meter

 in  speech.  Although  the  exact  forms  that  an  ASL  sentence  can  take  is  still  an  open  area  

of  inquiry  (Alkoby  2004),  some  of  the  nonmanual  signals  used  in  this  way  include  pauses  

between  sentences,  dropped  eye  gaze  and  the  tilting  of  the  head  downward.      

Turn-­‐taking  is  the  regulation  of  language  production  between  two  or  more  

participants  in  a  conversation,  and  is  a  shared  area  of  interest  between  linguistics  and  

sociology.    For  example,  at  the  end  of  a  sentence,  a  signer  will  typically  hold  gaze  when  

expecting  a  response  (Baker,  1977).  Turn  taking  is  one  of  several  nonmanual  functions  that  

are  affected  by  both  the  familiarity    between  signers  and  the  number  of  participants  

(Woodcock,  1997).  Signs  are  produced  differently  between  a  pair  of  friends,  to  a  group  of  

strangers,  and  when  many  people  are  signing  at  once.  

MOUTHING  
A  form  of  paralinguistic  information  is  the  mouthing  of  English  words.  This  involves  

forming  the  mouth  shapes  used  in  the  production  of  speech  while  signing  the  ASL  analogue  

and  has  no  equivalent  in  English.  Unlike  nonmanual  signals,  which  carry  distinct  linguistic  

meaning,  mouthing  serves  to  reinforce  the  manual  signs.    While  in  ASL,  the  phenomenon  of  

mouthing  is  not  universally  recognized  as  part  of  the  language,  its  inclusion  is  preferred  by  

some  populations  (Nadolske  &  Rosenstock,  2007).  

AFFECT    
In  addition  to  the  functions  within  the  structure  of  the  language,  people  who  are  signing  ASL  

also  use  facial  expressions  to  convey  emotions.  There  are  close  parallels  in  the  roles  of  facial  

expression  in  ASL  and  spoken  languages  in  conveying  affect.  It  is  apparent  when  a  signer  is  

content,  angry,  or  puzzled  simply  by  the  modification  of  the  facial  expression  accompanying  

a  sign  (Weisel,  1985).    

   

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