Asked • 06/19/19

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I study foreign languages. I am fluent in spanish and german and I'm learning French. That being said sign language has perked my interest. I have some questions. ​ Exactly how complicated is the grammatical structure in comparison to a spoken language? I.e. is there present perfect, is the subjunctive indicated like in Spanish at the end of a verb and so on? ​ I saw an ASL immersion program, exactly how would it work? I have been to a couple immersion schools and even with the some-what intelligibility of Spanish to English, people are still lost. Are there some signs that are just so obviously understandable without previous training?

Troy B.

That is a wonderful question. American Sign Languiage, because it was derived from French Sign Language (Langues des franc) has an unusual structure. On top of this, there are also prepositional rules, the use of classifiers, the use of tenses, and many more. In fact, the language does not stop below the face. The face is just as important, i.e. the mouth and the eye movement :)
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07/29/19

William N.

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This is an excellent question. To add to what Troy has stated, the Foreign Services Institute characterizes languages into 5 categories regarding difficulty to learn. You can look this index up fairly easily using Google. Although the FSI has not officially characterized ASL several experts looking at the categories put ASL into Category IV among languages such as Zulu, Ukrainian, Nepali, Latvian, Finnish, and Polish. One reason for this is that ASL is articulated and received in such dramatically different ways than are spoken languages. ASL is expressed manually/physically by the hands, arms, face and body and it is received or understood via your eyes rather than your ears. This difference in modalities of expression and reception is quite foreign to most language learners. Some language learners who have a natural affinity towards learning foreign languages may find learning ASL more difficult because of this difference in expression and reception which they are not accustomed to using. The grammar of ASL is quite different from English and the semantic content is expressed quite differently. Because ASL utilizes the hands, arms, face and body to articulate meaning there is more of a simultaneous element. While spoken languages are restricted to a more linear form of articulation one sound, one syllable, one word expressed at a time in a string of sound, ASL can express more content all at once by simultaneously using hands, arms, face and body together so parts of the meaning are being expressed at once at the same time. As a simple example in English you can as That mountain is very beautiful. This is a string of five words. In ASL, depending on the situation this same expression could be expressed MOUNTAIN BEAUTIFUL-very. This would be two signs. The presence of the mountain in the immediate view of both the speaker and the receiver would negate the need to specify which mountain with "that". The verb "to be" is articulated by an affirmative nod of the head when making an affirmative statement. The adjective beautiful is strengthened to "very beautiful" through modifications in the articulation of the sign BEAUTIFUL. This example shows how more meaning is expressed per unit. What takes English and perhaps other spoken languages two or more words to express is expressed in ASL with one sign that is modified. There are many other reasons that ASL may be fairly difficult to master but these examples I hope begin to answer your question. Regards Bill Newell
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08/06/19

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Mackenzie P. answered • 08/22/19

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To begin, ASL is just as complicated as any other language, such as English and Spanish. I would compare the grammar structure to Spanish, where Time-Subject-Verb-Object is the common structure. Now there are exceptions to where this order will change to Subject-Verb, Subject-Verb-Object-Verb, or Object-Subject-Verb. Things such as present perfect are not in ASL, because the language does not use "fluff" words (been, to, as, ect.). But sign language does convey thought and emotion in the language. Thoughts are expressed similarly to questions, but the difference is in facial expression. Facial expressions are very important in the language and are used to convey questions, comments, thoughts, statement, emotions, and more.


The language also has whats called mouth morphenes, which conveys the intensity of a word/sign. An example is the word beautiful. In english, this word can be used many different ways. Examples: pretty, gorgeous, stunning, flawless, ect. In ASL, they do not have signs for all the descriptive ways to say beautiful, they only have the one sign. So if someone is just pretty, they would sign beautiful while mouthing MM. Written BEAUTIFUL /MM/ so when you see this, you know how to sign it.

Also to give an example of a sentence in english, and will show you how it should be written in ASL.

My favorite color is blue

COLOR BLUE FAVORITE

Notice the subject is colors, then there is no verb, and the object is blue, then the descriptive word favorite is last.


Now answering your next question, immersion schools tend to be english and asl. And throughout the grades, they will emerge the foreign language. An example is 80% english and 20% Sign language in first grade. Then 70%, 30% in second grade, so on and so forth. But every single school is different and follows their own curriculum, and also states standards. So not everyone is going to follow this pattern. And any immersion school, the students will be lost at the beginning because it isn't easy to learn two languages at the same time. But over time when the students have a good grasp on both languages, then they will begin to thrive.


Your last question is signs that can be easy to pick up upon. Yes there is signs like that. They have whats called iconic and arbitrary signs. Iconic is signs that if you were to see them and not know sign language, you would still understand them. Examples of this are BABY, CAR, BOOK, ect. Now arbitrary signs are signs you would not know unless you knew the language. Examples of this are APPLE, WHEEL, MOUNTAIN, ect.


Hopefully this helps answer all your questions and for others who are also wanting to learn!

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