THE SIGHTLINE AND PRONOUN REFERENTS
(written by Lou Fant,  ITP instructor, deceased)

American Sign Language is a visual language, which implies that space and movement play exceedingly important roles in it.   Space and movement are to ASL what sound is to a spoken language.  Incorrect or inappropriate use of space and movement lead to poor or no communication in ASL, so it is crucial to focus on these in the beginning.

Your signing space is divided in half by the sightline.  It is an imaginary line that extends from the center of your chest.  No matter which way your body turns, the sightline runs from your chest straight out in front of you.  In general, persons, places, and events are placed to the right or left of the sightline.  The persons, places and events are referred to as spatial or pronoun referents i.e. HE or SHE or IT or THEY.   Things/objects are placed often on the sightline, but it is good practice for the beginner not to do this.

PRONOUN/SPATIAL REFERENT practice

With a partner, do the following exercise:

Read aloud and point to every person, place, object, and event mentioned, i.e the words in BOLD CAPITOLS only.  Do not sign the sentences.  Focus on placement of various pronouns highlighted in bold and use both the left and right side of your sightline.  Take turns and do this exercise 2-3 times until you become comfortable setting up pronoun determiners.

" My SISTER and I went to a MOVIE last night.  IT was a horror MOVIE and

boy was IT scary!  On the way HOME WE stopped at a COFFEE SHOP for a

snack.  The WAITRESS was a FRIEND of my SISTER'S.  As WE walked HOME

from the COFFEE SHOP, WE were afraid of every SHADOW AND DARK

PLACE ALONG THE STREET. When WE got HOME, MOTHER asked US why

WE looked so frightened.  WE told HER, then went to BED and had bad dreams.

 

Sign the following sentences and remember to first establish your topics to be followed by pronoun determiners/spatial referents on either side of the sightline.  Your topics are whom or what you want to talk about. Once you have set up the spatial referents for the names you fingerspell, then you can use your INDEX sign to refer to the same people without having to fingerspell their names again. The index sign means to point to wherever you set up the people.

Keep in mind: 
Use pronominal classifiers where applicable.  
In this exercise, topics would be the nouns or the objects.
Role shifting (head shift, eye gaze) can be used with conversations or performing an action. Role shifting differs from narrating (eye gaze directed to an audience).

Vocabulary:
Pronominal Classifiers   CL: 2 (2 people walking)
                                CL: C (cup, bottle, vase, etc.)
SMILE
DROP
PICK-UP
GIVE-TO

1.  Two students, Mary and Fred, are walking.

2.  Mary, age 15, dropped her Spanish book.

3.  Fred picked up the book.

4.  He gave it back to Mary.

4.  Mary smiled and thanked him.

5.  Fred smiled.

6.  Fred gave Mary a cup of coffee.