ASL II
Classifiers
Spoken languages like English are linear–they are expressed one word after the other. ASL, however, is a spatial language and is expressed in the space around you. Classifiers create depth as well as add clarity, movement, and details to conversations and explanations. These will play a big part in the rest of lessons in these American Sign Language classes.
In ASL, it makes much more sense to create imaginary people, animals, or objects in your signing space and show what happens to them instead of explain every word in a linear fashion like you would in English.
As you will see in the examples in these American Sign Language classes, the handshapes and movements of classifiers can represent people, animals, objects, etc. and show movements, shapes, actions, and locations. They can show a person walking, an animal chewing, someone driving, a car driving through the mountains–virtually anything!
In a sentence, a classifier is very similar to a pronoun. You learned about pronouns in the last class of these American Sign Language classes. You cannot use a classifier in a sentence until you explain what the classifier represents. They are not standalone words. You need to establish the noun before you can apply the classifier.
An example of a classifier would be showing a person walking. You first have to establish this person as a referent in context and point to the referent, and then you can take the index finger of your dominant hand (the CL:1 classifier) and move it around your signing space. Whatever you do with this classifier is whatever the person is doing. You can also inflect the sign for added meaning. The faster or slower you move this classifier shows how fast or slow the person is doing an action. You can also use non-manual markers to show how the person is feeling while doing it. And because most classifier handshapes represent a whole person or object, you can combine classifiers like CL:1(person) with another classifier like CL:3(car) to show a person and a car and their locations relative to each other. You will see more complex examples like this later on in the American Sign Language classes.
There are an infinite number of classifiers that you can use. You can combine almost any handshape with any movement and location to create a classifier.
Classifiers are written like this: CL:1 (person) “walking slow”. The CL indicates that a classifier is being used, the 1 indicates the handshape, the parenthesis indicate what the classifier is representing, and the quotes indicate the inflection being used. This is the format I will use to explain classifiers in these American Sign Language classes.
Here are some examples of handshapes and how they can be used for different types of classifiers:
Spoken languages like English are linear–they are expressed one word after the other. ASL, however, is a spatial language and is expressed in the space around you. Classifiers create depth as well as add clarity, movement, and details to conversations and explanations. These will play a big part in the rest of lessons in these American Sign Language classes.
In ASL, it makes much more sense to create imaginary people, animals, or objects in your signing space and show what happens to them instead of explain every word in a linear fashion like you would in English.
As you will see in the examples in these American Sign Language classes, the handshapes and movements of classifiers can represent people, animals, objects, etc. and show movements, shapes, actions, and locations. They can show a person walking, an animal chewing, someone driving, a car driving through the mountains–virtually anything!
In a sentence, a classifier is very similar to a pronoun. You learned about pronouns in the last class of these American Sign Language classes. You cannot use a classifier in a sentence until you explain what the classifier represents. They are not standalone words. You need to establish the noun before you can apply the classifier.
An example of a classifier would be showing a person walking. You first have to establish this person as a referent in context and point to the referent, and then you can take the index finger of your dominant hand (the CL:1 classifier) and move it around your signing space. Whatever you do with this classifier is whatever the person is doing. You can also inflect the sign for added meaning. The faster or slower you move this classifier shows how fast or slow the person is doing an action. You can also use non-manual markers to show how the person is feeling while doing it. And because most classifier handshapes represent a whole person or object, you can combine classifiers like CL:1(person) with another classifier like CL:3(car) to show a person and a car and their locations relative to each other. You will see more complex examples like this later on in the American Sign Language classes.
There are an infinite number of classifiers that you can use. You can combine almost any handshape with any movement and location to create a classifier.
Classifiers are written like this: CL:1 (person) “walking slow”. The CL indicates that a classifier is being used, the 1 indicates the handshape, the parenthesis indicate what the classifier is representing, and the quotes indicate the inflection being used. This is the format I will use to explain classifiers in these American Sign Language classes.
Here are some examples of handshapes and how they can be used for different types of classifiers:
Types of Classifiers:
Courtesy of Start ASL https://www.startasl.com/
- Whole Classifiers: These are classifiers where the handshape represents a whole object. For example, CL:3(car), CL:1(person), etc.
- Surface Classifiers: These are classifiers where the handshape is used to show the surface of something. For example, CL:B(wall), (2h)CL:B(hills), etc.
- Instrument Classifiers: These are classifiers where the handshapes show that you are holding something. For example, CL:C(holding cup), CL:S(hold hammer), CL:S(driving), etc.
- Size Classifiers: These are classifiers where the handshape shows the depth or width of something. For example, (2h)CL:C(thick vertical pole), (2h)CL:F(thin vertical pole), (2h)CL:L-curve(small plate), etc.
- Amount Classifiers: These are classifiers where the handshapes show the increase or decrease in the amount or volume of something. For example, CL:B-bent(liquid level decreasing), etc.
- Shape Classifiers: These are classifiers where the handshapes trace the exterior shape of something. For example, (2h)CL:B(large box shape), (2h)CL:L-curve(credit card), etc.
- Location Classifiers: These are classifiers where the location of the handshape represents the location of something. For example, CL:5-claw(city here), CL:A(house here), CL:5-claw(bush here), etc.
- Gesture Classifiers: These are classifiers where you use your body to act out something. For example, “stomp foot”, “give hug”, etc.
- Body Classifiers: These are classifiers where the handshape shows a part of your body doing an action. For example, CL:V(look around), (2h)CL:G(big smile), (2h)CL:B(foot stumble), etc.
- Verb Classifiers: These are classifiers that are used to show how something is doing an action. For example, CL:3(car)”drive down hill”, CL:3(bicycle)”drive by”, etc.
- Plural Classifiers: These are classifiers where the handshape and movement show that there is more than one of something. Some handshapes already indicate plurality, like CL:V(two people)”walking”.
However, you can indicate plurality with non-plural classifiers by using both hands in alternating, straight line/repeating, or opposite motions. Alternating motions indicate that the classifiers are not arranged in an orderly fashion. For example, (2h)CL:3(cars)”here, here, here, etc.”
Straight line/repeating motions (moving dominant hand and keeping non-dominant hand stationary as a referent) and opposite motions (starting together, then moving away from each other simultaneously) indicate they are arranged in an orderly fashion. For example, (2h)CL:4(people in line), (2h)CL:1(pencil)”(dh)lined up one right after the other”, (2h)CL:5-claw(hordes-of people), (2h)CL:2(people sitting in a circle), etc.
Courtesy of Start ASL https://www.startasl.com/
Published by Nathaniel Lawson