Meaning of Grammatical Non-Manual Signals: in American Sign Language

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Meaning of Grammatical Non-Manual Signals in
American Sign Language

• Brenda Liebman Aron

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Non-Manual Signals in ASL

• Non-manual signals (NMS) or markers (NMM) consist
  of the various facial expressions, head tilting,
  shoulder raising, mouthing, and similar signals
  that we add to our hand signs to create meaning.
• There are grammatical NMS, transition markers,
  mouth morphemes, emotional markers, backchannel
  feedback prosody et cetera
• My focus for this presentation is on grammatical
  non-manual signals.

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Grammatical NMS

• Statement
• Topic Comment Structure vs. Topicalization
• Wh-question
• Yes-no question
• Rhetorical question
• Negation
• Conditionals
• Relative Clause
• Adverbs

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Grammatical NMS Statement

• Usually statement sentences in ASL do not signify
  any non-manual signal. This is also called
  declarative sentences. i.e.,(sentences in caps
  are in ASL)
• Subject-verb-object
• I HAVE CAR.
• I have a car.
• I NEED BUY BOOK.
• I need to buy a book.

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Grammatical NMS Topic Comment vs. Topicalization

• Topicalization is not the same thing as
  topic-comment.
• Topic Comment means stating a topic and then
  making a comment.
• Topicalization means you are using the object of
  the sentence as the topic.
• You can use topic comment sentence structure by
  using topicalization.
• In ASL, it was thought that ASL is predominantly
  topic-comment or uses Object-Subject-Verb. Recent
  research has shown it was not true. T-C is
  usually used to introduce a topic however most of
  our syntax is S-V-O or other structures.
• See examples of NMS in topic-comment structures
  on the next slide.

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Grammatical NMS Topic Comment

• Examples of Topic Comment Sentence Structures
  comment is also called predicates-which is a
  word or phrase that says something about a topic.
• In T-C, the eyebrows are raised and head tilted
  forward slightly
• ___t____c__(subject-object)
• 1. CAR? SOLD!
• Remember my car, it is finally sold!
• _t__c__(subject-adjective)
• 2. HE TALL. Hes tall.
• __t______c__(object-subject-verb)
• 3. MONEY? She-GIVE-me. She gave me money.
• .

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Grammatical NMS Topicalization

• __time_____topic__comment_
• WEEK-PAST I WASH MY CAR.
• __t_______comment________
• MY CAR, I WASH WEEK-PAST.
• Remember the eyebrows are raised and head tilted
  slightly forward.
• Using the object of your sentence as the topic of
  the sentence is called topicalization.
• In this example, my car becomes the subject
  instead of me. The fact that I washed it last
  week becomes the comment.

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Grammatical NMS Wh-word questions

• Wh-word questions are questions that cannot be
  answered with just a yes or no responses and uses
  interrogative signs like WHAT, WHO, WHEN, WHERE,
  WHICH, WHY, WHATS-UP, HOW, HOW-MANY, FOR-FOR
  Usually wh-word occur at the end of the sentence,
  but also occur at the beginning.
• NMS wh-word questions are
• brows furrowed,
• head tilted forward slightly,
• Eye contact made with the person being asked the
  question
• and hold the last sign until a response is
  received
• See examples on next slide

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Grammatical NMS Wh-word questions

• Example of wh-word questions
• ____________wh-q_
• 1. YOUR NAME WHAT?
• ________point_wh-q_
• 2. WOMAN (there) WHO?
• ____topic______________wh-q
• 3. YOU GO CALIFORNIA FOR-FOR?
• Why are you going to California?

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Grammatical NMS Yes-No Questions

• Yes-no questions are questions that receives a
  yes or no responses. ASL does not have a sign for
  DO therefore it is embedded in the NMS
  structure.
• NMS for y/n-q Eyebrows raised
• Head tilted slightly forward
• Eye contact made with the person being asked the
  question
• And hold the last sign until a response is
  received.
• See examples on next slide.

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Grammatical NMS Yes-No Questions

• ______y/n-q__
• 1. YOU TEACHER? Are you a teacher?
• _point_ y/n-q___
• 2. YOU HAVE GUM? Do you have gum?
• point____________point y/n-q
• 3. YOU KNOW WHO HER?
• Do you know who she is?

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Grammatical NMS Rhetorical Questions

• Rhetorical questions are not true questions since
  the addressee is not expected to respond but
  rather provide a way for the signer to introduce
  and draw attention to the information s/he will
  supply. Rh-questions are accompanied by
• A brow raise,
• Head slightly tilted
• A wh-word question usually occurs with this type
  of question.
• In other words, rhetorical questions differ from
  Wh-questions is that the eyebrows are raised for
  rh-q and furrowed for wh-questions.
• Often new ASL signers would use rh-q in almost
  every sentence. That is not the norm for most ASL
  signers. We only use rh-q in specific instances.
• See examples on next slide.

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Grammatical NMS Rhetorical Questions

• _________________rh-q________
• 1. I FLY CALIFORNIA WHY VISIT BROTHER.
• rh-q_____
• 2. I GO CALIFORNIA HOW FLY.
• ________________rh-q_________
• 3. I GO CALIFORNIA WHEN NEXT-WEEK.
• ________________rh-q________________
• 4. I GO CALIFORNIA REASON MY BROTHER WEDDING.
  (not a wh-word question)

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Grammatical NMS Negation

• Negation in ASL are is usually accompanied by a
  headshake,
• Brows furrowed
• Sometimes the body is tilted backwards
• and/or adding the sign NOT, NO, NONE, CANT,
  DENY, REFUSE, DONT, DONT WANT, DONT LIKE,
  DONT UNDERSTAND etc.
• Negative expressions do not always require a sign
  showing negation i.e.,
• __neg____
• 1. ME HAPPY. I am not happy.
• _
  neg____________
• 2. PRESENTER BIG-WORDS ME not-UNDERSTAND.
• I cannot understand the presenter because he
  used a lot of complicated words.

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Grammatical NMS Conditionals

• Conditionals express a condition upon which the
  topics being discussed depend. An example of a
  conditional sentence in English is If it rains
  tomorrow, the game will be cancelled.
  Conditionals in ASL are usually accompanied by
• Raised eyebrows,
• A head tilt
• A short pause between if and then
• Can be constructed in ASL with NMS without the
  use of signs to show the conditional
• See examples on next slide

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Grammatical NMS Conditionals

• _cond_____________
• 1. RAIN GAME CANCEL.
• ___cond affirm_____
• 2. YOU GO, ME GO WILL.
• _cond____neg_________
• 3. RAIN, ME NOT GO SWIM.
• There are three ways to express conditionals,
  with the sign for IF, IF and only with NMS.

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Grammatical NMS Relative Clauses

• Relative clauses is not often used in ASL.
• Usually if it is used, the NMS is as follows
• Head tilted backwards slightly
• Eyebrows are lifted at the topic
• Eyebrows return to normal after topic

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Grammatical NMS Relative Clauses

• rel cl._______
• 1. RECENT DOG CHASE CAT COME HOME.
• rel cl.________________
• 2. MY CAT DOG CHASE
• My cat, the dog chased it.
• _______________________neg
• 3. PURSE WOMAN FORGOT NOT.
• ____rel cl.________________________
• It is not the case woman forgot the purse.

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Grammatical NMS Adverbs

• Adverbs in ASL an adverb modifies the meaning of
  a verb, adjective, or other adverb. ASL uses a
  number of methods to modify the meanings of
  signs. You can modify the speed and direction of
  a sign. This is called inflecting the sign. For
  example, SLOW or VERY
• ASL uses NMS to modify the meaning of signs th
  for careless, furrowed brows with pursed lips
  means intensely lower lip puffed a bit, head
  tilted back, content look on face means routine
  or normal. Cha means something is big or immense,
  

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Grammatical NMS Adverbs

• Examples

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Practice exercises
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FINI

• For more information
• Contact Brenda Aron, Baron_at_sccd.ctc.edu