I’ve been working on expanding my expression vocabulary in my writing, particularly the staple “frown” and “grimace.” Then I realized that I simply replaced them with another overused expression–the furrowed brow. Lol. (Yes, this does link to ASL, bear with me.)
I’m a grammar nut, and one of my favorite parts of interpreting is working with the linguistics of English and ASL. Most of you probably know that sign language involves forming words with the hands. But have you thought about how sentences are punctuated? How do you know if the sentence in ASL is a statement or a question? In spoken English, we have inflection and tone to convey grammar, but what about in silent languages?
In ASL, all of the grammatical signals are located on the face, from the nose up. The key feature–the eyebrows. (See, I had a point.) Furrowed brows signal a Wh-Question (who, what, where, when, why). Raised eyebrows show a Yes/No question and a Rhetorical question. ASL uses rhetorical questions differently than English does. They’re often used to introduce a topic, or emphasize the importance of that topic. There’s a lot of expression that goes into ASL beyond just hand movements.
WH-question via/ lifeprint.com
Another form of punctuation and one of the hardest ones for me, is the period. Care to take a guess? Eye blinks. Talk about subtle. My research paper in my final semester of interpreter training involved looking at alternative punctuational and grammatical signals one could use if the standard ones were too difficult. Combining a head nod with the eye blink would be more clear and obvious that the sentence is finished.
Are any of you wondering if the mouth has any function in ASL since the brows are so important? Yep. The nose, cheeks, and mouth give adverbial and adjectival information.
Handshape + sucked in cheeks and pursed lips = "thin" via/ lifeprint.com
If you really want to learn ASL and use it properly, you’d better get comfortable making very expressive faces. I wasn’t when I started, but I eventually got over it. People might think you’re over exaggerating, or they might even think you’re mad when you’re not. But the expressions in ASL are not superfluous; they’re grammatically necessary.
I hope you enjoyed this little insight into the language of ASL. 
Ahhmazing Angela, I had NO idea. So cool to think that every part of the face is used – not just the hands.
Yup, Natalie. ASL is it’s own, unique language.
I have to let my six-year-old daughter know about this. She just learned ASL alphabet at school and loves it. I’m sure there will be a lot of giggling, while I show her the photos in your post. And then we will practice the facial expressions together
Haha, I’m sure, Angela. I remember practicing facial expressions in class in front of a camera. Awkward! It’s a little ironic, because outside of ASL, I am like all serious face. I don’t do goofy pictures, lol.
This was SO interesting! Keep educating us on this topic, Angela – please! How do I indicate that exclamation point?
Patricia, you’d sign the word “please” in one quick, sharp movement to get the exclamation point. Though your facial expression would also need to convey it, that would be more expressive and less grammatical. There are so many layers, as with any language.
How interesting! I took a semester of basic sign language in college, but I don’t remember much. It makes sense so much of ASL would be in the face, as expression are key. Love this post:)
Thanks, Stacy! They are important, and I think it’s good for people to know it’s part of the language. I watched this one encounter a few years ago where the communication was spiraling because the Deaf person was very expressive, and the hearing person (as we’re all called) thought she was getting mad, and so responded by also getting mad. But it wasn’t a case of strong emotions, just strong facial expressions.
My son is deaf and at home we use signed Engkish which is different then ASL in that a Question is ending with the sign for a question mark. When my son entered high school he learned ASL and taught us that at home. Now we use a mixture as ASL is much quicker but the signed English has better sentence structure. Both use facial expressions a lot. I enjoyed your post as did my son.
Hi Susan! I’m glad you and your son enjoyed it. I use Signed English in English grammar classes or when reading from a text. I have one class right now where they’re reading The Hobbit, and they read aloud in class. Sometimes signing English works better because we’re following a book, but sometimes with Tolkien’s superfluous and descriptive language, ASL is better!
I can see how ASL would be better for Tolkien…
I kow ‘ve had to explain certain passages fom other books to my son and ASL was much better for that.
Thanks, Angela! I really had no idea about the facial expressions. I’ve been considering taking an ASL class. I really should have done this years ago, but thankfully (as long as I’m still ticking) it’s never too late.
Nope, never too late, Rhonda!
You know, I guess I never thought about it, but yeah my grandma makes faces all the time (she’s deaf). I must’ve learned intuitively what they meant because I can picture in my mind several conversations I’ve had with her and I knew if it was a question or not based on her face. So interesting! I remember in college I took a linguistics class and we talked about ASL having different ‘dialects’. I was gobsmacked, but yep, different regions have slight inflections to their signs. Very interesting post, Angela!
I’m sure you picked it up intuitively as a child, Tameri. That’s how we learn any language during those formative years. Yep, lots of dialects across the US. I know a couple East coast signs. Not only that, but there are age dialects. And that doesn’t even mention all the other sign languages for different countries. I once learned how to sign my name in Japanese sign language.
This is really interesting. I forgot what show it was that I used to watch that always had them in the corner interpret everything, but I was always fascinated and would watch them so closely. Reading your post made things click. It was so clear. Love it. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by, Debra!
Oooh, I’ve never seen you interpret before, and I would LOVE to see you make that face for “thin”
Lol. I think not, Alina.
I’ve always wanted to learn ASL (and my best friend was working toward her certification before having her third child), but I didn’t realize how tightly it can actually tie into the body language we need to incorporate into our writing. I’m glad you decided to write about this
I’m glad you liked it, Marcy.
I had no idea. Amazing stuff, this. It just shows how much I take for granted the spoken word. I would love to hear more on the finer details on ASL. Keep it coming!
Hey Diana! I have to admit, I thought I’d be the only one interested in the linguistics of ASL, but I might try out a couple more posts on the topic since other people do seem to be interested. Just stop me if I get too boring.
This was really interesting, because I didn’t know anything about the interpreter using facial expressions. I thought it was all in the hand movements. It definitely more complicated than I thought it was.
BTW, I thought I’d let you know I have a short story up that people seem to like. It’s called, “The Atheist’s Confession.” I’m looking forward to you stopping by my weblog.
There are also regional signs as my son discovered. He went on a trip to Maryland when he was still in high scholl and he sat in on a driver’s education class (actually it was my son Trev and 5 of his friends from BC) The instructor couldn’t figure out why our kids were laughing when she used the sign for driving druck. As my son finally told her in Canada in Vancouver that same sigh is used for sexually satisfiedl So what the BC boys and girls was getting was “don’t drink and drive if you are sexually satisfied” This was absolutely hilarious and all the kids in from both schools got together and figured out more sighns that ment one thing in one part of th Us and the same sign in Canada meant something completely different. Excellent trip!
Oh, that is too funny, Susan! When I was learning ASL (I’m on the West Coast), I knew some Deaf students from the East Coast, so I learned a few variations, such as for “computer.” Nothing that hilarious though!