ASL 121

What is Prosody?

Prosody refers to the duration, intensity, location and size of a sign or sign segments.
It often provides adverbial information (very slow, bright red, walking slouched and exhausted)

You can "shout" in ASL.  You can be sarcastic.  You can show emotion.
This information is all show with prosodic features.

Note: Prosody DOES include the non-manual signals/behaviors from various sentence types such as Yes-No and WH-questions as well as confirming/affirming and negating sentences.

Watch this video to see simple examples of signing with and without prosodic features.

   Click here to link to the streamed video

 

More practice sentences:

WITHOUT PROSODY                        WITH PROSODY

YOU SIGN                                             a.   affirmation
                                                            b.  negation     (adamant!)
                                                            c.  question
                                                            d.  skeptical
                                                            e.  surprised
                                                            f.  shy
                                                               

YES                                                       a.  soft           
                                                             b.  question
                                                             c.  skeptical
                                                             d.  surprised
                                                             e.  nervous
                                                             f.  shy
                                                             g.  tired
                                                             h. excited

              
In your groups:

1. Take turns and use prosody with the sign "NO".  
2. Repeat steps a - h from  the YES section.   
3. Classmates in each group are to copy the student demonstrating the prosody.