeks ago' and 'weeks from now', etc., though in practice several of these signs are only found with the lower numerals.
ASL also has a system of classifiers which may be incorporated into signs. A fist may represent an inactive object such as a rock (this is the default or neutral classifier), a horizontal ILY hand may represent an aircraft, a horizontal 3 hand (thumb pointing up and slightly forward) a motor vehicle, an upright G hand a person on foot, an upright V hand a pair of people on foot, and so on through higher numbers of people. These classifiers are moved through sign space to iconically represent the actions of their referents. For example, an ILY hand may 'lift off' or 'land on' a horizontal B hand to sign an aircraft taking off or landing; a 3 hand may be brought down on a B hand to sign parking a car; and a G hand may be brought toward a V hand to represent one person approaching two.

Frames
Frames are a morphological device that may be unique to sign languages (Liddell 2004). They are incomplete sets of the features which make up signs, and they combine with existing signs, absorbing features from them to form a derived sign. It is the frame which specifies the number and nature of segments in the resulting sign, while the basic signs it combines with lose all but one or two of their original features.

One, the WEEKLY frame, consists of a simple downward movement. It combines with the signs for the days of the week, which then lose their inherent movement. For example, 'Monday' consists of an M/O hand made with a circling movement. 'MondayWEEKLY' (that is, 'on Mondays') is therefore signed as an M/O hand that drops downward, but without the circling movement. A similar DAILY frame (a sideward pan) combines with times of the day, such as 'morning' and 'afternoon', which likewise keep their handshape and location but lose their original movement. Numeral incorporation (see above) also uses frames. However, in ASL frames are most productively utilized for verbal aspect.

Verbal aspect
While there is no grammatical tense in ASL, there are numerous verbal aspects. These are produced by modulating the verb: Through reduplication, by placing the verb in an aspectual frame (see above), or with a combination of these means.

An example of an aspectual frame is the unrealized inceptive aspect ('just about to X'), illustrated here with the verb 'to tell'. 'To tell' is an indexical (directional) verb, where the index finger (a G hand) begins with a touch to the chin and then moves outward to point out the recipient of the telling. 'To be just about to tell' retains just the locus and the initial chin touch, which now becomes the final hold of the sign; all other features from the basic verb (in this case, the outward motion and pointing) are dropped and replaced by features from the frame (which are shared with the unrealized inceptive aspects of other verbs such as 'look at', 'wash the dishes', 'yell', 'flirt', etc.). These frame features are: Eye gaze toward the locus (which is no longer pointed at with the hand), an open jaw, and a hand (or hands, in the case of two-hand verbs) in front of the trunk which moves in an arc to the onset location of the basic verb (in this case, touching the chin), while the trunk rotates and the signer inhales, catching her breath during the final hold. The hand shape throughout the sign is whichever is required by the final hold, in this case a G hand.

The variety of aspects in ASL can be illustrated by the verb 'to be sick', which involves the middle finger of the Y/8 hand touching the forehead, and which can be modified by a large number of frames. Several of these involve reduplication, which may but need not be analyzed as part of the frame. (The appropriate non-manual features are not described here.)stative "to be sick" is made with simple iterated contact, typically with around four iterations. This is the basic, citation form of the verb.

inchoative "to get sick, to take sick" is made with a single straight movement to contact and a hold of the finger on the forehead.
predisposional "to be sickly, to be prone to get sick" is made with incomplete motion: three even circular cycles without contact. This aspect adds reduplication to verbs such as 'to look at' which do not already contain repetition.

susceptative "to get sick easily" is made with a thrusting motion: The onset is held; then there is a brief, tense thrust that is checked before actual contact can be made.
frequentative "to be often sick" is given a marcato articulation: A regular beat, with 4-6 iterations, and marked onsets and holds.
susceptive and frequentive may be combined to mean "to get sick easily and often": Four brief thrusts on a marked, steady beat, without contact with the forehead.
protractive "to be continuously sick" is made with a long, tense hold and no movement at all.
incessant "to get sick incessantly" has a reduplicated tremolo articulation: A dozen tiny, tense, uneven iterations, as rapid as possible and without contact.durative "to be sick for a long time" is made with a reduplicated elliptical motion: Three slow, uneven cycles, with a heavy downward brush of the forehead and an arching return. iterative "to get sick over and over again" is made with three tense movements and slow returns to the onset position.
intensive "to be very sick" is given a single tense articulation: A tense onset hold followed by a single very rapid motion to a long final hold. resultative "to become fully sick" (that is, a complete change of health) is made with an accelerando articulation: A single elongated tense movement which starts slowly and heavily, accelerating to a long final hold.
approximative "to be sort of sick, to be a little sick" is made with a reduplicated lax articulation: A spacially extremely reduced, minimal movement, involving a dozen iterations without contact.
semblitive "to appear to be sick" [no description]increasing "to get more and more sick" is made with the movements becoming more and more intense.
These modulations readily combine with each other to create yet finer distinctions. Not all verbs take all aspects, and the forms they do take will not necessarily be completely analogous to the verb illustrated here. Conversely, not all aspects are possible with this one verb.
Aspect is unusual in ASL in that transitive verbs derived for aspect lose their transitivity. That is, while you can sign 'dog chew bone' for the dog chewed on a bone, or 'she look-at me' for she looked at me, you cannot do the same in the durative to mean the dog gnawed on the bone or she stared at me. Instead, you must use other strategies, such as a topic construction (see below) to avoid having an object for the verb.

Verbal number
Reduplication is also used for expressing verbal number. Verbal number indicates that the action of the verb is repeated; in the case of ASL it is apparently limited to transitive verbs, where the motion of the verb is either extended or repeated to cover multiple object or recipient loci. (Simple plurality of action can also be conveyed with reduplication, but without indexing any object loci; in fact, such aspectual forms do not allow objects, as noted above.) There are specific dual forms (and for some signers trial forms), as well as plurals. With dual objects, the motion of the verb may be made twice with one hand, or simultaneously with both; while with plurals the object loci may be taken as a group by using a single sweep of the signing hand while the verbal motion is being performed, or individuated by iterating the move across the sweep. For example, 'to ask someone a question' is signed by flexing the index finger of an upright G hand in the direction of that person; the dual involves flexing it at both object loci (sequentially with one hand or simultaneously with both), the simple plural involves a single flexing which spans the object group while the hand arcs across it, and the individuated plural involves multiple rapid flexings while the hand arcs. If the singular verb uses reduplication, that is lost in the dual and plural forms.

Syntax
ASL syntax is primarily conveyed through a combination of word order and non-manual features. Early accounts of word order, among other issues, were often confused because non-manual features were not considered.
Word order
The basic constituent order of clauses in ASL is subject–object-verb or object-subject-verb (Mastering ASL). However, the subject, object, or both may be expressed as a topic and then omitted from the clauses and sentences that follow, as ASL is a pro-drop language. The full sentence structure in ASL is [topic] [subject] verb [object] [subject-pronoun-tag]. Topics and tags are both indicated with non-manual features, and both give a great deal of flexibility to ASL word order. Within a noun phrase, the word order is noun-number and noun-adjective.
ASL does not have a copula (linking 'to be' verb). For example, my hair is wet is signed 'my hair wet', and my name is Pete may be signed '[name my]TOPIC P-E-T-E'.

Topic and main clauses
A topic sets off background information that will be discussed in the following main clause. Topic constructions are not often used in standard English, but they are common in some dialects, as in,That dog, I never could hunt him.
In ASL, the eyebrows are raised during the production of a topic, and often a slight pause follows:[meat] I like lambAs for meat, I prefer lamb.ASL utterances do not require topics, but their use is extremely common. They are used for purposes of information flow, to set up referent loci (see above), and to supply objects for verbs which are grammatically prevented from taking objects themselves (see below).Without a topic, the dog chased my cat is signed:
dog chase my cat

However, people tend to want to set up the object of their concern first and then discuss what happened to it. In English, we do this with passive clauses: my cat was chased by the dog. In ASL, topics are used with similar effect:[my cat]TOPIC dog chaseor literallyMy cat, the dog chased it.
If the word order of the main clause is changed, the meaning of the utterance also changes:
[my cat]TOPIC chase dogmeansmy cat chased the dogliterally, "My cat, it chased the dog."
Subject pronoun tags

Information may also be added after the main clause as a kind of 'afterthought'. In ASL this is commonly seen with subject pronouns. These are accompanied by a nod of the head, and make a statement more emphatic:
boy fall"The boy fell down."
versus
boy fall [he]TAG"The boy fell down, he did."
The subject need not be mentioned, as in
fall"He fell down."
versus
fall [he]TAG"He fell down, he did."Aspect, topics, and transitivity
As noted above, in ASL aspectually marked verbs cannot take objects. To deal with this, the object must be known from context so that it does not need to be further specified. This is accomplished in two ways:

The object may be made prominent in a prior clause, or
It may be used as the topic of the utterance at hand.
Of these two strategies, the first is the more common. For my friend was typing her term paper all night to be used with a durative aspect, this would result in
my friend type T-E-R-M paper. typeDURATIVE all-night
The less colloquial topic construction may come out as,
[my friend]TOPIC, [T-E-R-M paper]TOPIC, typeDURATIVE all-night

NegationNegated clauses may be signaled by shaking the head during the entire clause. A topic, however, cannot be so negated; the headshake can only be produced during the production of the main clause. (A second type of negation starts with the verb and continues to the end of the clause.)
In addition, in many communities, negation is put at the end of the clause, unless there is a wh- question word. For example, the sentence, "I thought the movie was not good," could be signed as, "BEFORE MOVIE ME SEE, THINK WHAT? IT GOOD NOT."
There are two manual signs that negate a sentence, NOT and NONE, which are accompanied by a shake of the head. NONE is typically used when talking about possession:
English: I don't have any dogs.
ASL: DOG I HAVE NONE
NOT negates a verb:
English: I don't like to play tennis.
ASL: TENNIS I LIKE PLAY NOT

Questions
Yes-no questions are signaled by raising the eyebrows, while wh- (information) questions require a lowering of the eyebrows. In both, the questioner leans forward slightly and extends the duration of the last sign. Yes-no questions do not involve a change of word order. In wh- questions, the question word may come at the end, unlike in English where it is the first word in the question.
you eat [what?]What are you eating?
Raised eyebrows are also used for rhetorical questions which are not intended to elicit an answer, for the same reason that general topic–comment structures have raised eyebrows on the topic portion. Rhetorical questions are much more common in ASL than in English. For example, I don't like garlic may be signed,[I like]NEGATIVE [what?]RHETORICAL, garlic.
This strategy is commonly used instead of signing the word 'because' for clarity or emphasis. For instance, I love to eat pasta because I am Italian would be signed,
pasta I eat enjoy true [why?]RHETORICAL, Italian I.

Relative clausesRelative clauses are signaled by tilting back the head and raising the eyebrows and upper lip. This is done during the performance of the entire clause. There is no change in word order. For example, the dog which recently chased the cat came home would be signed,
[recently dog chase cat]RELATIVE come home
where the brackets here indicate the duration of the non-manual features. If the sign 'recently' were made without these features, it would lie outside the relative clause, and the meaning would change to "the dog which chased the cat recently came home".

Deixis
In ASL signers set up regions of space (loci) for specific referents (see above); these can then be referred to indexically by pointing at those locations with pronouns and indexical verbs.

Pronouns
Personal pronouns in ASL are indexic. That is, they point to their referent, or to a locus representing their referent. When the referent is physically present, pronouns involve simply pointing at the referent, with different handshapes for different pronominal uses: A 'G' handshape is a personal pronoun, an extended 'B' handshape with an outward palm orientation is a possessive pronoun, and an extended-thumb 'A' handshape is a reflexive pronoun; these may be combined with numeral signs to sign 'you two', 'us three', 'all of them', etc.
If the referent is not physically present, the speaker identifies the referent and then points to a location (the locus) in the sign space near their body. This locus can then be pointed at to refer to the referent. Theoretically, any number of loci may be set up, as long as the signer and recipient remember them all, but in practice, no more than eight loci are used.
Meier 1990 demonstrates that only two grammatical persons are distinguished in ASL: First person and non-first person, as in Damin. Both persons come in several numbers as well as with signs such as 'my' and 'by myself'.

Meier provides several arguments for believing that ASL does not formally distinguish second from third person. For example, when pointing to a person that is physically present, a pronoun is equivalent to either 'you' or '(s)he' depending on the discourse. There is nothing in the sign itself, nor in the direction of eye gaze or body posture, that can be relied on to make this distinction. That is, the same formal sign can refer to any of several second or third persons, which the indexic nature of the pronoun makes clear. In English, indexic uses also occur, as in 'I need you to go to the store and you to stay here', but not so ubiquitously. In contrast, several first-person ASL pronouns, such as the plural possessive ('our'), look different from their non-first-person equivalents, and a couple of pronouns do not occur in the first person at all, so first and non-first persons are formally distinct.

Personal pronouns have separate forms for singular ('I' and 'you/(s)he') and plural ('we' and 'you/they'). These have possessive counterparts: 'my', 'our', 'your/his/her', 'your/their'. In addition, there are pronoun forms which incorporate numerals from two to five ('the three of us', 'the four of you/them', etc.), though the dual pronouns are slightly idiosyncratic in form (i.e., they have a K rather than 2 handshape, and the wrist nods rather than circles). These numeral-incorporated pronouns have no possessive equivalents.

Also among the personal pronouns are the 'self' forms ('by myself', 'by your/themselves', etc.). These only occur in the singular and plural (there is no numeral incorporation), and are only found as subjects. They have derived emphatic and 'characterizing' forms, with modifications used for derivation rather like those for verbal aspect. The 'characterizing' pronoun is used when describing someone who has just been mentioned. It only occurs as a non-first-person singular form.

Finally, there are formal pronouns used for honored guests. These occur as singular and plural in the non-first person, but only as singular in the first person.
ASL is a pro-drop language, which means that pronouns are not used when the referent is obvious from context and is not being emphasized.

Indexical verbs
Within ASL there is a class of indexical (often called 'directional') verbs. These include the signs for 'see', 'pay', 'give', 'show', 'invite', 'help', 'send', 'bite', etc. These verbs include an element of motion that indexes one or more referents, either physically present or set up through the referent locus system. If there are two loci, the first indicates the subject and the second the object, direct or indirect depending on the verb, reflecting the basic word order of ASL. For example, 'give' is a bi-indexical verb based on a flattened M/O handshape. For 'I give you', the hand moves from myself toward you; for 'you give me', it moves from you to me. 'See' is indicated with a V handshape. Two loci for a dog and a cat can be set up, with the sign moving between them to indicate 'the dog sees the cat' (if it starts at the locus for dog and moves toward the locus for cat) or 'the cat sees the dog' (with the motion in the opposite direction), or the V hand can circulate between both loci and myself to mean 'we (the dog, the cat, and myself) see each other'. The verb 'to be in pain' (index fingers pointed at each other and alternately approaching and separating) is signed at the location of the pain (head for headache, cheek for toothache, abdomen for stomachache, etc.). This is normally done in relation to the signer's own body, regardless of the person feeling the pain, but may take also use the locus system, especially for body parts which are not normally part of the sign space, such as the leg. There are also spatial verbs such as put-up and put-below, which allow signers to specify where things are or how they moved them around.

Time-sequenced ordering
ASL makes heavy use of time-sequenced ordering, meaning that events are signed in the order in which they occur. For example, for I was late to class last night because my boss handed me a huge stack of work after lunch yesterday, one would sign 'yesterday lunch finish, boss give-me work big-stack, night class late-me'. In stories, however, ordering is malleable, since one can choose to sequence the events either in the order in which they occurred or in the order in which one found out about them.

Syntactic word order
In addition to its basic topic–comment structure, ASL typically places an adjective after a noun, though it may occur before the noun for stylistic purposes. Numerals also occur after the noun, a very rare pattern among oral languages.
English: I have a brown dog.
ASL: DOG BROWN I HAVE
Adverbs, however, occur before the verbs. Most of the time adverbs are simply the same sign as an adjective, distinguished by the context of the sentence.
English: I enter the house quietly.
ASL: HOUSE I QUIET ENTER
When the scope of the adverb is the entire clause, as in the case of time, it comes before the topic. This is the only thing which can appear before the topic in ASL: time–topic–comment.
English: I'm going to the store at 9:00AM.
ASL: 9-HOUR MORNING STORE I GOModal verbs come after the main verb of the clause:
English: I can go to the store for you.
ASL: FOR YOU, STORE I GO CAN
Conjunctions
There is no separate sign in ASL for the conjunction and. Instead, multiple sentences or phrases are combined with a short pause between. Often, lists are specified with a listing and ordering technique, a simple version of which is to show the length of the list first with the nondominant hand, then to describe each element after pointing to the nondominant finger that represents it.
English: I have three cats and they are named Billy, Bob, and Buddy.
ASL: CAT I HAVE THREE-LIST. NAME, FIRST-OF-THREE-LIST B-I-L-L-Y, SECOND-OF-THREE-LIST B-O-B, THIRD-OF-THREE-LIST B-U-D-D-Y.
There is a manual sign for the conjunction or, but the concept is usually signed nonmanually with a slight shoulder twist.
English: I'll leave at 5 or 6 o'clock.
ASL: I LEAVE TIME 5 [shoulder shift] TIME 6.
The manual sign for the conjunction but is similar to the sign for different. It is more likely to be used in Pidgin Signed English than in ASL. Instead, shoulder shifts can be used, similar to "or" with appropriate facial expression.
English: I like to swim, but I don't like to run.
ASL/PSE: SWIM I LIKE, BUT RUN I LIKE-NOT
ASL: SWIM I LIKE, [shoulder shift] RUN I LIKE-NOT

Notes
1. ^ Liddell, Scott K. (1984). "THINK and BELIEVE: Sequentiality in American Sign Language". Language 60 (2): 372–399.
2. ^ Liddell (2003)
3. ^ a b Baker, Charlotte and Dennis Cokely (1980). American Sign Language: A teacher's resource text on grammar and culture. Silver Spring, MD: TJ Publishers
4. ^ Thompson, Robin; Karen Emmorey; and Robert Kluender (2006). "The Relationship between Eye Gaze and Verb Agreement in American Sign Language". Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 24: 571–604.
5. ^ Baker, Charlotte (1977). "Regulators and turn-taking in American Sign Language Discourse". In L. Friedman. On the Other Hand: New perspectives on American Sign Language. New York: Academic Press. pp. 215–236.
6. ^ Dively, Valerie (1998). "Conversational Repairs in ASL". In Ceil Lucas. Pinky extension and eye gaze: Language use in deaf communities. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press. pp. 137–169.
7. ^ Traci Weast, 2008. PhD dissertation: Questions in American Sign Language: A quantitative analysis of raised and lowered eyebrows
8. ^ Dan I. Slobin; Hoiting, N., Kuntze, M., Lindert, R., Weinberg, A., Pyers, J., Anthony, M., Biederman, Y., Thumann, H (2006). Karen Emmorey. ed. Perspectives on classifier constructions in sign languages. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 271–296.
9. ^ Lindert, R. (2001). Hering families with deaf children: Linguistic and communicative aspects of American Sign Language development. University of California, Berkley: Unpublished dissertation.
10. ^ Slobin, D.I.; Hoiting, N., Kuntze, M., Lindert, R., Weinberg, A., Pyers, J., Anthony, M., Biederman, Y., Thumann, H (2006). Emmorey, K.. ed. Perspectives on classifier constructions in sign languages. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 271–296.
11. ^ Newport, E.L.; R.P. Meier (1985). D.I. Slobin. ed. The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition, Vol. 1 The data. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 881–938.
12. ^ Kantor, R. (1980). "The acquisition of classifiers in American Sign Language". Sign Language Studies 8: 93–108.
13. ^ Supalla, T. (1982). Structure and acquisition of verbs of motion and location in American Sign Language. University of California, San Diego: Unpublished doctoral dissertation.
14. ^ Schick, B. (2006). B. Schick, M. Marschark, and P.E. Spencer. ed. Advances in the sign language development of deaf children. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 102–134.
References
Klima, Edward, and Bellugi, Ursula (1979). The Signs of Language. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-80795-2.
Liddell, Scott K. (2003). Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge University Press.
Stokoe, William C. (1976). Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. Linstok Press. ISBN 0-932130-01-1.
Stokoe, William C. (1960). Sign language structure: An outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf. Studies in linguistics: Occasional papers (No. 8). Buffalo: Dept. of Anthropology and Linguistics, University of Buffalo.
Further reading
Signing Naturally 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


Week #2
Assignment Review:
Pronoun Placements and Conceptual Signing
Remember if you are right handed it is important to start pointing towards your left and then move towards your right. Continue to use these placements for the duration of the conversation

Vocabulary on Monday
barbie
close (relationship)
social butterfly
major
minor
neighborhood
laid back
anyways/doesn't matter
abbreviations (circular movement)
chemistry
opposite
published
illustrates
love it (kiss fist)
foot (measurement)
visit

Conceptual Understanding:
Several signs may match one word or several words may match one sign
Think conceptually (close means many things therefore has many different signs)
Watched and listened to "FireFlies" to see conceptual signing and sign choices for the meanins of concepts

Additional Notes:

Sign space plays (has) an integral (important) role in as it:
· Backdrop(background) for thoughts, ideas and concepts to be expressed
· It affords(allows) the signer the opportunity to describe relationships, incorporate directional verbs, and utilize (use) time indicators (show) (placement of people, places things or objects)

· BOLD SIGNS MAY BE NEW
o Think in concepts as we come across new words

Monday's Assignment:Please place Monday's Assignment in the holder outside the door by tomorrow

Fridays Agenda
"For Hearing People Only" Chapter 11 pages 93-96 ( I will bring copies to Friday's class)
Creative Signing: Sign a place of your choice and have the class guess where you are (be creative and have fun with this) the goal is to use descriptive signs and work on placement of your location)

Vlog Remember to complete your vlog this week

Friday Lecture:
"For Hearing People Only" chapter 11 (emailed on Sept. 14 at 2:59pm)

Week #3

Signing Space:

The use of space is a very important feature in American Sign Language. The way to be able to refer back to different people, places or things (referents) is to use the space around the signer. You do this by setting up the space. This is done in a three dimensional manner. It can be done in the space to the left or right of the signer, in front of the signer, in a semi-circle around the signer, or in rare cases behind the signer.

The signer establishes the person, place or thing by identifying them within the sign space, and then leaving them there (in space). The signer can then refer back to that specific space every time they are talking about that referent. Other signers in the same conversation can also refer to and use this sign space once it has been established (set up).

The setting up of the space can happen a few different ways:

1. A person, place or thing can be fingerspelled in a certain location.
2. You can make a sign in that location.
3. A sign classifier can be signed in that location.
4. The use of a directional verb can be signed toward a certain location.

One rule of thumb is to never set up more than six referents in any one conversation. Even that can be too many if there is going to be a lot of information associated with each. The proper use of space can make your signing much clearer and easily understood when done following these rules.

Monday: Explaining our spaces

Wednesday: Bird of  a Different Feather (watch how spaces are created and used)

Friday: Watching others describe spaces and working on them in partners

Week #4

Monday: Class Cancelled

Wednesday:

Short Class Lecture:

Verbs are another common concept in all natural languages. They allow us to explain what it is we are doing. In fact, without verbs, language would cease to exist. Verbs in ASL come in three types: plain, inflecting, and spatial.

Plain Verbs

A plain verb is a normal verb in ASL. When using plain verbs the signer must designate the subject and the object. Examples of plain verbs in ASL are PLAY, RUN, JUMP, and SING.

[edit]Inflecting Verbs

Inflecting verbs allow the signer to incorporate the subject and object into the verb in one fluid motion. Examples of inflecting verbs in ASL are I-GIVE-YOU, HE-GIVE-ME, and I-TELL-THEM.

[edit]Spatial Verbs

The last type of verb is a spatial verb. These just allow the signer to specify where things are or how he or she moved them around. Examples of spatial verbs in ASL are PUT-UP and PUT-BELOW.

Be sure to read blue book chapter 2

In class assignment: Watch the following video and write the sentences in ASL. After we complete the video work with your partner to sign what you saw. Be sure that you go over each one carefully. We will complete this assignment on Friday.

***Directional (inflecting) Verb Examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyupikJUqB8

New Vocabulary(as seen in video above):

misunderstand

inform

cookie

tall

borrow-to

lend-to

notice

gulp (whoops)

#sale

smooth

tease

fall

accept

tty-her/him

summon

race

some

take-care-of

Week #5

Week #5:  Descriptive Adjectives, Chapter 3

American Sign Langauge like other languages provide many ways for descriping people, places or things through the use of adjectives. It is important to note that in ASL adjectives may appear before or after the noun.

Let's take a look at describing people. Listed below are the steps you are to follow when describing people.

First Step:

1. Gender

2. Unique characteristics (nose, eyes, tattoos, etc)

Second Step:

3. Height

4. Body type

5. Hair (color and hairstyle)

  ***This is done largely with classifiers***

6. Eyes (color)

The above descriptives can be placed BEFORE or AFTER the noun

Third Step:

7. clothing (patterns, stripes, plaid, length, ruffles, kind of shirt, kind of pants, etc.)

  ***this is done largely with classifiers***

Week #6 Topic/Comment and Topicalization

PLEASE GO TO THE FOLLOWING LINKS. THEY WILL HELP YOU BETTER UNDERSTAND OUR CLASS LECTURES.

Monday:

http://people.howstuffworks.com/sign-language3.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6PNsa4v_Y

http://files.start-american-sign-language.com/store/books/maslg_sample.pdf

Remember....

Topic/Comment Structure means that the signer decides if the object or subject is the topic. 

Topic/Comment Structure

ASL signers tend to indicate what they are talking about (topic) first, then make a statement or question (comment) about that topic.

Topicalization

Putting the object at the beginning of the sentence and marking it as the topic is called topicalization.

How do I know what my topic is?

There is no hard and fast rule about which sign in your sentence/question will be the topic. Topic/comment structure allows the signer to decide the topic based on such things as: what you want to emphasize, the context of the conversation, what is already being discussed.

Take a look at English vs. ASL

Compare these two sentences in English: 

Active Voice: The girl kicked the ball. 

Passive Voice: The ball was kicked by the girl.

Notice in the first sentence the subject girl is placed first and the second sentence the object is placed first.  English allows the object or subject to be placed first also.

Now ASL:

GIRL KICKED BALL

BALL GIRL KICKED

Now Active and Passive Voice

ACTIVE / PASSIVE VOICE

Active voice

In most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by the verb.

    These examples show that the subject is  doing the verb's action.

            

Because the subject does or "acts upon" the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in the active voice.

Passive voice

One can change the normal word order of many active sentences (those with a direct object) so that the subject is no longer active, but is, instead, being acted upon by the verb - or passive.

    Note in these examples how the subject-verb relationship has changed.

            

Because the subject is being "acted upon" (or is passive), such sentences are said to be in the passive voice.

In ASL when the object is placed first, it is called Topicalization.

Wednesday:

Continue topic/comment and topicalization

Played Apples to Apples to create sentences with Topic and Comments. We will do this again. We need more practice. Pay attention to sentence arrangement and facial grammar. This was lacking today. It will come, it just takes time.

New Vocabulary:

Sappy/romantic

sunset

midlife crisis

sailor

hs reunion

parenting

boyfriend

bad haircut

haunted house

opera

rednecks

deer hunting

great depression

fancy

italy

x-ray vision

vietnam memorial

castle

wine tasting

crystal/glass ball

marriage

useless/important none

underwear

cockroaches (sp and bug)

televangelist/ TV preacher

chain letters (describe)

bubbles

chameleons (sp and explain)

Animated (do action)

Witch hunts/search

tidal wave

cactus

refrigerator

bird watching

olympics (think of the rings joining)

HS bathroom

Internet

Week #7 review
Week #8 How-to work
Week #9 Presentations

Week #10 Chapter #7: Classifiers
Classifiers have several functions:

What, When and How to Use ASL Classifiers

By Brenda Liebman Aron 2005

I. What is American Sign Language Classifiers?

A. Definition:

Classifiers are designated handshapes and/or rule-grounded body pantomime used to represent nouns and verbs. The purpose of the classifier is to provide additional information about nouns and verbs such as: location, kind of action, size, shape and manner. ASL has many classifier handshapes to represent specific categories or class of objects.

ASL uses the classifier system to give descriptive information about a subject or predicate (verb). This descriptive information is divided into six main categories.

They are the following:

1. Size and Shape Specifiers (SASSes) they describe certain physical characteristics such as size, shape, depth and texture of a noun as well as indicate its location in space.

CL: 1 represent something that is round and thin like a pencil, a tree

sapling, etc.

CL: B: can represent a paper, a book or a pie. Palm orientation is often important

here, if the palm is down, it indicates the object is facing down.

CL: V: is made with a bent V can represent a chair, or a person who is seated.

Also: CL: G trim, CL: C cup or cookie, CL: F small & round object etc.

2. Semantic Classifiers: that represent nouns and can indicate the location of that noun and it�s actions, that is, they stand for a particular group of nouns i.e., the ASL classifier CL: 3 can represent an inanimate land or water conveyance like a car, bus, truck, motorcycle, boat or submarine but not a horse or a person. There are some that are not represented by their iconic characteristics but are abstract representations.

Some examples of Semantic Classifiers:

CL: 3: a moving conveyance

CL: 1 represents a person and the action of the person, can also represent the

haunches and movement of various animals.

CL:V upside down indicates a person and the action of the person i.e., walking

3. Body Classifiers: Using the body to represent a look or action i.e., a bird flying, a man with a 6 pack muscular body, a person behaving drunkenly, etc.

4. Body part Classifiers: Describe parts of the body (usually the lower part of the body such as legs or feet) and its action by using designated handshapes and appropriate movements. The handshapes (representing the lower body parts) seem to be used when it is important to the story line to be focused upon and described for clarification or enhancement purposes. For example, describing how a nervous person at the doctor�s office would keep swinging her leg. Body part Classifiers can represent objects on the body i.e. fancy sunglasses, a pierced nose, or a moustache etc.

5. Instrument Classifiers: describes how objects are handled or manipulated. The classifier adds specific information to the predicate meaning. There is agreement between the physical/visual characteristics of the object being handled and the handshape i.e., steering a wheel, hammering a nail, throwing chalk at someone etc.

6. Locative Classifiers are classifiers that indicate the spatial relationship between two or more things. Locative classifiers serve a similar purpose as prepositions in English such as in, on, under, behind, above etc. however because ASL is a spatial language, it incorporates the information by using a classifier ins spatial relationship with another classifier i.e., the English sentence: The car is parked by the tree would be signed thus:

(Using one hand, #CAR CL:3, TREE then the other hand will show: CL: 5 for TREE next to the car to show the spatial relationship between the car and the tree.

There are also sub categories of Classifiers that can be applied to any of the main category of classifiers:

a. Plural Classifiers: Indicates more than one object. Singular classifiers can be signed in repetition to show pluralization. If it is done mainly with the dominant hand, it represents a set or a row of things ie books or trophies on a bookshelf; if it is done with alternating hands, it shows that it is arranged haphazardly or in different places. There are two categories: specific number classifiers ie 3-of-us or non-specific number classifiers, books in a row.

b.. Descriptive Classifiers (DCL) often acts like adjectives. ASL classifiers that represents nouns tend to represent a wide variety of things as the focus is to show the relative locations and movements of the things they stand for. The purpose of descriptive classifiers is to describe the particular size, shape, depth and/or texture of something as well as give it a relative location in space. i.e., something which is small, round and does not have much depth: a coin, a piece of candy, small cookie etc. CL:F and the action i.e., I saw a penny on the floor

and I picked it up would be signed: ME NOTICE FLOOR PENNY, ME CL:F pick-up or The priest put a bread wafer in my mouth. PRIEST BREAD CL:F in my

mouth. Different sizes of columns may be indicated by using CL: F (2h), CL: L-C (2h), or CL: C-C (2h)

c. Element Classifiers: Classifier describing the look and action of the elements i.e. gas, air, liquid, fire chimney blowing smoke, a waterfall, a roaring fire etc.

B. Charactertistics of Classifiers:

• Classifiers are integral part of American Sign Language. Classifiers represents a class of nouns and are used somewhat like pronouns.
• Two handed classifiers can be used to represent different referents showing location and action.
• Classifiers can be used as action verbs.
• Classifiers can show spatial relationships.
• Classifiers can show orientation of objects.
• Classifiers can give information about singularity or plurality.
• Classifiers called SASSes give size, shape, depth, shape and texture information about the object.
• The upper body can be used as a classifier.
• Classifiers can show how objects are used or handled.
• The whole body can be used as a classifier through pantomime.
• Locative Classifiers provides spatial and directional information.

C. Functions of Classifiers:

• Represents nouns and pronouns
• SASSes-represents descriptive adjectives and adverbs
• Number information-represents singularity or plurality.
• Outlining-represents shapes and details that cannot be handled by SASSes
• Locatives represents directional information and spatial relationships
• Movement- represents the direction of how a classifier moves.
• Instrument Classifier-represents how an object is handled
• Body Classifier can represent nouns and the action of those nouns.

II. When do we use ASL Classifiers?

We use ASL classifiers whenever we describe an object; an action or something that occurred; to give directions, to share information about the surroundings; and/or as part of a story i.e., to set the scene or to share characteristics etc.

There are some basic rules:

• To designate the referent of a classifier, a signer must either fingerspell or sign the referent before the classifier can be used. i.e, BALL GREEN YELLOW STRIPES.
• To choose an appropriate classifier, there must be a relationship between the referent and the descriptive nature of that specific classifier.
• To use SASSes appropriately the signer must incorporate proper non-manual signals.
• To choose appropriate classifiers depends upon the referent and the signer�s intent of focus.
• To use classifiers appropriately there should be a relationship between �the real world experience� and how the classifiers are expressed.

III. How-to�s: As shown above, there are categories and certain rules in using the correct classifier. You will be given an opportunity to try and describe using ASL classifiers with pictorial images. Later we will try to interpret English sentences into ASL which requires the use of some classifiers. We often use different categories of classifiers interchangeably I.e., using body CL, bodypart CL and SASS etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csDH8Af6DLM

Week #11&12

Week #13 Review chapters 6,7,8