25 Ways to Sign VERY (in ASL) (Also see:  

Thank you Sir !!!

I appreciate your comment. In my first draft of the lesson I started to dive into things like the difference between "process morphemes" and "form morphemes" with examples of each and various related explanations. Those topics till make a good future lesson for a linguistics course. Always more to do. Good thing I love this stuff!

You've got me beat...I've been interpreting for 38 years and knew all this (without a definition, because we learned the natural way and not by taking classes - smile) EXCEPT I had never seen the tongue-in-cheek meaning "very Deaf." I'm still learning!

@@TeaganFisher ah yes…we never stop learning if we're committed to good interpretation. Keep it up 👍🏼😄

"Too" is an interesting concept for an instructional video. It is not in the league of "very" in terms of the sheer variety of adverbial morphemes but "too" still has some interesting aspects -- one of which is the frequent use of a negative head-shake to create the meaning of "too." I'll add it to my list of "too dos" ... er, I mean, "to dos."

My pleasure!

Verrrrrry interesting indeed.

Sunset, You asked why do signs change every so often. American Sign Language (ASL) evolves over time, just like any language, influenced by various social, cultural, and technological factors. Here are a few reasons for linguistic change in ASL: Social Influence: Interactions among different sign language communities can lead to changes in ASL. For example, when ASL users interact with users of other sign languages or regional ASL dialects, they may adopt new signs or modify existing ones, leading to linguistic change. Technological Advancements: New technologies introduce concepts and objects that require new signs. For instance, the internet, smartphones, and social media have all necessitated new vocabulary in ASL. The community often innovates organically to fill these gaps, and these new signs can spread rapidly, especially with the advent of video sharing and social media platforms. Educational Policies and Practices: Changes in the education of deaf individuals, including the methodologies used to teach ASL and the integration of deaf students into different educational environments, can influence ASL. For example, the mainstreaming of deaf students and the increased interaction between deaf and hearing communities can lead to the incorporation of more English-like structures or Signed Exact English elements into ASL for some users. The past couple decades we have seen a community-wide tendency away from English structures and more toward removing some unnecessary English letter initials from signs. (Which is a form of cultural change). Cultural Changes: As the values, attitudes, and norms of the deaf community evolve, so does ASL. The language reflects changes in identity, politics, and attitudes toward deafness and disability. For example, the way deafness is viewed culturally can affect how language is used to express identity and community. Contact with English: ASL is used in a predominantly English-speaking country, and thus, it is influenced by English. This contact can lead to borrowing, where ASL may incorporate English words through fingerspelling or create new signs that reflect English language structure. However, despite such overlaps -- it's important to note that ASL maintains its grammar and structure distinct from English. Generational Language Transmission: As with any language, younger generations innovate and adopt new ways of expressing ideas, leading to changes over time. These generational shifts can result in new signs, changes in sign usage, or even shifts in grammar. Media and Artistic Expression: The portrayal of ASL in media and the arts can influence public perception and usage of the language. Deaf theatre, poetry, and storytelling, as well as representation in mainstream media, can introduce new expressions, styles, and usage that may become adopted more broadly within the community. Linguistic change in ASL, as in any language, is a natural process reflecting the dynamic and adaptive nature of human communication. These changes enhance the richness and expressiveness of ASL, ensuring it meets the evolving needs of its users.

Hmmmm... would be interesting to find examples of such a version in videos of real-life, unscripted signing. That version seems a lot like a fairly common sign for "visit."

@@sign-language it wouldn't surprise me. My mom is deaf but she never really communicated with me much directly, using my older brothers as translators, so my knowledge of sign language is weird and stilted. She was sent to what was essentially a boarding school because her parents were hearing and never learned sign language. The school also practiced mainstreaming so the students were discouraged from signing, especially during class where they tried to get the students to practice vocalizing and lip reading. I think but am not sure that my mom used a mix of signed English and ASL. The way I would sign visit is for the inside of my fingers facing me and I would sign very with the insides of my fingers facing each other. I used facial expressions and hand shakes much more often though.

Oh, I modify my typing to show "very", sleeeeep, foooood, that That THAT~ waaaay before I started learning ASL, where it's part of the language.

Sometimes inflected signs and classifiers blur together, an inflected sign depicts physical space. If I sign "Video-recording", pointing at a CL-1 person, and the camera viewpoint starts skipping around wildly, that's a classifier, but if I sign "Focus", and move my field of view around wildly, then that's a spatially inflected sign, depicting exactly how my focus is affected~ This came up when I compared two VV performers. Sometimes a sign's classifier is devoted to describing a specific thing, or something that can move, like Plane, so the classifier can technically be undeclared, but it's a very special case. I've seen the lines blur in many places, and maybe that leads to or is caused by classifiers becoming signs.

Using a sign such as the "-er" or "-est" suffix to create a meaning of "very" seems like it could definitely work in some situations. Will be fun to see if we can "catch it in the wild" (or in other words observe skilled ASL signers using it naturally without thinking about it. I can visualize someone talking about something being "superior" (better) than something else which would tend to involve that superlative movement and then you could elongate the movement to create a "very" superior type of meaning.

thank you bill. always nice to get feedback from you :)@@sign-language

I believe you are right and we could perhaps think of such signing as a form of "motherese." A more modern name for "motherese" is "infant-directed speech" or perhaps "parentese." This term refers to the simplified and exaggerated form of language that parents and caregivers often use when talking to babies and young children. It is believed to aid in language acquisition and to attract and hold the infant's attention. Infant-directed-speech is characterized in spoken languages by a higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation. In signed languages is characterized by very clear, expressive, signing with lots of eye contact and facial expression. I would also suggest that the use of inflection and the use of a specific sign for "very" are not mutually exclusive -- they can be combined.

The meaning of the 85-(intensifier) sign is strongly influenced from context and facial expressions. There are a number of small changes that can be used to create distinctions in meaning. Such changes do not happen all of the time but can be useful to emphasize or clarify which meaning you are intending to express. The concept of 85-(OMG) sometimes uses a long hold of the first handshape. It also sometimes holds the hand and arm in place and relies on the only the flick movement. The sign for "hate" is sometimes done in the direction of that which is hated. Sometimes the sign for "awesome" uses an initial shake and / or some wrist movement and often ends pointing upward.

I'm in the middle of quite a few projects. Best bet might be to google: "ASL Tutor near me" and/or just "American Sign Language tutors" and then hire someone for a reasonable sum of money to teach you the lyrics.

Some Facebook groups are into signing music. Maybe google DPAN Deaf and see if they have already posted the song you are wanting to sign.

The mouth morpheme that looks sort of like as if you were voicing "ooh" as in "ooh wow!" It looks sort of as if someone is whistling and has furrowed eyebrows? In any case, yes, the intensification of the sign "good" via facial expression and doing the sign "strongly" does indeed create a morpheme of "very"! Thanks for commenting!

@@sign-language There’s that one, but the one I had in mind was more like … pressed lips but not in an oo shape, maybye like a pfft shape ? I’ve seen the same thing done for “That’s so/very easy !”. My pleasure !

Ah, yah, that pfft type of facial expression. When you mentioned the "very easy" sign I could instantly visualize what you mean. Right that is great version of "very!" Good thinking!

@@sign-language Yeah, my pleasure ! Just wasnt sure how to describe it really

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