Linguistics of ASL

Key Concepts

Phonology

• Parts of Signs: handshape, location (starting and ending), movement, palm

orientation, NMS• Movement, Hold, Movement• Movement Epenthesis – “Father study”• Methathesis – interchangable movement,

“Deaf”, “home”• Asslimlation – sign takes on characteristics of

preceding or succeeding sign

Morphology

• Morphemes – smallest units of meaning• Free or bound• Derivational morphology – NV pairs,

compounds (sister, believe, Bible), content ($3.00, 3 months)

• Inflectional morphology – temporal aspect, lexicalized fingerspelling

Syntax

• Parts of speech – nouns, predicates, adjectives, adverbs, determiners, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns

• Sentence types – Y/N, WhQ, RQ, negation, commands, topic/comment, conditionals