ASL Linguistics: Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax
This domain narrows to ASL's internal grammar: the phonological parameters and their constraints, word formation, and sentence structure. Expect items that ask you to identify a minimal pair, name a morphological process, or explain what a non-manual marker contributes.
Phonology: parameters and processes
- Stokoe's three parameters - handshape (DEZ), location (TAB), movement (SIG) - plus orientation, added by Battison, and the non-manual layer (brows, mouth, head, gaze).
- Minimal pairs prove parameter status: SORRY versus PLEASE (A versus B handshape, same location and circular movement); MOTHER versus FATHER (thumb contact at chin versus forehead); SIT versus CHAIR (single versus repeated movement).
- Battison's constraints on two-handed signs: the symmetry condition (both hands identical, same movement) and the dominance condition (dominant hand moves, base hand passive, hands share a handshape from a limited set).
- Phonological processes: assimilation, hold deletion, movement epenthesis (a transitional movement inserted in compounds), metathesis, and weakening or reduction in fast signing.
Morphology
- Compounding: MOTHER + FATHER → PARENTS; EYE + GLASSES → GLASSES; BOY + FRIEND → BOYFRIEND.
- Noun–verb pairs derived by movement: repeated, restrained movement for the noun; single or larger movement for the verb (CHAIR/SIT, AIRPLANE/FLY).
- Aspect as inflection: LOOK with repeated short holds is iterative ("look over and over"); a prolonged hold is continuative ("keep looking"); tense and quick is inceptive.
- Verb classes: plain (THINK), agreement or directional (GIVE, HELP - moving between loci), spatial (PUT, MOVE - encoding location and path).
- Classifiers: entity, handling, and size-and-shape specifiers (SASS), used in predicate constructions.
Syntax
- Basic order is commonly SVO, with productive topicalization (topic plus comment, marked by brow raise and pause) and rhetorical-question structures. OSV is not the default for all sentences.
- Non-manual grammar: yes/no questions (brows raised, head tilted, forward lean, final hold); wh-questions (brows furrowed, head tilt); conditionals (raised brows, pause, then consequent); relative clauses (raised brows, head back); negation (headshake with or without NOT).
Worked example
Gloss: "PRO-1 BOOK GIVE PRO-3," with the verb moving from the signer's locus to a locus on the right. Explanation: GIVE is an agreement verb; its path encodes subject and object. If the third-person locus had not been established, the sentence would be unclear. Reversing the path reverses the roles - same handshape and location, different syntax.
Traps
- Calling classifiers "pronouns" or "descriptive gestures."
- Treating facial expression as only emotion and ignoring its grammatical role.
- Assuming ASL has one fixed word order.
- Confusing mouth morphemes (such as the "cha" mouth for large) with English mouthing.
- Analyzing glosses as if English word order were ASL grammar.