Syntax
ASL is a subject-verb-object (SVO) language. This default word order is sometimes altered; however, this is marked either with non-manual signals like eyebrow or body position, or with prosodic marking such as pausing.
Non-manual grammatical marking (such as eyebrow movement or head-shaking) may optionally spread over the c-command domain of the node which it is attached to.
It has been claimed that tense in ASL is marked adverbially, and that ASL lacks a separate category of tense markers. However, Aarons et al. (1992, 1995) argue that "Tense" (T) is indeed a distinct category of syntactic head, and that the T node can be occupied either by a modal (e.g. SHOULD) or a lexical tense marker (e.g. FUTURE-TENSE). They support this claim by noting that only one such item can occupy the T slot:
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REUBEN CAN RENT VIDEO-TAPE 'Reuben can rent a video tape.' REUBEN WILL RENT VIDEO-TAPE 'Reuben will rent a video tape.' * REUBEN CAN WILL RENT VIDEO-TAPE * 'Reuben can will rent a video tape.'
Aspect may be marked either by verbal inflection or by separate lexical items.
These are ordered: Tense - Negation - Aspect - Verb:
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neg GINGER SHOULD NOT EAT BEEF 'Ginger should not eat beef.'
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neg DAVE NOT FINISH SEE MOVIE 'Dave did not see (to completion) the movie.'
Wh-words optionally move rightwards in ASL; claims that there is leftward wh-movement in ASL have been refuted:
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wh LOVE JOHN WHO 'Who loves John?'
This movement can also be observed in the object position. For example, while YESTERDAY must normally follow the object, it may precede the wh-word "WHAT":
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JUAN BUY BOOK YESTERDAY 'Juan bought a book yesterday.'
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* JUAN BUY YESTERDAY BOOK * 'Juan bought a book yesterday.'
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wh JUAN BUY YESTERDAY "WHAT" 'What did Juan buy yesterday?'
ASL also has questions where the wh-word occurs twice, copied in final position:
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wh "WHAT JUAN BUY "WHAT" 'What did Juan buy?'
ASL sentences may have up to two marked topics. There are multiple non-manual topic markers, all of which involve raised eyebrows:
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tm1 BAGELS, BEN LIKE 'Bagels, Ben likes.'
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tm2 VEGETABLES, GEORGE PREFER BROCCOLI 'As for vegetables, George prefers broccoli.'
Read more about this topic: American Sign Language Grammar