American Sign Language Analysis

In the brochure written by Charlotte Baker and Carol Padden labeled Language: A Look at Its History, Structure, and Community, these two define and discuss what American Sign Language is, the history behind ASL, who uses it, what a Deaf community is, the importance of the Deaf community, the building blocks of ASL, ASL grammar, and ASL signs when it comes to the human eye and body.

American Sign Language which is also known as ASL and Amesian, is a type of visual-gestural language that was not only created by the Deaf community but is also used by one-million Deaf Americans and Canadians of different ages (Baker and Padden 1). Through the use of this visual-gestural language, the body is used through movement and shapes of the face, eyes,

It's a sense of belonging to something that allows for a group of people to share a sense of commonality in language, experiences, values, and interaction (Baker and Padden 4). To belong within this community, the members have to accept the person in their community and the Deaf or hard of hearing person has to identify as a part of this community. This is known as attitudinal deafness (Baker and Padden 4). You also have to known ASL in order to belong within the Deaf community.

When you begin to dissect the importance of ASL within the Deaf community, you will begin to see that language is what holds this community together strongly. Due to most Deaf individuals being born to hearing parents (90%), they need a place of belonging. Within the Deaf community, Deaf individuals usually attend school together, work together, and also marry (85-90%) within their community (Baker and Padden 4). When it comes to extra curricular activities such as special olympics and tournaments, Deaf individuals are always “drawn together” (Baker and Padden

Within American Sign Language, movement is key to how one verb, adjective, or noun can can change. For example, Baker and Padden mention how when it comes to the color blue, a turn of the hand means blue, a soft turn means light blue, a slow downward movement means deep blue, and a fast upward twist means bright blue (12). In relation to spoken language, the word in relation to blue would be added on but when it comes to ASL, the added movement represents the added word in a way where the movement stays similar to the color being signed but different to represent the different version of blue. When it comes to nouns and verbs, there are similarlities in the signing but repeated or short movement is added to differ the two from each other. Verbs tend to be a single or repeated movement where as a noun may be a short movement and are “always repeated” (Baker and Padden 13). Verbs in ASL change depending on the direction of the sign. When a signer signs away from their body, it represents someone else but if the signer signs towards their body, it represents him or herself (Baker and Padden 14). Facial expression is important when a Deaf individual is asking a yes/no question or a wh-word question. When asking a yes or no question, the signer will raise their eyebrows and tilt their head and/or body. When asking a wh-word question, the signer raise their eyebrows and bring them close together (Baker and