How have you started writing in the target language? Do you prefer to type or write free hand? Have you started to see patterns emerge in the structures between words, clauses, and sentences? What is the relationship between simple and complex sentences? How does your knowledge of parts of speech, government, and agreement affect your ability to communicate in written contexts? Provide a sample of several short meaningful writing exercises from your target language.
As there is no written script in ASL, I will be answering this question from the perspective of fingerspelling and signs. There are some signing etiquettes that I have been trying to master during the course of this semester. First, while fingerspelling, it is important to make sure that the dominant hand is raised at the shoulder level. It is also important to make sure only the fingers move, but the hands stay steady at the same place. Next, it is important to make sure we sign right next to our body because signing further from the body gives an indication of past or future and modifies the meaning of what we are trying to say. These signing etiquettes can be considered equivalent to writing etiquettes in spoken languages.
As ASL does not have any rigid sentence structure, it is hard to talk about definite patterns like we do in the case of English. One of the biggest differences between ASL grammar and English grammar can be seen in the case of syntactical order. While English normally follows the subject+ verb+ object (SVO) order, ASL follows a topic-comment structure that can either take a SVO order or an object+ subject+ verb (OSV) order. Topicalization refers to the phenomenon where the OSV order is used and the object functions as the topic whereas subject+ verb function as the comment. This is one of the most commonly used sentence structures in ASL. In terms of execution, the topic or the object is signed first and there is a pause before signing the comment. This allows the listener/viewer some time to orient themselves to the topic before they see the comments. The topic sign is also accompanied by non-manual markers such as raised eyebrows, widened eyes, tilted head and slight forward leaning for even more emphasis. Some examples of topicalization in ASL are as follows:
English: He gives her food.
ASL: Food, he-give-her. ------“The hyphenated words are all signed with a single sign
English: Kacy likes Ryan.
ASL: Ryan, Kacy likes.
It is also possible to topicalize phrases and clauses rather than a single object. For example:
English: I love that you always call me.
ASL: You call me always, I love.
While topicalization is quite popular in ASL, I would refrain from calling it a “rule” because there is a lot of flexibility and fluidity in whether we incorporate it into our sentences. As I am beginner in ASL, all the ASL sentences that I have been exposed to until now are simple sentences. There might be more complex sentence structures that I am simply not aware of or am yet to come across. My previous knowledge of parts of speech and syntactical order has actually been a hindrance in my ASL learning because it is so easy to switch to English and try in sign in the English order. For examples: I often get confused and sign in the order of “I am mad that you ate my food”, when I should be signing in the order of “You eat my food, I mad”. Speaking ASL requires one to unlearn speech, government, and agreement learnt in the context of English language and is considered to be the biggest challenge for hearing people trying to ASL.
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