Comment:
Regarding Lifeprint, Lesson 14, "02. COLD WEATHER, YOU LIKE? (Do you like cold weather?)"-- a student commented that to them it feels more natural to sign that sentence using a WH- type facial expression rather than a Yes / No type facial expression. (To be specific, the student said that using a "crunched up" face feels more natural.) Their instructor asked me to respond regarding the student's observation (that it felt more natural to sign the sentence with a crunched up face) versus the eyebrows up "rule" for Yes/No questions.
Response:
At first glance this seems like yet another beginner deciding that the rules don't apply to them.
After all, every major ASL curriculum out there teaches some version of:
1. Signers typically use raised eyebrows (widened eyes, often with the head tilted slightly forward) when asking Yes/No questions.
2. Signers typically use furrowed eyebrows (drawn together and lowered, often
with a slight head tilt, and slightly squinted eyes) when asking WH- Questions (who, what, where, when, why, which, how, and how many).
In general, the two rules above are quite consistent.
However, ASL is complex and exceptions to the rule are often enlightening.
Ask yourself: "What might be causing the student to form the opinion that it feels more natural to "crunch up" your face when you ask the Yes/No question: "COLD WEATHER, YOU LIKE?"
If you haven't done so, try signing that sentence yourself.
Sign it again and this time pay attention to what tends to happen when you do the sign "COLD."
I asked my wife Bee to sign that sentence and guess what? She subconsciously / automatically "crunched up" her face when doing the signs "COLD WEATHER"!
The sign "COLD" tends to evoke (cause) the physiologically-based facial expression: "Brrrr!"
The term "physiologically-based" means being based on the physical and biochemical
functions of a living body. If something is physiologically-based it isn't just psychological or mental: It is rooted in actual bodily organs and chemistry, not just in a person's thoughts, emotions, or perceptions. When we are cold we tend to "crunch up" our body in an effort to stay warm and because being cold tends to feel unpleasant. In other words we tend to sign COLD while using a "brrr" type facial expression because that is the facial expression we tend to use when our bodies are actually cold.
Facial Expression types
1. physiological
2. affective (emotional)
3. grammatical (facial grammar, including punctuation)
Sometimes facial expressions for individual signs or groups of signs compete with facial grammar.
Signing the phrase "COLD WEATHER" tends to result in a "brrrr" type of facial expression (including lowered eyebrows) when signing it.
I asked Bee (my wife) to sign COLD WEATHER, YOU LIKE? -- and sure enough, she crunched up
her face when signing "COLD WEATHER."
Thus we have an example of the facial expression associated with a specific phrase overriding the facial expression typically used when establishing an object as the topic of a sentence.
In other words the physiological association of crunching up one's face when cold beats (for some signers at least) the grammatical function of topicalizing an object via raising of the eyebrows.
However, if we look at the gloss (the written form of the ASL) closely -- we will notice that the sentence has a comma. That comma in the sentence provides for us a place to pivot and raise our eyebrows to indicate that we are asking a question that can be answered with a yes or a no.
COLD WEATHER ("brrrr" type expression) (comma) (raise eyebrows and transition to) YOU LIKE?
Sometimes our affective or physiologically linked facial expressions compete with our grammatical facial expressions for real estate on our faces.
This discussion about COLD WEATHER brings up the opportunity to mention why "PRONOUN COPY" is rather common in ASL. For example YOU LIKE COLD WEATHER YOU? As we mentioned earlier it feels natural to lower our eyebrows when doing the signs "COLD WEATHER." Adding the sign YOU at the end of the sentence allows us to raise our eyebrows to clarify that we are asking a Yes/No question.
Notes: