American Sign Language For Dummies

INTRODUCTION 1
 
About This Book 1
 
Foolish Assumptions 2
 
Icons Used in This Book 3
 
Beyond the Book 4
 
Where to Go from Here 4
 
PART 1: AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE AND YOU 5
 
CHAPTER 1: You Already Know a Little Sign 7
 
Discovering Signs That Look like What They Mean 8
 
Building on the Basics of Sign: Gestures and Expression 9
 
Spelling with your fingers 9
 
Shaping up those hands 12
 
Benefiting with body language 14
 
Gazing at the face of expression 15
 
CHAPTER 2: Signing Grammar Basics 17
 
Explaining the Parts of Speech 17
 
Distinguishing between noun/verb pairs 18
 
Modifying with adjectives and adverbs 20
 
Talking Tenses 22
 
Structuring Sentences 24
 
Subjecting yourself to nouns and verbs in simple sentences 24
 
Placing subjects and objects 24
 
Exclaiming in Simple Sentences 31
 
Signing Conditional Sentences 36
 
Personification: The Secret of Agents 37
 
Clarifying with Classifiers 39
 
CHAPTER 3: Starting to Sign Basic Expressions 41
 
Initiating a Conversation 41
 
Attracting someone's attention 42
 
Using greetings and closings 43
 
Getting Acquainted 47
 
Sharing feelings and emotions 49
 
Connecting your thoughts 52
 
Talking about where you're from 53
 
Acting the Part: Constructed Dialogue and Constructed Action 62
 
Constructed Dialogue 62
 
Constructed Action 63
 
CHAPTER 4: Getting Your Numbers and Times Straight 65
 
Counting on Numbers 65
 
Getting from one to ten with cardinal numbers 67
 
Ordering ordinal numbers 69
 
Signing phone numbers and the like 70
 
Talking about Time 70
 
Signing calendar dates 74
 
CHAPTER 5: Signing at Home 79
 
Handling Signs about Your Home 79
 
Touring all the rooms

Adan R. Penilla II, PhD, NIC, NAD IV, CI/CT, SC:L, ASLTA, teaches American Sign Language at Colorado State University and is a freelance interpreter for the Colorado court system. Angela Lee Taylor has taught ASL for Pikes Peak Community College and the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.