The System of American Sign Language

ASL enable communication in a way to make sure people can visually understand one, from a simple question to a complex message. ASL delivers ideas, information and emotion with as much range, complexity and versatility as any other spoken languages. It is a free-flowing, complex and visual-spatial language that is made up of signs created using hands, facial expressions, body posture, space and movement.

ASL is pictorial, less symbolic with Ideographic language system compare to verbal symbol systems. Here is a piano metaphor by Kim (2015) for a better understanding, imagine ASL is broken down into many different grammatical parameters and each parameter is assigned to different finger, for instance, facial expressions, body movement, speed, hand shape and so on. If English is a linear language with one key being played a time, in comparison, ASL will be like a chord as all ten fingers must play simultaneously to express a clear concept in ASL.

One key that changes the chord will result in a completely different meaning, as it applies in music in the sense of the pitch, tone and volume. Different grammatical parameters express different ideas.

In ASL, facial expressions and body language play an important role as ASL depends heavily on facial expression and ASL mouth movements{add other elements?}.

Facial Expressions (Lazorisak & Donobue, 2004, p. 45)

Facial expression plays a major role in American sign language. Thus, deaf people are very expressive with their face that some hearing people have described it as “overstated”. Facial expression is vital in ASL as their functions is not just to express emotion but also to deliver information such as the introduction of a new topic (raised eyebrows), questioning (mouth open, squinted eyes, and eyebrows together), and emphasis (exerting different degree of force when moving facial muscles).

Different facial expression conveys different message. For example, if a signer signs HAPPY with a poker face, it will actually mean that the signer is not happy or is being sarcastic about being HAPPY. To shows that a signer is happy they will sign HAPPY with their face light up showing a smile simultaneously.

Facial expression is also used to express the degree of something. To illustrate, if someone is very happy (elated), they will sign HAPPY with a great, huge smile on her face, in comparison, if they want to express they are just happy (glad), they would just sign HAPPY and show a moderate smile.

Speechreading (Lazorisak & Donobue, 2004, p. 46)

Apart from focusing on facial expression, some deaf people will also read their partner lip. They will try to determine what words are being said by detecting the pattern and shapes made by the mouth when one is speaking. This is known as speechreading, which was also known as “lip reading”. It should not be misunderstood that idea can be understood by reading the movement made by the lips, but that speech comprehension depends on the entire mouth and teeth in conjunction with their facial expressions and body language.

However, speechreading is not a necessary skill as not all deaf people use it, speechreading is an acquired skill and whether or not a deaf people have this technique depends on their education and exposure to this particular skill. Nevertheless, some deaf people do require speechreading to understand accurately what their partner is delivering.

Grammar

It should be known that ASL is not grammatically similar to English and should not be considered as a mimed or gestured form of English. To elaborate more on this, ASL express “meanings of concepts visually” and not English words whereas English words express “meanings of concepts auditorily”. ASL has its own syntax and grammar, its sentence structure is very different from spoken English. (Lazorisak & Donobue, 2004)

The ASL syntax structure is:

Time tense + topic/subject + colour + any other adjectives + actions

Examples of ASL if written out: (Lazorisak & Donobue, 2004, p. 27)

TODAY CAR SMALL BLUE ME DRIVE

(ENG I'm driving a small blue car today.)

LATER EVENING MOVIE ME GO

(ENG I will go to the movie later this evening)

LONG-AGO TELEPHONE NONE

( ENG A long time ago we did not have a telephone)

PAST CHILDREN SWIM

(ENG The children went swimming.)

TWO-YEAR-AGO COAT BLACK WHITE ME BUY

(ENG I bought a black and white coat two years ago.)