Listing in ASL

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Listing in ASL
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• When signing a sequence of items you may use a
  technique called listing to indicate an order of
  objects.

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• When signing a list of objects up to 5, use your
  dominant index finger to point to each item on
  your non-dominant hand
• 1st object is listed on the thumb
• 2nd object on the index finger
• 3rd object on the middle finger, and so on, to 5

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• When you are ready to list, touch the
  appropriate finger and sign what it represents.
• Practice the following sentences using your best
  ASL and include listing when possible.

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• We went to the zoo yesterday. I saw my three
  favorite animals, a lion, a tiger, and an
  elephant.

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• YESTERDAY ZOO WE TOUCH WE
• ANIMALS MY THREE FAVORITE ME SEE ME
• List 1 LION 2 TIGER 3 ELEPHANT

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• My family loves animals so much that we have 4
  pets a dog, a cat, a bird, and a hamster.

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• ANIMALS MY FAMILY LOVES
• PETS 4 WE HAVE WE
• list 1 DOG 2 CAT 3 BIRD
• 4 HAMSTER

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• Im not afraid of dogs, but I am afraid of
  snakes, mice, and turtles.

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• DOGS ME AFRAID(neg)
• BUT list 1 SNAKES 2 MICE
• 3TURTLES ME AFRAID ME

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• When using listing you can refer back to the
  finger that has been used to represent an object.
  Then you do not have to re-sign what was
  previously established.

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• We went to the zoo yesterday. I saw my three
  favorite animals, a lion, a tiger, and an
  elephant. The tiger was my favorite.

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• My family loves animals so much that we have
  four pets a dog, a cat, a bird, and a hamster.
  Oops! I forgot the cat died yesterday.

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• Im not afraid of dogs but I am a little bit
  afraid of snakes, really afraid of mice, and
  terrified of turtles. When I was young, a turtle
  bit me!

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• Sometimes you will need to list a series of
  objects that exceeds 5. You begin representing
  the objects the same way you did before, up to 5.
  Once you go past 5, then you will use two hands,
  bent Bs, palms facing each other and move
  downward for each item as you continue listing.

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• Sometimes the list is so long that is
  impossible to name them all. May be the speaker
  is going too fast or the words are not important.
  When this happens you can list up to 5 and then
  use the sign for ETC. to show that the list
  continues.

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• Listing is a wonderful grammar technique to
  use in ASL. It is used quite often, especially
  in story-telling to show sequence.

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• As you watch someone sign and they list
  objects, it is important to remember what each
  finger represents. Often deaf people will
  establish these as nouns and refer back to them
  later in the conversation.