How does sign language put grammar in the air?
In ASL, a rabbit hopping downhill is one sign: a handshape for the rabbit, a path for the slope, a bounce for each hop.
▶ Start the storySign languages use the space in front of the signer, and the signer's movements through it, to carry grammar. Spoken language is by and large linear: only one sound can be made or received at a time. Sign language is visual, so it can express several things simultaneously, with the hands, the face and the body, though this is limited. In American Sign Language, meaning is conveyed through the placement and movement of signs in relation to one another, not only through a strict line of words.
Spoken language
- Mostly linear: one sound at a time
- Grammar in endings and word order
Sign language
- Can express things simultaneously
- Grammar in movement, space and face
Take verbs. In ASL a verb must agree with both its subject and its object, and the way the sign moves shows it. The same idea works across sign languages: the subject and object of a verb determine the direction of its movement. , which is how an action flows in time, is shown by changing how the sign moves: a rhythmic circle for continuing action, a stationary hand for a single moment. Two one-handed signs facing each other show : the sign SHOOT turns into two L-shaped hands 'shooting' at each other.
Then there are , where the hand becomes a stand-in. A bent V handshape can be a rabbit; give it a downhill path and it runs downhill, give the path a bouncy manner and it is hopping. The handshape shows what kind of thing it is, and the movement tells what it does.
Faces help too. Turn-taking is managed by eye gaze: a signer can look away to keep the turn, or make eye contact to hand it over.
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Recap
In signing, where and how a sign moves is grammar: it shows who does what, how an action flows and what a thing looks like.
💡 A trick to remember it · Spoken grammar is a train of words; signed grammar is a dance floor, where where you step and how you move say who, what and how.
Surprising fact · One ASL sign can say a rabbit is hopping downhill, using a handshape plus a path with a bounce.
Sources (2)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (16 claims) cites at least one of these.