101 Definitions of Class Terms:

101 Definitions of Class Terms:

GLOSS: In simplest terms, a GLOSS is a label. In ASL it is an English word that approximates the meaning of any given sign. But a GLOSS is a label with very weak adhesive—it’s not stuck on very securely. There is not a sign for any English word, but there are ASL signs used to express the same meaning. A GLOSS is the “English Label” we put on those signs, when we want to talk, read or write about SIGNS in English terms.

A Gloss is…

An English word loosely applied as a label for an ASL sign.

A “working definition” of an ASL sign in a given context.

An English word approximating the meaning of an ASL sign.

Symbol: Language is the use of symbols to convey information. Therefore every language is a collection of symbols governed by grammatical rules. The symbols of a spoken language are Words, while the symbols of a manual language are called SIGNS.

Referent: This is the concept, or meaning expressed by the symbol; the thought to which the symbol “refers”.

CONTEXT: The explanatory words and ideas surrounding a particular word or statement in a discourse. In ASL, “CONTEXT is EVERYTHING!”

TOPIC: Your topic is simply “the thing you are talking about”. Determined by context, it may be the “Who”, “What” or “When” in your sentence but it is always the point or theme of your conversation and can carry from one sentence to the next.

VERB: This is the action in your sentence. “Tell,” “Give,” “Study” & “Laugh” are examples of verbs found in English and ASL. “Is”, “am”, “be”, “been”, “was”, “were” and “are”… are verbs too, but since they are passive you WON’T find these verbs in ASL.

SUBJECT: The subject of your sentence (not to be confused with the topic) is the noun that is performing the action. The subject is the “doer” who tells, gives, laughs or studies…

NOUN: A noun is a person, place, or thing, even if it’s invisible, or intangible, like freedom, kindness, or love. You can’t see them or touch them, but you can think about them, ponder them and discuss them. Nouns can be your subject or your objects.

OBJECT: The object is any noun receiving the action of the verb. In other words: the thing acted upon by the subject. Who is told; what is given, what is studied, etc.

MODALS: “Helping Verbs” Modals are verbs that can accompany other verbs in a sentence to change the meaning of the verb, will, can, must, won’t and should are examples.

ADJECTIVE: Words that describe nouns: people, places and things.

ADVERB: These are words that modify Verbs (usually ending in “ly”): “quickly”; “safely”; “slowly”; “Monstrously”, etc. They tell you how the activity is done. ASL uses facial expression and sign modification to handle most adverbial information.

PRONOUN: A pronoun is a symbol that represents a noun without naming it. He, She, It, Him, Her, They, Me, you, are all examples of the pronoun. ASL pronouns have no gender

ARTICLES: Small words used as Adjectives before English nouns: a dog, an elephant, the monkey. Kiss them goodbye! ASL does not use them at all!

“Phonetics” of ASL: Just as a spoken language can be broken down into the smallest units of sound (Phonemes), ASL can be broken into its smallest units. They are referred to as the Parameters of a Sign:

Hand-shape: The configuration of your fingers. There is a finite set of hand-shapes that occur in ASL that are part of the natural language. There are also certain possible hand-shapes that don’t occur in the language, just as there are sounds we can make with our mouths that are not used in speaking English.

Orientation: This refers to the direction your palm is facing.

Location: This refers to the placement of your hands during a production of a sign.

Movement: This is the way your arms, hands or fingers move as part of a sign.

Non Manual Signals become the fifth parameter when use alters the sign’s meaning.

GRAMMAR: Is the set of rules that govern a language. Grammar is made up of:

Semantics: The rules that dictate how the language represents meaning.

Lexicon: The set of symbols, words or vocabulary items that make up the language.

Syntax: The rules that govern the order of vocabulary items, to express meaning.

Morphology: The rules that govern how words are put together from smaller parts.

Phonetics: The set of sounds (parameters) that create the symbols of a language.

PHONEME: In general linguistic terms, a phoneme is “the smallest unit of sound” for a spoken language. (Some languages are not based upon sound!)

MORPHEME: The smallest unit of meaning in a given language.

MANUAL: Of or pertaining to the hands. A manual activity is an activity of the hands.

Non-Manual Grammatical Signals (NMGS): Components of ASL that do not include use of the hands, NMGS add specific information to your sentence. These include: Head nodding or shaking; Facial Expressions; Shoulder shrugging; Mouth movement; etc.). Adding NMGS to a sign can completely change the meaning of some signs.

FINGERSPELLING: Is the use of the American Manual Alphabet to spell-out English words. Although Fingerspelling is commonly found intermixed with ASL, it is NOT American Sign Language! It is only a means of spelling out English words. Fingerspelling is English! Don’t forget that there is not always one ASL sign that equals one English word. (See the definition of a GLOSS). For some of these, like personal names or brand names, fingerspelling is one way to get your point across, but keep in mind that not all English words will be recognized by all Deaf people.

Whole Word Fluency: This refers to the practice of watching a fingerspelled word, not as the sum of the letters that make it up, but as a whole unit—Not W, A, L, R, U, S but walrus.

On Whole Word Fluency (wwf): Practice watching the entire word from start to finish, instead of trying to individually identify each letter. Of course, this requires that you are familiar enough with the entire manual alphabet to accomplish the task.

LOAN SIGNS: Sometimes ASL borrows words from English and works them into ASL vocabulary. This is not unique to ASL & English; many (if not all) languages share some vocabulary when they come into contact with one another. This process takes place in ASL by use of lexicalized fingerspelling or what are commonly called LOAN SIGNS. You will notice that each GLOSS begins with the #. In ASL this symbol indicates a Loan Sign.

Tips on Fingerspelling:

Your hand should be comfortably, palm out, in front of your shoulder.

Your palm should face your listener (except for G, H, P & Q).

Your hand should stay still; only your fingers should move (except for J & Z).

Don’t bounce from letter to letter (who can focus on a moving hand?)

Don’t swipe or slash between words.

Practice real words and letter combinations, not the ABC’s.

Form each letter carefully without straining, let them flow naturally into the next letter.

Fast is good, but understandable is BETTER -- Don’t rush yourself.

Indicate double letters by sliding the letter slightly to the outside (showing it in two places).

Small double letters in the middle of the word (tt/ss) may be “tapped”.

Phonetically “sound out” words that are fingerspelled to you.

Practice fingerspelling every word that you see (or hear).

Practice with a friend.

Practice with your dog.

Practice with your friend’s dog.

Practice.

Practice,

And when you finish that, practice some more!

ASL Pronouns: ASL pronouns are not unlike English pronouns in their primary function; however, there are some significant differences. First and foremost it should be noted that ASL pronouns to not convey gender information. English has Feminine pronouns (She, Her, Hers) and masculine pronouns (He, Him, His)—ASL DOES NOT! The pronoun for HE, SHE & IT are all the same. You do not know the gender of the referent unless that information is specifically added to the sentence.

ASL uses the following pronouns:

· Singular (first, second, third person)

· Plural (first, second, third person)

· Possessive (first, second, third person)

· Possessive Plural (first, second, third person)

· Reflexive Pronoun (first, second, third person)

· Honorific Pronoun (first, second, third person)

CLASSIFIER: Since ASL is a visual, 3-dimensional language it can use the space around the signer to express all sorts of ideas and relationships between objects. Classifiers are a tool for employing this ability. For instance, in English I could say “the car swerved around the cat and crashed into the fence.” In ASL I can show you! Classifiers are the hand shapes that signers use to represent specific types of things such as cars, cats and fences. These hand shapes can then be manipulated in relationship to one another to describe location, direction, speed, intensity… any kind of prepositional or adverbial information you could imagine.

There are many different kinds of classifiers. Some can show objects in scenes like the one above, while other classifiers are used for description of size, shape or number. Even though classifiers are completely foreign to native English speakers, most people find them to be the clearest, most easily understood part of the language. Learning to use them effectively is another story--that takes a great deal of time and practice.

A Definition: “CLASSIFIERS are predetermined hand-shapes with non-specific inherent meaning that represent a set CLASS of concepts.”

Rick’s Rules of ASL

As I transitioned from Signing Exact English to American Sign Language, I found myself stumbling over some common obstacles. These are the steps I use to avoid those obstacles. Remember to run through them as a checklist before you lift your hands to sign, and I’m sure they will help direct you around the obstacles in the road between English grammar and ASL... think in pictures!

1. Topic + Comment (topicalization)

2. Establish time to set the stage

3. (something about Classifiers)

4. Show me a picture

Deaf Culture, Historical Terms and a plethora of “isms”

Audism: This is a term that refers to the discrimination of Deaf people. Audism is not explicitly the active discrimination by hearing people against deaf people, instead it is the underlying bias, an attitude of the superiority of hearing over deafness. This attitude leads to the view of deafness as a medical problem, and overlooks or rejects the view of Deafness as a cultural difference. Discrimination occurs when these attitudes are acted upon.

The term “Audism” was coined in 1977 by Dr. Tom Humphries. And at the time of this writing, it is yet to be included in prominent dictionaries, and there are groups committed to seeing it included. See audism.org. For further reading on this subject see “The Mask of Benevolence” by Harlan Lane.

Discrimination: Acting upon a bias, or attitude. It is defined as the treatment in favor of or against a person on a categorical basis rather than according to actual merit.

Paternalism: The system, principle, or practice of managing or governing individuals, or groups in the manner of a father dealing with his children. This attitude as it relates to deafness (specifically Audism) is most commonly seen in the educational system. It involves one (or many) in power making decisions for those without power. In short, deciding for others what is in “their best interest.” Paternalism does not only relate to deafness. It is also evident in slavery, race relations, colonization, and education in general. Where it is focused on deafness is also called audism.

Paternalism is not inherently evil, though it is disempowering to the subject. In most cases the paternalist wants to “help” the subject, and believes that he or she knows what is ultimately best for the person in their charge. This is clearly not just a “fatherly” approach; women are equally at risk of holding paternalistic attitudes. Students at during the Gallaudet University uprising in 1988 used the term “mommyism” to describe the attitude of Jane Spilman, the chair person of college’s board of trustees when she implied that deaf people where not ready to live in the hearing world without the help of the hearing to guide them, teach them, govern them, and generally take care of them.

Oralism: An educational approach of teaching deaf people to speak and lip-read that prohibits the use of sign language. Programs that emphasize speech-reading and vocal training are not oralist unless they forbid the use of sign language.

Total Communication: An educational approach that includes speech-reading and vocal training, but includes the use of manual language (ASL or MCE).

ASL: The natural language of Deaf people in America (including parts of Canada and Mexico).

MCE: Manually Coded English. This is any form of signing that attempts to encode English into signs. These include

S.E.E (Signing Exact English); L.O.V.E. (the linguistics of visual English); M.S.E. (manually signed English), et al.

PSE: Pidgin Signed English. This is a naturally occurring blend of ASL and English. It is also called “contact signing” as it happens when non-fluent signers come into contact with Fluent ASL signers. Both signers (either intentionally or subconsciously) arrange their sentences in an English-like syntax.

Code Switching: The process of adjusting one’s signs to the signing style of the other person. Deaf people will often code-switch to the speed, and vocabulary of a not-yet-fluent student of ASL. ASL students may not even notice as Deaf people code switch with them from ASL to PSE.

Staying Connected:

ASL Club: “Silent Voices” is an active student program that presents outstanding events and fun activities to students at all levels--A great way to keep your hands moving and meet new friends to practice with. Students at all levels are welcomed at all Club events. This club was put together for ASL students just like you by ASL students just like you! Check out their website today to find out about upcoming activities. www.aslsilentvoices.com.

Join today! Joining the ASL club is free and it gives you multiple benefits such as alerts to upcoming ASL events (remember: you need 3 culture contacts this quarter!), and discounts on many club events.

This is a great way to stay connected to ASL in this area.

ASL Information Network: ASL@bcc.ctc.edu. You can send an “add me” email to this address and you will get periodic information regarding BCC’s ASL program. “ASL@bcc” will not “spam” you or share your address with anyone. This email address is not affiliated with the ASL club. This is the email community of current and former ASL students and their friends. ASL@bcc is where you get information from the ASL program at bcc (when there’s something to share).