Sign language, any means of communication through bodily movements, especially of the hands and arms, used when spoken communication is impossible or not desirable (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2023). Furthermore, the language relies on visible cues from hands, eyes, facial expressions, and movements to communicate. Also, as with any spoken language, sign language has grammar and structure rules, and it has evolved over time. (National Geographic Society, 2022)

Do sign languages have syntax?

      All languages have syntax, and sign languages are no exception. Signed languages have also phrase structures. It follows a system; grammatical set of rules, structure and patterns.

      ASL or American Sign Language is the most dominant among deaf and hard-of-hearing people communities. It has its own grammar system, all the way from phonology to pragmatics, and to its sociolinguistic competence. It is believed that it evolved from French Sign Language (LSF, or Langue des Signes Française), the first standardized sign language in history, created by French Catholic priest Charles-Michel de l’Épée.

     ASL eventually developed across the globe. And used as guide and basis to form different sign languages around different countries. It follows SVO (subject-verb-object) sentence structure (ex. Dog-chase-cat).

     Since, ASL is one of the common used sign language globally. This paper will discuss about ASL and its Basic Grammar/Movement rules of ASL.

Here are the basic sentence structures in ASL:

Time + Topic + Comment + Referent

Topic + Comment + Referent

Topic + Comment

ex. The dog chased the cat yesterday.

      Yesterday (time)

      dog (topic)

      chase (comment)

      cat (referent)

= Yesterday dog chase cat

b.) Polar Questions (Yes/No) and Wh- movement is a syntactic phenomenon found in many languages around the world, in which interrogative words or phrases show a special word order.

     When you want to ask a wh-question in American Sign Language (ASL), you simply sign the question word at the end of the sentence — words such as who, what, when, where, which, why, and how.

Basic rules for ASL questions:

Time + Topic + Comment + Question

Topic + Comment + Question

ex. Where did the dog chased the cat yesterday?

      yesterday (time)

      dog (topic)

      chase cat (comment, referent)

      where (question)

= Yesterday dog chase cat where

NOTE. In these basic sentence structures:

Time = the tense.

Topic = the subject.

Comment = what is being said about the subject.

Referent = refers to the subject you are talking about.

c.) Facial Expressions in ASL are an essential part of ASL communication. These facial expressions enhance the meaning of specific signs, increasing the emotion expressed. They are part of the non-manual markers that influence the signs' meaning.

     In English, we must alter the words and their order to change a statement into a question. In ASL, word order does not matter since we use the eyebrows to indicate whether the sentence ends with a question mark, exclamation mark, or period. (Michele P., n.d.)

d.) Body Language and ASL Grammar can be used in much the same way with facial expressions. It includes any sort of added movement that accompanies a sign. (Michele P., n.d.)