2b. Sharing Interesting Facts - Whole-Part

1. Sharing Interesting
Facts: Whole-Part
Unit 19
ASL III

2. Sharing Interesting
Facts
People find themselves wanting to relay in
their daily conversations interesting or
amusing information they have heard about
or read. Interesting facts is the topic of this
unit because these facts can be surprising,
unbelievable, educational, and fun - the
makings of an interesting conversation.

3. Sharing Interesting
Facts
This unit is designed to help you develop good
interpretations of written information. Specific grammar
structures are introduced to help you organize the essential
information to show the relevance of the information
presented. Because of the concise nature of each fact, you
need to learn how to analyze the fact to understand what it
means. When presenting the fact, you may have to explain,
rephrase, demonstrate, or draw conclusions to convey the
fact accurately. This lesson will help you be better able to
interpret written information into ASL without the
interpretation being unduly influenced by English structure.
We selected facts that fit into four categories: whole-part,
listing, comparisons, and illustrating a fact.

4. Translating Facts
The facts we will learn about are organized into four
categories:
● Whole-Part
● Listing
● Comparisons
● Illustrating a Fact
Each category has a particular grammatical structure. Later,
you will use these structures when preparing your own facts
to share.

5. Whole-Part
▪ Facts that contain phrases such as “one
out of” and “half of all” fall under the
Whole-Part category.
▪ Since the fact is essentially about the part,
it must be distinguished from the whole to
make the point.
▪ Use the following
structure to present
whole-part facts.

6. Whole-Part: Translation
Guide
1. Set up the whole (use raised eyebrows).
2. Tell about the part using either
percentages, fractions, or ratio.
3. Contrast the part with
the rest of the whole
and comment.

7. Fact 1: Fractions
Video Notes:
Since women constitutes the
whole, it is established first,
followed by the fraction ¼ to
indicate the number of women
addicted to chocolate. John
further contrasts the part by
saying the remaining ¾ of
women are not addicted to
chocolate. John raises his
eyebrows to emphasize the
numbers, followed by a slight
pause before commenting on
the fact. The manner in which
you emphasize the number tells
the listener that this is a rather
large number or a surprisingly
small number.
John states the fact that “1 out
of 4 women is addicted to
chocolate.”
Rehearse this segment - use raised
eyebrows when telling about the whole.
Also, don’t forget to raise your eyebrows to
emphasize the numbers, followed by a
slight pause before commenting on the fact.

8. Fact 1: Fractions
▪ When the fraction is
¼, ½, and up to 8/9,
the palm of the hand
faces the signer.
▪ When the
denominator is 10 or
larger like 1/10, 3/16,
7/20, etc., the palm of
the hand for the
numerator 1-9 faces
the listener.
There is debate and variation among Deaf signers on
exactly how to sign fractions (which way the palm
faces). In this video, he explains that he prefers to
sign fractions with the palm facing whichever way is
easier and “flows” best per fraction. He also always
signs both the numerator and denominator with the
same palm orientation for each fraction. He signs
numerators 1-5 with palm facing in, 6-9 palm facing
out, 10 palm facing in again, and 11-up palm facing
out again.
Practice along with the video, so that you can get the
feel for how it “flows” more easily in the way
explained above.

9. Fact 1: Fractions
Watch and then try
translating these
additional sentences:
1. “2 out of 5 men wear
eyeglasses.”
2. “3 out of 10 women
have shoulder-length
hair.”
Remember to convert the
numbers to fractions
before signing the fact.

10. Fact 1: Ratio
Video Notes:
To use ratio, John first identifies
the whole “of all the women in
the world,” then sets up a
hypothetical group (giving a
number) to represent the whole,
“4 women” on his left (weak)
side. Then after telling how
many in this hypothetical group,
John shows “1 woman” out of
the group toward his right
(dominant) side and makes the
comment “is addicted to
chocolate.” This construction
requires the use of a conditional
clause, which makes it more
complicated to follow and use.
John translates the same fact
that “1 out of 4 women is
addicted to chocolate,” this time
using ratio.
Rehearse this segment - use raised
eyebrows when telling about the whole.
Also, don’t forget to raise your eyebrows to
emphasize the numbers, followed by a
slight pause before commenting on the fact.

11. Fact 1: Ratio
▪ Ratio is used when
the signer doesn’t
have time or doesn’t
know how to convert
the data to
percentages or
fractions.
▪ Here’s some
examples of using
basic ratios - “1 out
of 4”, “2 out of 5”,
and “5 out of 7”. Try following along with these
ratios.

12. Fact 2: Percentage
Video Notes:
Stefanie begins with the whole “of all
the books people buy,” followed by
the part, “80% are paperbacks.” She
contrasts this part by mentioning that
the remaining books sold (20%) are
hard covers. She uses contrastive
structure to tell the part from the
remainder. She emphasizes the
numbers (80% and 20%) to help make
the point. Stefanie ends by
commenting on people’s obvious
preference for paperbacks.
Stefanie translates “books sold” by
discussing the idea in terms of the
number of books bought. By doing
this, she focuses our attention on kind
of books that the buyers chose, rather
than emphasizing the kind of books
the sellers chose to sell, which would
have a different meaning than the one
intended.
Stefanie states the fact that “8
out of every 10 books sold are
paperback.”
Rehearse this segment using percentages.
Remember to raise your eyebrows to set up
the whole topic, use contrastive structure,
and emphasize the number to help to make
the point.

13. Fact 2: Percentage
For percentages,
we sign a
number followed
by this sign.

14. Fact 2: Ratio
Video Notes:
Stefanie begins with the
whole “of all the books
people buy,” followed by
a hypothetical number,
“for every 10 books that
people buy,” and then
states how many of these
books (8) are
paperbacks. Stefanie
points to the number on
her hand to emphasize
the number 8.
Stefanie translates the same
fact that “8 out of every 10
books sold are paperback” by
using a ratio.
Rehearse this segment using this
emphasizing technique.

15. Review
Throughout this presentation, you have
learned the following:
1. Translating Facts: Whole-Part
a. Fractions
b. Ratio
c. Percentages