ASL is said to be the fourth most commonly used language in the United States. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/asl.asp
PT happens to have one member whose first language is ASL, and I offer these copy-pastes for information on the language. Imagine learning an entirely different language at age 10 or so, with no fallback.
This info is interesting, and valuable beyond the boundaries of Pet Talk.
Also, try this for a visual demonstration: http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
-Catty1
ASL is a natural language as proved to the satisfaction of the linguistic community by William Stokoe, a professor of English hired at Gallaudet University in 1955.
Standardized sign languages have been used in Italy since the 17th century and in France since the 18th century for the instruction of the deaf. Old French Sign Language (OFSL) was developed and used in Paris by the Abbé de l'Épée in his school for the deaf.
Indigenous Peoples of the American Plains used Plains Indian Sign Language as an interlanguage for communication between people/tribes not sharing a common spoken language.
Syntax
ASL syntax is primarily conveyed through a combination of word order and non-manual features.
Word order
The basic constituent order of ASL is subject object verb. In practice there is a great deal of flexibility to ASL word order, made possible by the use of topics and tags. Both are indicated with non-manual features. 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 lamb
As 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 chase
or literally
My 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 dog
means
my cat chased the dog
literally, "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:
1. The object may be made prominent in a prior clause, or
2. 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
Negation
Negated 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.)
Questions
Yes-no questions are signaled by raising the eyebrows, while wh- (information) questions require a lowering of the eyebrows. Raised eyebrows [note how these differ] are also used for rhetorical questions which are not intended to elicit an answer.
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,
I love eat pasta [why?]RHETORICAL, I Italian'
Relative clauses
Relative 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
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".
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Originally Posted by CountryWolf07
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