ASL
morphology consists of two different processes: derivational morphology and inflectional morphology.
Derivational morphology in ASL occurs when movement in a sign changes the meaningoften between a noun and a verb. For example, for the sign CHAIR, a noun, a person would tap their dominant pointer and middle fingers against their non-dominant pointer and middle fingers twice or more. For the sign SIT, a verb, a person would tap these fingers together only once and with more force.
Inflectional morphology adds units of language to other words. For example, the signs FACE and STRONG compound to create a new sign FACE^STRONG, meaning 'to resemble'. For example, the noun CHAIR is derived from the verb SIT through reduplication. This form of derivation modifies the verb's movement, reduplicating it in a "trilled" manner ("small, quick, stiff movements"). Characteristic adjectives always use both hands, even if the source adjective only uses one, and they always have repeated, circular movement. ASL occasionally uses
suffixation in derivation, but less often than in English. Certain types of signs, for example those relating to time and age, may incorporate numbers by assimilating their
handshape. For example, the adverb 'th', realized as the tongue being placed between the teeth, means 'carelessly / lazily' when combined with a verb: {{interlinear|lang=ase|indent=3 {{interlinear|lang=ase|indent=3
Degree Mouthing is when an individual appears to be making speech sounds, and this is very important for fluent signing. It also has specific morphological uses. For example, one may sign 'man tall' to indicate
the man is tall, but by mouthing the syllable
cha while signing 'tall', the phrase becomes
that man is enormous! There are other ways of modifying a verb or adjective to make it more intense. These are all more or less equivalent to adding the word "very" in English; which morphology is used depends on the word being modified. Certain words which are short in English, such as 'sad' and 'mad', are sometimes fingerspelled rather than signed to mean 'very sad' and 'very mad'. However, the concept of 'very sad' or 'very mad' can be portrayed with the use of exaggerated body movements and facial expressions. Reduplication of the signs may also occur to emphasize the degree of the statement. Some signs are produced with an exaggeratedly large motion, so that they take up more sign space than normal. This may involve a back-and-forth scissoring motion of the arms to indicate that the sign ought to be yet larger, but that one is physically incapable of making it big enough. Many other signs are given a slow, tense production. The fact that this modulation is morphological rather than merely
mimetic can be seen in the sign for 'fast': both 'very slow' and 'very fast' are signed by making the motion either unusually slowly or unusually quickly than it is in the citation forms of 'slow' and 'fast'—not exclusively by making it slower for 'very slow' and faster for 'very fast'.
Reduplication Reduplication is morphological repetition, and this is extremely common in ASL. Generally the motion of the sign is shortened as well as repeated. Nouns may be derived from verbs through reduplication. For example, the noun
clothes is formed from the verb
to wear, signed by brushing open 5 hands down the chest once, by repeating it with a reduced degree of motion. Similar relationships exist between
acquisition and
to get, airplane and
to fly (on an airplane), also
window and
to open/close a window. Reduplication is commonly used to express intensity as well as several verbal aspects (see below). It is also used to derive signs such as 'every two weeks' from 'two weeks', and is used for verbal number (see below), where the reduplication is iconic for the repetitive meaning of the sign.
Compounds Many ASL words are historically compounds. However, the two elements of these signs have fused, with features being lost from one or both, to create what might be better called a
blend than a compound. Typically only the final hold (see above) remains from the first element, and any reduplication is lost from the second. An example is the verb
AGREE, which derives from the two signs
THINK and
ALIKE. The verb
THINK is signed by bringing a 1 hand inward and touching the forehead (a move and a hold).
ALIKE is signed by holding two 1 hands parallel, pointing outward, and bringing them together two or three times. The compound/blend
AGREE starts as
THINK ends: with the index finger touching the forehead (the final hold of that sign). In addition, the weak hand is already in place, in anticipation of the next part of the sign. Then the hand at the forehead is brought down parallel to the weak hand; it approaches but does not make actual contact, and there is no repetition.
Affixes ASL, like other mature signed languages, makes extensive use of
morphology. Many of ASL's
affixes are combined simultaneously rather than sequentially. For example,
Ted Supalla's seminal work on ASL verbs of motion revealed that these signs consist of many different affixes, articulated simultaneously according to complex grammatical constraints. This differs from the
concatenative morphology of many spoken languages, which except for
suprasegmental features, such as tone, are tightly constrained by the sequential nature of voice sounds. ASL does have a limited number of concatenative affixes. For example, the agentive suffix (similar to the English '-er') is made by placing two B or 5 hands in front of the torso, palms facing each other, and lowering them. On its own this sign means 'person'; in a compound sign following a verb, it is a suffix for the performer of the action, as in 'drive-er' and 'teach-er'. However, it cannot generally be used to translate English '-er', as it is used with a much more limited set of verbs. It is very similar to the '-ulo' suffix in
Esperanto, meaning 'person' by itself and '-related person' when combined with other words. An ASL prefix, touching the chin, is used with number signs to indicate 'years old'. The prefix completely
assimilates with the initial handshape of the number. For instance, 'fourteen' is signed with a B hand that bends several times at the knuckles. The chin-touch prefix in 'fourteen years old' is thus also made with a B hand. For 'three years old', however, the prefix is made with a 3 hand.
Numeral incorporation and classifiers Rather than relying on sequential affixes, ASL makes heavy use of simultaneous modification of signs. One example of this is found in the aspectual system (see below); another is
numeral incorporation: There are several families of two-handed signs which require one of the hands to take the handshape of a numeral. Many of these deal with time. For example, drawing the dominant hand lengthwise across the palm and fingers of a flat B hand indicates a number of weeks; the dominant hand takes the form of a numeral from one to nine to specify how many weeks. There are analogous signs for 'weeks ago' and 'weeks from now', etc., though in practice several of these signs are only found with the lower numerals. ASL also has
a system of classifiers which may be incorporated into signs. A fist may represent an inactive object such as a rock (this is the default or neutral classifier), a horizontal ILY hand may represent an aircraft, a horizontal 3 hand (thumb pointing up and slightly forward) a motor vehicle, an upright G hand a person on foot, an upright V hand a pair of people on foot, and so on through higher numbers of people. These classifiers are moved through sign space to iconically represent the actions of their referents. For example, an ILY hand may 'lift off' or 'land on' a horizontal B hand to sign an aircraft taking off or landing; a 3 hand may be brought down on a B hand to sign parking a car; and a G hand may be brought toward a V hand to represent one person approaching two. The frequency of classifier use depends greatly on genre, occurring at a rate of 17.7% in narratives but only 1.1% in casual speech and 0.9% in formal speech.
Frames Frames are a morphological device that may be unique to sign languages (Liddell 2004). They are incomplete sets of the features which make up signs, and they combine with existing signs, absorbing features from them to form a derived sign. It is the frame which specifies the number and nature of segments in the resulting sign, while the basic signs it combines with lose all but one or two of their original features. One, the WEEKLY frame, consists of a simple downward movement. It combines with the signs for the days of the week, which then lose their inherent movement. For example, 'Monday' consists of an M/O hand made with a circling movement. 'MondayWEEKLY' (that is, 'on Mondays') is therefore signed as an M/O hand that drops downward, but without the circling movement. A similar ALL DAY frame (a sideward pan) combines with times of the day, such as 'morning' and 'afternoon', which likewise keep their handshape and location but lose their original movement. Numeral incorporation (see above) also uses frames. However, in ASL frames are most productively utilized for verbal aspect.
Verbal aspect While there is no grammatical
tense in ASL, there are numerous verbal
aspects. These are produced by modulating the verb: through reduplication, by placing the verb in an aspectual frame (see above), or with a combination of these means. An example of an aspectual frame is the
unrealized inceptive aspect ('just about to X'), illustrated here with the verb 'to tell'. 'To tell' is an indexical (directional) verb, where the index finger (a G hand) begins with a touch to the chin and then moves outward to point out the recipient of the telling. 'To be just about to tell' retains just the locus and the initial chin touch, which now becomes the final hold of the sign; all other features from the basic verb (in this case, the outward motion and pointing) are dropped and replaced by features from the frame (which are shared with the unrealized inceptive aspects of other verbs such as 'look at', 'wash the dishes', 'yell', 'flirt', etc.). These frame features are: eye gaze toward the locus (which is no longer pointed at with the hand), an open jaw, and a hand (or hands, in the case of two-hand verbs) in front of the trunk which moves in an arc to the onset location of the basic verb (in this case, touching the chin), while the trunk rotates and the signer inhales, catching her breath during the final hold. The handshape throughout the sign is whichever is required by the final hold, in this case a G hand. The variety of aspects in ASL can be illustrated by the verb 'to be sick', which involves the middle finger of the Y/8 hand touching the forehead, and which can be modified by a large number of frames. Several of these involve reduplication, which may but need not be analyzed as part of the frame. (The appropriate non-manual features are not described here.) •
stative "to be sick" is made with simple iterated contact, typically with around four iterations. This is the basic,
citation form of the verb. •
inchoative "to get sick, to take sick" is made with a single straight movement to contact and a hold of the finger on the forehead. • predisposional "to be sickly, to be prone to get sick" is made with incomplete motion: three even circular cycles without contact. This aspect adds reduplication to verbs such as 'to look at' which do not already contain repetition. • susceptative "to get sick easily" is made with a thrusting motion: The onset is held; then there is a brief, tense thrust that is checked before actual contact can be made. •
frequentative "to be often sick" is given a
marcato articulation: a regular beat, with 4–6 iterations, and marked onsets and holds. • susceptive and frequentative may be combined to mean "to get sick easily and often": four brief thrusts on a marked, steady beat, without contact with the forehead. • protractive "to be continuously sick" is made with a long, tense hold and no movement at all. • incessant "to get sick incessantly" has a reduplicated
tremolo articulation: a dozen tiny, tense, uneven iterations, as rapid as possible and without contact. • durative "to be sick for a long time" is made with a reduplicated elliptical motion: three slow, uneven cycles, with a heavy downward brush of the forehead and an arching return. •
iterative "to get sick over and over again" is made with three tense movements and slow returns to the onset position. • intensive "to be very sick" is given a single tense articulation: a tense onset hold followed by a single very rapid motion to a long final hold. •
resultative "to become fully sick" (that is, a complete change of health) is made with an accelerando articulation: a single elongated tense movement which starts slowly and heavily, accelerating to a long final hold. • approximative "to be sort of sick, to be a little sick" is made with a reduplicated lax articulation: a spatially extremely reduced, minimal movement, involving a dozen iterations without contact. • semblitive "to appear to be sick" [no description] • increasing "to get more and more sick" is made with the movements becoming more and more intense. These modulations readily combine with each other to create yet finer distinctions. Not all verbs take all aspects, and the forms they do take will not necessarily be completely analogous to the verb illustrated here. Conversely, not all aspects are possible with this one verb. Aspect is unusual in ASL in that
transitive verbs derived for aspect lose their transitivity. That is, while you can sign 'dog chew bone' for
the dog chewed on a bone, or 'she look-at me' for
she looked at me, you cannot do the same in the durative to mean
the dog gnawed on the bone or
she stared at me. Instead, you must use other strategies, such as a topic construction (see below) to avoid having an object for the verb.
Verbal number Reduplication is also used for expressing
verbal number. Verbal number indicates that the action of the verb is repeated; in the case of ASL it is apparently limited to transitive verbs, where the motion of the verb is either extended or repeated to cover multiple object or recipient loci. (Simple plurality of action can also be conveyed with reduplication, but without indexing any object loci; in fact, such aspectual forms do not allow objects, as noted above.) There are specific dual forms (and for some signers
trial forms), as well as plurals. With dual objects, the motion of the verb may be made twice with one hand, or simultaneously with both; while with plurals the object loci may be taken as a group by using a single sweep of the signing hand while the verbal motion is being performed, or individuated by iterating the move across the sweep. For example, 'to ask someone a question' is signed by flexing the index finger of an upright G hand in the direction of that person; the dual involves flexing it at both object loci (sequentially with one hand or simultaneously with both), the simple plural involves a single flexing which spans the object group while the hand arcs across it, and the individuated plural involves multiple rapid flexings while the hand arcs. If the singular verb uses reduplication, that is lost in the dual and plural forms.
Name signs There are three types of personal
name signs in ASL: fingerspelled, arbitrary, and descriptive. Fingerspelled names are simply spelled out letter-by-letter. Arbitrary name signs only refer to a person's name, while descriptive name signs refer to a person's personality or physical characteristics. Once given, names are for life, apart from changing from one of the latter types to an arbitrary sign in childhood. Name signs are usually assigned by another member of the Deaf community, and signal inclusion in that community. Name signs are not used to address people, as names are in English, but are used only for third-person reference, and usually only when the person is absent. The majority of people, probably well in excess of 90%, have arbitrary name signs. These are initialized signs: The handshape is the initial of one of the English names of the person, usually the first. The sign may occur in neutral space, with a tremble; with a double-tap (as a noun) at one of a limited number of specific locations, such as the side of the chin, the temple, or the elbow; or moving across a location or between two locations, with a single tap at each. Single-location signs are simpler in connotation, like English "Vee"; double-location signs are fancier, like English "Veronica". Sam Supalla (1992) collected 525 simple arbitrary name signs like these. There are two constraints on arbitrary signs. First, it should not mean anything. That is, it should not duplicate an existing ASL word. Second, there should not be more than one person with the name sign in the local community. If a person moves to a new community where someone already has their name sign, then the newcomer is obligated to modify theirs. This is usually accomplished by compounding the handshape, so that the first tap of the sign takes the initial of the person's first English name, and the second tap takes the initial of their last name. There are potentially thousands of such compound-initial signs. Descriptive name signs are not initialized, but rather use non-core ASL signs. They tend to be assigned and used by children, rather like "Blinky" in English. Parents do not give such names to their children, but most Deaf people do not have deaf parents and are assigned their name sign by classmates in their first school for the deaf. At most 10% of Deaf people retain such name signs into adulthood.. Arbitrary name signs became established very early in the history of ASL. Descriptive name signs refer to a person's appearance or personality. The two systems, arbitrary and descriptive, are sometimes combined, usually for humorous purposes. Hearing people learning ASL are also often assigned combined name signs. This is not traditional for Deaf people. Sometimes people with very short English names, such as "Ann" or "Lee", or ones that flow easily, such as "Larry", may never acquire a name sign, but may instead be referred to with finger-spelling. == Parameters ==