This document provides an analysis of the language structure of American Sign Language (ASL). It discusses ASL's morphology, syntax, phonology, semantics and pragmatics. Some key points include: - ASL uses hand gestures and signs rather than spoken words, with inflection shown through variations in signs and gestures. - Syntax follows patterns like subject-verb-object, questioning is shown through facial expressions. - Phonology differs greatly from English with no consonants/vowels, using signing space and hand positioning instead. - Semantics shows polysemy with other sign languages and new signs can be created, with vocabulary building similarly to English. - Pragmatics involves using full-

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AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE ANALYSIS
Language Analysis of American Sign Language
CDS211
Sarah Conry
Fontbonne University

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Language: American Sign Language (ASL)
Spoken: In the United States of America, Puerto Rico, Canada and other countries where
General American English is the primary language.
Morphology:
ASL is a language that is made up entirely of hand gestures and signs. Because of this,
there is little if any spoken content in the language (Finegan, 2012, p. 18). A
inflectional/derivational morphological system is used, though the inflectional and derivational
morphemes are not apparent in the same way as in GAE. "Sign languages have two strikingly
different kinds of morphological structure: sequential and simultaneous. The simultaneous
morphology of two unrelated sign languages, American... Sign Language, is very similar and
is largely inflectional, while what little sequential morphology we have found differs
significantly and is derivational" (Aronoff, 2012). The structure of ASL enables this to be
possible.
The way that plurals, tenses, progressives, and possessives are shown is through variation
in the signs and gestures. For instance, to show possession, one would place their full hand on
their chest (Humphries & Padden, 2004, p. 83), and to show another person's possession they
would place their arm, full hand with palm facing outward, toward the person in question.
Plurals can be shown by gesturing toward all in question or by pointing at an imaginary group of
people and gesturing towards the entire group (Kegl, 1977, p. 174). The context cues of the
utterance would give the best indication of whether the speaker is conveying plurals or not.
Because ASL is not vocal, the morphological and phonological rules of GAE do not
apply, however, there are rules in American Sign Language that reflect similar structures to those

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of General American English such as the positioning of the hand differing slightly between two
signs and the pronunciation of a word varying slightly to show differentiation.
Syntax:
In the area of syntax, the structure of ASL is totally different from that of General
American English. Syntax always follow a specified pattern of subject + object, subject + verb +
object or object + subject + verb (ASL linguistics) depending on the speaker's preferences and
the context of the situation. Much like in GAE, when signing in ASL one would put emphasis
on the new information and tread lightly with previously given information.
To ask a question, the speaker would raise their eyebrows and lean their head forward to
convey the questioning nature of the utterance. "The nonmanuals used in sign languages serve a
variety of functions similar to those performed by intonation or word order changes in spoken
language like English. For example, to make a question from the English statement "Sarah is
having a party this weekend," the intonation pattern can be changed from falling at the end to
rising at the end "Sarah is having a party this weekend?" (an echo question) or the word order
can be changed to give "Is Sarah having a party this weekend?" (a yes/no question) (Benitez-
Quiroz et al. 2014, p. 2). In this way, the signer would use their body language and facial
expression to convey meaning of the sentence. An alternative way to pose a simple question
would be to continuously repeat the verb from the sentence in question, for example instead of
signing the sentence, "What are you going to do?" one could simple sign "Do?" repeatedly with a
questioning expression (Humphries & Padden, 2004, p. 14).
To show gender in ASL there are gender specific signs that are used. Feminine gender
signs are located around the chin and masculine related signs are located at the forehead (CHS
ASL, 2013).

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Phonology:
Of all language components, phonology is probably the most different from GAE
because consonants and vowels are not used in a translatable way in ASL. Yet, pronunciation
and stress of syllables can still be shown in the signs and gestures through the use of nonmanual
markers (Benitez-Quiroz et al, 2014, p. 9) which show expression in language. A rule of ASL
that is very specific is that of the signing space, which is essentially that area in which all ASL
signs are located within. The signing space begins below the waist and the boundaries form a
sort of circular area around the front of the body. All signs take place within the signing space
(Kegl, 1977, p. 173). This spatial rule could also fall under pragmatic language components, but
because it is a conventional rule of proper ASL usage. Within the use of the signing space, "A
number of signs are marked positionally by contact with or proximity to a precise point on the
signer's body. Forehead, temple, cheek, ear, eyebrow, eyes, nose, lips, teeth, chin, and neck may
be touched, pinched, brushed, struck, or approached...in the making of signs" (Stokoe, 2005, p.
21). Hand position is of the upmost importance for signing because position in a vast amount of
the sign meaning.
One aspect of phonology in ASL is the manual alphabet system. When a word does not
have an assigned sign, a word can be finger spelled; which quite literally is to spell out the word
in question by using the ASL alphabet letter signs as needed (Stokoe, 2005, 17). In ASL hand
position takes the place of GAE phonological rules. Classifiers are signs that may represent size,
shape, number, spacing, and location of a person, place, or object (Humphries & Padden, 2004,
83). Some of the most common classifiers are the manual letters "A", "C", "B", "V", "Y", the

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"1" (pointed index finger) hand shape and the upside down "V" hand shape (Humphries &
Padden, 2004, p. 127).
Semantics:
In ASL new word signs can be created by creating a new sign that best represents the
word in question but most ASL signs are derived from the French system of sign language which
was invented prior to ASL (Shaw & Delaporte, 2005, p. 158). An example of this would be the
ASL sign for Chocolate which is extremely similar to that of SLF (French Sign Language) and is
meant to represent the making of chocolate. To sign chocolate the signer would position his or
her dominant hand in the manual letter "C" and slide the "C" hand over the top of the other
horizontal hand. In SLF the sign for chocolate is both hands positioned in the manual letter "U"
with the dominant hand sliding over the other hand. (Shaw & Delaporte, 2005, p. 175-176). This
slight variation shows the polysemous nature that ASL has in regards to SLF and how new words
can be invented.
A way in which ASL vocabulary is built up is quite similar to that of GAE and most other
languages. Vocabulary can be dictated by metalinguistic knowledge of words, according to
Novogrodsky et al. (2014), "...there are three vocabulary skill levels: (1) knowing a direct
definition (i.e., "dictionary knowledge"), (2) knowing how a word or sign is used in a sentence
(i.e. "contextual knowledge"), and (3) knowing similarities and differences among the meanings
of words or signs" (p. 228).
Sign meanings may vary based off of different letter signs within the same motion. For
example, the sign for Monday and the sign for Tuesday use the same motion but with the hand in
the shape of the letter "M" for the first and the letter "T" for the second (Humphries & Padden,
2004, p. 134). This pattern is common in ASL.

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To represent pronouns a signer would use a casual pointing gesture that is also commonly
used in GAE and other languages. However, in ASL pointing has much more meaning than in
other languages. Friedman describes ASL pronoun structure as thus,
...each gesture establishes a particular point in space where
the referent of that pronoun may be assumed to be found
for the remainder of the conversation unless otherwise
indicated...The center of the front of the signer is used for
second person referent (you) for referring to the addressee.
The first third person pronoun referent is made to the left of
the signer (Friedman 1975), and the space is evenly divided
if possible for greater numbers of referents. With this
topography available, a theoretically infinite number of
pronominal references can be unambiguously made
(practically speaking, the number is constrained by memory
limitations and visual perceptual limitations [Siple 1973]).
Thus, although the sentence 'Bob yelled at Bill and then he
slapped him' is ambiguous in English (and problematic for
many linguistic theories), in ASL there would be no
ambiguity (as cited by Kegl, 1997, p. 174).
Pronoun use is heavily used in ASL much like it is in GAE.
In order to change the sentence type (declarative, imperative etc.) and the structure of the
sentence, small cues called nonmanual markers (Benitez-Quiroz et al, 2014, p. 9) can be used to
vary one sentence. Similarly, in terms of direct and indirect sentence meanings, ASL can and is

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used for both contexts by simply utilizing a nonmanual negation. A signer may say, "I would
love to go with you" while using a facial expression that conveys the exact opposite meaning
(Humphries & Padden, 2004, p. 173).
Pragmatics:
ASL speaking people use their full bodies when they sign. ASL is a very expressive and
animated language because the meaning of an utterance is dictated primarily by the
expressiveness of the signer rather than the actual signs and gestures used. Signers will greet
each other by waving in GAE style, hugging, shaking hands, or some other form of physical
contact depending on the situation of the encounter and their relationship with the other
individual(s) of the encounter (Pearce, 2007). When first being meeting, signers will give their
full name (Humphries & Padden, 2004, p. 2). ASL speakers do not tend to say "hello" or greet
each other with any sort of salutation unless it is a first time meeting. Different modes of
attention grabbing can range from flickering the lights to extending one's arm forward and
shaking it towards the person in question (Humphries & Padden, 2004, p. 50).
Individuals who speak in ASL tend to use more direct speech than indirect speech (Hoza,
2007, p. 2). However, especially when making jokes or signing in figurative language, they may
use indirect language.
Though American Sign Language is consistent throughout the U.S. , there are a vast
amount of dialectical variations in different areas. Dialectical variations manifest themselves in
a different way than any spoken language. Signs will can be either entirely different or only
slightly altered in position or location (Contreras, 2002). This can be shown in that the sign for
"beer" is the same in most ASL speaking places, but in Milwaukee, WI is unique. The sign is
different for cultural reasons and is therefore considered a variation. When speaking using ASL,

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new information will be stressed and known information will be skimmed over or omitted
completely because it does not benefit the sentence as a whole. Meaning is mostly understood
through contextual cues.

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References
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morphology. National center for biotechnology information, U.S. national library
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Benitez-Quiroz, C., Gökgöz, K., Wilbur, R. B., & Martinez, A. M. (2014). Discriminant features
and temporal structure of nonmanuals in American sign language. Plus ONE,
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