American Sign Language/Basic Grammar 1
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[edit] Basic Grammar 1
[edit] The Basic Grammar Structure
American Sign Language (ASL) like any other language has a well-defined structure of how to sign sentences. English has the structure of Subject-Verb-Object or SVO for short. ASL has a structure like English, however, the order is different as it is Object-Subject-Verb or OSV for short.
Rules:
- Time (i.e., morning, afternoon), is put in front of the sentence
- Negatives are put last, or signified by an appropriate gesture (shaking head), or both
- Verbs can be repeated, either for emphasis, or to show repeated actions.
[edit] Examples
SCHOOL ME GO [object] [subject] [verb]
EVERYDAY SCHOOL ME GO-GO-GO [TIME PHRASE] [object] [subject] [verb] I attend school everyday
Time phrases are put in front.
