Im doing a project on sign language and its sentence structure.?

Question

Anyone out there who can give some insight or opinions on the idea.

Answer 1

I work with the deaf and do sign, so I might be of some help to ya. You haven't really specified what aspect of sentence structure you want to know about, and if it is written language you want to know about or if it the actual signing you want to know about.

It is different for BSL (British Sign Language) users and when we print handouts, etc for our students we have to send them to our english department to swap everything around so our students can read it and understand it. When signing, we have to use BSL, in which the verbs and nouns are put in a different order than English grammar.

For SSE (Sign Supported English) users, nothing much changes in the way of sentence structure or grammar, as English is their first language in both signing or written documents.

Try this link:
http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/freedomtolearn/rep05.htm

Hope this helps you out a bit!

Answer 2

First of all, you have to consider Sign Language as it's own language and not just an interpretation of our spoken English. The language is a little more simplified than English so you can get your point across with the minimum of signs, so it's not necessary to sign all those little words like: the, a, etc. Also, in sign language you have to indicate plurals and past tense and -ing endings without just adding -s or -ed to a word so that changes the structure. If I were to say, "I am going to the store. Do you want to come with me?" I would sign "I go store. Come?"
However, there is a kind of sign language called Exact Signed English which does follow exactly the rules of spoken grammar, which uses a whole lot of fingerspelling. It was started because deaf students' (in general) written grammar is atrocious because of the structure of their signed language.

Answer 3

Try contacting CAP; the Council for the advancement of Communication with Deaf People. They promote BSL in the UK.
http://www.cacdp.org.uk/index.html

Each sign is allocated a number and letter depending on its position within the signing space and direction of movement.
The sentance structure tends to follow a logical flow from one sign to the next depending on its position and direction of movement; whereas spoken grammar tends to follow certain rules about which words follow on in which order.
So for example, in English you'd say 'my name is'; but in BSL a literal translation of the signs in the order in which they are used would be 'name my'; because the first sign used is 'name' and the second is 'my'. Its just easier to use them that way round because of the way your hands move.

But a meaningful translation from the British Sign Language to English would still be 'my name is'.
And the Signed English would also be 'my name is' since every word in the English sentance is signed.

Answer 4

I did learn a little bit of sign language. But there is an updated web link for sign languages. its at Google.i.e www.google.com. just type in sign language and search. All da best

Answer 5

hi you may like to try this book
everyone hear spoke sign language by nora E Groce it is a fabulas insite into how the common use of sign language in marthas vinyard where in the past they had a high incidence of gernetic deafness it was ace for my dissertation hope you like it

Answer 6

A complicated subject. I cannot help, but I can suggest that you contact Durham University website as they should be able to help you and also the BBC website.

Good luck!

Two closed fingers to forehead and then shake index finger from side to side.in front of you?