English Translation:


WRITING ASL GRAMMAR
in SignWriting

LESSON ONE: TOPICS

by Dr. Karen van Hoek


signed in ASL by
George 'Butch' Zein


Edited by the DAC


TOPICS

American Sign Language (ASL) uses facial expressions to convey grammatical information. For example, a topic is basically "what the sentence is about". In ASL, there is a special construction in which the topic is placed at the beginning of the sentence. A special facial expression is used along with the topic. The eyebrows are raised.

Example One:

"Fish, I like trout."
or...
"I like trout."


Example Two:

"That car there, I want to buy it."
or...
"I want to buy that car."