Dictionaries: signs, heads, and facial expressions

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 19, 2004

Stuart Thiessen wrote:
> Another aspect is the use of topics in ASL. From what I understand,
> there is still some debate about how many topic/comment structures
> there
> are in ASL, but as far as I understand, most if not all have a facial
> expression that is "added" to the sign(s) that belong in the topic
> portion of the sentence. This "topic" marker will only be added to the
> sign if it belongs in that topic portion of the sentence. Otherwise,
> the
> sign will have whatever facial expression it normally has.


Excellent point, Stuart. Here is an article online about Topic Markers
in ASL:

Topic Markers
http://www.SignWriting.org/archive/docs1/sw0011-ASL-Grammar-01.pdf

Val ;-)