1. Does American Sign Language use specific signs for "be
verbs?" (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been)
Answer: No
2. How does ASL affirm that something 'is?'
Answer: A nod of the head, the use of the HAVE sign, use of the TRUE
sign, use of the THERE sign, use of the will/FUTURE sign, etc.
3. What are the four distinct 'sub-parts' or parameters of signs?
Answer: handshape, movement, orientation, location
Note: a fifth aspect of many signs is "facial expression" and/or other use of
the body besides the hands.
4. What are ASL classifiers?
A classifier (in
ASL) is a sign that represents a general category of things, shapes, or sizes.
5. What is a name sign?
A sign used as a person's name in the Deaf Community.
6. What is an initialized sign? Give an example.
Answer: Signs that use the first letter of a corresponding English
word as the handshape for hte sign.
7. True or false: In sign language, time indicators are expressed in
relationship to an imaginary line that runs from the left of the signer
to the right of the signer.
Answer: False. The "timeline" runs from behind the signer to in
front of the signer.
8. List the fingerspelled forms of the months as used in ASL. Include
abbreviations as appropriate.
Jan, Feb, March, April, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec
9. TRUE or FALSE: Nouns of noun/verb pairs have repeated movement and
verbs have single continuous movement.
Answer: True
