Beginner II

Rhetorical questions in American Sign Language

A rhetorical question is more of a statement. It is not a true question; it is a way of pulling a listener's attention by asking a question and then answering. The signer does not expect the listener to reply.

The attention-catching rhetorical statements are usually accompanied with the raised brows and slightly tilted head.

The rhetorical question words often occur in the middle of the sentences. The common rhetorical question signs are: why, reason, how, what, and where.

Example: last-year, ix-me finally got-into ix-there school /\how/\ my mother poss former classmate work there.

Related posts

Also see: question signals for yes/no question and wh-q question.

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New to sign language? "Where do I start?" or "How do I start learning sign language?" This ASL Rookie guide lists some selected links to the tutorials for ASL beginners to get started and keep rolling. It may be a useful review for intermediate-level learners and ASL students as well.

Some tutorial pages are a mix of free and premium versions. Access to premium content and links below are available in the PatronPlus subscription. More links/posts will be added from time to time.

Jump-starting

  1. How to fingerspell ABCs
  2. What is and what is not sign language?

Getting started

  1. Benefits of learning sign language
  2. Awareness quiz and Reflections
  3. Basic transcription symbols (glosses)

Language/Culture Fundamentals

  1. What is American Sign Language?
  2. Understanding variations
  3. Introducing audism
  4. Cultural appropriation

Learning first words

  1. Expressing greetings
  2. Introducing oneself and others
  3. Fingerspelling exercise
  4. Expressing goodbyes

ASL Basics

  1. Personal Pronouns
  2. Possessive Pronouns
  3. WH-questions
  4. Yes/no questions
  5. SVO sentence structure
  6. Numbers 1-10+
  7. Basic time: future, present, past

ASL Basics II

  1. Asking what the sign is for a word
  2. Spatial referencing
  3. Verb inflections
  4. Contrastive structure
  5. Listing and Ranking
  6. OSV sentence structure
  7. Classifier basics

Describing shapes

  1. Describing shapes + perspective
  2. Describing shapes + locations
  3. Describing shapes + sizes

Expressing needs and wants

  1. Making commands or requests

Talking about family

  1. Talking about family and pet
  2. Telling age
  3. Telling date

Making basic plans

  1. Review basic tenses
  2. Calendar: DAYS
  3. Calendar: MONTHS
  4. Transportation: basics

Shopping

  1. Telling prices in dollars and cents

Talking about activities

  1. Frequency of time: how often?

Are you able to carry everyday conversations in ASL? Are you a student in the intermediate levels and beyond, who wishes to boost up your signing skills? You've come to the selected tutorial series.

Language and communication

  1. Negotiating meanings

Sentence types

  1. Review sentence OSV structure: the triangle
  2. Rhetorical sentence
  3. Conditional sentence

Non-manual signals

  1. Mouth morphemes: distances
  2. Mouth morphemes: sizes

Tenses

  1. Review time basics
  2. Temporal aspects: frequency and duration

Numbers

  1. Review numbers 1-100
  2. Learn numbers 100-1000+
  3. Practice numbers 100-1000+
  4. Numbers mi/billion
  5. Phone numbers
  6. Years
  7. Tell dates

Classifier classes

  1. Review an introduction
  2. Classifier handshapes
  3. Identify different classes
  4. Semantic classifiers
  5. Descriptive classifiers
  6. Body classifier
  7. Body Part classifier
  8. Instrumental classifier
  9. Locative classifier
  10. Elemental classifier

Describing

  1. Describing objects
  2. Describing tables
  3. Describing lamps
  4. Describing a room
  5. How to make a BLT sandwich

Stories, poems, performance arts, etc. in sign language.

Fables

Fables II

Poem Translations

Stories

Deaf Jokes

Parables

Performance and video arts

Techniques and Devices

This documentation project follows a child's language acquisition, literacy development, and phonological acquisition in sign language, specifically ASL as a first language (L1), from newborn to age five in a natural native-ASL environment and visual culture.

Language development

  1. Language acquisition in signing
  2. Language acquisition milestones
  3. Phonological acquisition
  4. Language development: Age 1 to 1.5
  5. Language development: Age 1.5 to 2
  6. Baby sign language: myths debunked

Baby Signing

  1. Eye contact with baby from birth
  2. Cooing in sign language
  3. Eye tracking and gazing
  4. Eye-hand coordination
  5. Gestural pointing and communicative gesture
  6. Marginal babbling
  7. Babbling in sign language
  8. Gesturel pointing for words
  9. Understanding words
  10. Baby's first words
  11. Expressing manners and appreciation
  12. Literacy: peekaboo
  13. Literacy: nursery rhymes
  14. Identity and sense of self
  15. Parentese or motherese

Toddler Signing

  1. One-word stage
  2. Recognizing and naming ABCs
  3. Recognizing and naming colors
  4. Two-word stage
  5. Pronouns and reversal errors
  6. Prepositions
  7. Questions
  8. Classifiers
  9. Indicating verbs
  10. Expressing concepts of time
  11. Phonological acquisition: a case study

Preschooler and Kinder

  1. Conditional statements
  2. Conjunctions
  3. Other pronouns
  4. Literacy: writing

From baby to preschooler

  1. Proximalization
  2. Number
  3. Fingerspelling development
  4. Fingerspelling with a CAN attitude
  5. Drawing
  6. Sense of humor