EVERYDAY YOU WALK CLASS?
"Do you walk to your class every day?"
Time signs such as "today," "yesterday," "every day," "every morning," etc. are signed at the beginning of sentences. This is because ASL follows a "TIME" "TOPIC" "COMMENT" sentence structure. You will learn ASL "TOPIC" "COMMENT" sentence structure later in this unit. You will learn ASL "TIME" "TOPIC" "COMMENT" structure in more detail in the ASL 2 class.
NO I TAKE BUS.
"No, I take the bus."
This sentence is a negative statement. Just like how there are affirmative statements, there are negative statements. You will learn ASL negative statements in Unit 6. This is also a sentence where you would use the sign "NO." This is important because unlike English, ASL has different signs for the English word "no" depending on what the "no" means in a sentence. You will learn more about the different kinds of "no's" in Unit 10.
TIME?
"What time?"
This is a wh-word question, but it uses only the wh-word facial expression to imply the WHAT sign. This only works for a few signed sentences with "What time?" being one of them.
APPROX. TIME 8 MORNING
"Around 8 o'clock in the morning."
Even though the time sign is not signed at the beginning of the sentence, it is ok in this case. This is because time signs normally establish the "tense" of a sentence. You will learn ASL "tense" in the ASL 2 class. However, establishing tense is not necessary in this sentence because the previous question already set the tense of the answer, so it was still understood. Don't get too confused--this will all become clear later.
Word Order
ASL sentences follow a "TOPIC" "COMMENT" structure. This is the same as the English "subject" "predicate" structure. However, instead of the topic always being the subject, the topic in ASL is whatever the comment is referring to. This can either be the subject of the sentence or the object.
The subject of the sentence is the person or object doing the action, the verb of a sentence is the action, and the object of the sentence is what is receiving the action. For example, in the sentence "The boy kicked the ball" the subject is "boy," the verb is "kicked," and the object is "ball."
There are a few different variations of word order in ASL. You can sign in Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order, Object-Subject-Verb (OSV) word order, or even Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word order.
All of the following sentences are correct in ASL:
"ME GO HOME" (SVO)
"HOME ME GO" (OSV)
"ME HOME GO" (SOV)
In the video below, I will demonstrate the word order variations above:
Turn to page 7 in your workbook. In the video below I will sign 10 simple sentences. Circle the correct word order of each sentence (i.e. SVO, OSV, or SOV). The first one has been done for you.
Turn to page 7 in your workbook. In the video below, I am going to sign 10 phrases. Write down the numbers that I signed in each phrase. The first one has been done for you.
When you're finished, check your answers in the back of the workbook. Go back and review the questions you missed.
Fingerspelling Practice 5.3
Turn to page 8 in your workbook. I will sign 10 sentences. I will fingerspell a name in each of those sentences. Circle the name that I spelled for each number. The first one has been done for you.
When you're finished, check your answers in the back of the workbook. Go back and review the questions you missed. Then, go back and fingerspell the correct names for each number for practice.
Vocabulary Quiz: Units 1-5
If you've been skimping out on learning your vocabulary, you better go back and study! I am about to quiz you!
Turn to page 8 in your workbook. In the video below, I am going to sign a story. During the story, numbers will pop up on the screen. When a number pops up, that is the number that corresponds to the sign I am signing at that moment.
Watch the whole video through the first time. Then, go back and watch it again, getting the signs you missed. You can pause the video to give yourself time to write as well as go back and watch a sign again. Write the sign on the line for that number.
When you're finished, check your answers in the back of the workbook. Go back and review the questions you missed.
Reading Assignment
In The ASL Student's Essential Guide to American Sign Language Grammar, read Chapter 6 (American Sign Language Syntax), Section 6.1 (Word Order). This section goes a lot more in-depth about word order in ASL. It is very important that you study this section so you can get familiar with all of the different (and sometimes more complicated) word orders used in ASL.
End of Unit 5
You're done with Unit 5! Keep going! You will learn ASL sentence types in the next unit!
