Prosodic Markers in American Sign Language

(also called transition markers in ASL)

What is Prosody?

It has an essential role of organizing discourse into smaller units. It provides a way to categorize or show segmentation of idea units. For example, in spoken languages, prosodic markers include intonation, rhythm, tempo, stress, lengthening, volume and pausing.

In signed languages, prosodic structures is expressed by changes in eye aperture, head movement, body leans, lengthening of signs, cheek puffing, nose wrinkling and hand clasping, among other physical behaviors.

Research by Brenda Nicodemus (RID Views July 2008 Vol. 25, Issue 7) has shown 21 prosodic markers and then categorized under four articulator groups in ASL.

See the table below:

Table 1: ASL PROSODIC MARKERS

HANDS	HEAD & NECK	EYES, NOSE & MOUTH	BODY
Held handshape	Head tilt	Eyebrows	Body lean
Hand clasp	Head turn	Eye gaze shift	Body movement
Fingers wiggling	Head nod	Eye aperture	Visible breath
Hands drop	Head shake	Nose wrinkling	Shoulders raise
Signing space	Side to side	Mouth gestures
	Neck tensing	Puffed cheeks

The prosodic markers below are most frequently used according to the research.

Table 2: FREQUENCY OF PROSODIC MARKERS

Articulator Category:	Most Frequent Prosodic Markers:
Hands	Hand Clasp
Head and Neck	Head Tilt (F/B)
Eyes, Nose and Mouth	Eye Aperture
Body	Body Lean

This research also studied the number of prosodic markers in a two second presentation. It was predicted there would be around 2 or 3 prosodic markers in a two second interval but it was found there were 7 prosodic markers in a two second presentation. Therefore, prosody is an important skill to learn if one wishes to be clear communicating in ASL.

Brenda L. Aron 2008