Joseph Hill American Sign Language

Signed languages are of the visual-kinetic modality, as Joseph Hill explains. American Sign Language (ASL) “is a complete, complex language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body” ("American Sign Language"). ASL is not a common language used by the general population in the United States, as it is primarily used within the deaf community. Due to less common use, historical restrictions on use and education of ASL, and general misconceptions about this language, ASL is not commonly recognized as a full language, nor are individuals who use ASL given the same total legal rights as their verbal language using counterparts. It is important for the general public to understand that ASL is a real language and worthy of its status as a language as evidenced by a variety of characteristics and rules held by ASL.

Before discussing specific characteristics of ASL, we must dismantle common misconceptions. Joseph Hill explains that the “common misconceptions were (and still are) that ASL is a broken English, that it is a gestural system with a flexible or nonexistent grammar, that

In many ways, this allows ASL to be more efficient, as ‘to be’ verbs are, in truth, weak verbs that merely connect a noun or adjective with a verb. There is no significant meaning held in a ‘to be’ verb.

Additionally, ASL does not use pronouns, but rather relies upon visual cues in lieu. Specifically, a signer might use body-shifting, eye-gazing, and pointing to refer to the noun. For example, if comparing two languages, a signer may sign the noun then point to the right to indicate a later pronoun use, and point to the left to indicate the other noun. It is understood that these reference points continue to indicate those pronouns until the subject is changed