Introduction to ASL

By Reba Orton

Reasons for ASL class

• Enhance receptive and expressive skills

• Expand your ASL vocabulary base

• Immerse yourself in ASL in order to fully learn ASL structure

• Improve signing speed (prosody) • Increase ASL fluency• Learn ASL idioms • Recognize high-frequency ASL

signs

Meaning Differences

• Difference between SAY and TELL • English words don't always translate

well into ASL • English words with multiple meanings

have separate ASL signs and that without proper knowledge of these ASL signs and their appropriate meanings, it is easy to misuse ASL signs to represent English concepts.

• Please note that ONE and LETTER-D are different handshapes.

Differences between ASL and PSE

• There is a range from pure ASL to a mixture of ASL/English, and to pure signed English, like the SEE signs WAS, IS, AM, and WERE.

• The possessive ASL sign HAVE should not be used as part of an English tense. FINISH should be used instead.

• Verb inflections REPEATEDLY and CONTINUALLY

• Verbs tend to have one movement and that nouns tend to have two movements

ASL

PSE

SEE

Non-Manual Signals (NMS)

• NMS are facial expressions used in ASL sentence structures as part of their grammar.

• Appropriate facial expressions (morphemes) are also used for certain signs (lexical items)

Mouth Morphemes

• Mouth morphemes are facial adverbs done with the mouth.

• Puffed cheeks means fat or big

• Mouthing CHA means big• Sucked-in cheeks means

thin• TH-tongue sticking out

means carelessly• Tongue trill means far in

time or space

ASL Sentence Structures

ASL sentence structures are • Y/N questions, • Wh-Q questions,• Topics, (similar to tag questions, but at

the beginning, not at the end of the sentence)

• Rh-Q questions, • Negation, and • If-then statements.

Sign Paradigms• CHURCH signs and other related top-of-

hand signs• Surroundings signs: ENVIRONMENT,

CULTURE, SITUATION/SOCIETY • Feeling finger signs • GROUP signs • HABIT signs, and the related signs

EVERY-SUNDAY, EVERY-MONDAY, etc. • ILY handshape signs• IMPORTANT, WORTH, WORTHLESS,

VALUE signs• ROYALITY signs• THINK signs

ASL Compounds

• In compounds, two or three signs become one sign.

• GIRL-SAME becomes SISTER • L-C-S becomes LINGUISTICS • Often in compounds, double

movements are dropped to one and double touches are dropped to one.

ASL Use of Space

• One sets up an imaginary person in space to refer to that person (token or surrogate).

• Concepts can be placed in space, just like imaginary people (tokens and surrogates). For example, I can put hearing culture on the right side of me and Deaf culture on the left side.

• Descriptions, actions, and placement can be described with classifiers and other iconic signs.

Deaf Culture/Hearing Culture

Differences between Deaf people and hearing people, like what they can or can't do.

• Deaf people can sign with their mouth full, for example, and hearing people can't, without being rude.

ASL Mappings

• Use your left hand to list an object per finger, like your siblings. Each finger represented a sibling. The ASL sign PRIORITY is an ordering of objects. REVIEW is a review of objects. CHOOSE is a choice of objects to pick from.

• Describe your living room using the appropriate layout and placement for ASL

• Explaining directions on an imaginary map in ASL

ASL Role-Play• Repeat a dialogue using

appropriate eye gaze and shoulder shifts.

• This role play is done in a manner where you are taller than the other person.

• This means you have to look down and to one side when you are representing yourself.

• Look up and to the other side when you are representing the other person.

Slides and Bounces• A slide is use to describe a continuous

object, like a wall or a pipe.• To represent plural instances of a sign, the

sign is produced in one of two ways:– A slide is a sweeping motion that is

made to indicate a meaning of all objects. No importance is assigned to any of the objects.

– Bounces are a jumping motion that is made to indicate a meaning of multiple individual objects. Special importance is assigned to each object.

Directional Signs

• Directional pronouns– HE/SHE/IT, YOU-SINGULAR, and ME

use a 1-handshape point– THEY and WE use a 1-handshape slide– Possessive pronouns follow the same

rules, but use a 5-handshape.• Directional verbs

– I-GIVE-EACH-OF-YOU uses bounces– I-GIVE-ALL-OF-YOU uses a slide

Conclusion

• Any Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask!• Please give the teacher any feedback you have

about this Power Point Presentation.