A "grammar" is a set of rules for using a language. These rules guide users in the correct speaking or signing of a language.
Who decides what is correct and incorrect grammar?
The grammar of a language is decided by the group of people who use the language. New grammar rules come into existence when enough members of the group have spoken (signed) their language a particular way often enough and long enough that it would seem odd to speak the language in some other way.
If you don't want to seem odd to others in your group, you've got to speak (sign) a language according to the rules which have been developed by the community which uses the language.
American Sign Language is tied to the Deaf Community. We use our language in a certain way. That "certain way" is what constitutes ASL grammar.
American Sign Language has its own grammar system, separate from that of English.
What this means is ASL grammar has its own rules for phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.
In general, ASL sentences follow a "TOPIC" "COMMENT" arrangement. Another name for a "comment" is the term "predicate." A predicate is simply a word or phrase that says something about a topic. In general, the subject of a sentence is your topic. The predicate is your comment.
When discussing past and future events we tend to establish a time-frame before the rest of the sentence.
That gives us a "TIME" "TOPIC" "COMMENT" structure.
For example:
or "WEEK-PAST Pro1 WASH MY CAR "
[The "Pro1" term means to use a first-person pronoun. A first-person pronoun means "I or me." So "Pro1" is just a fancy way of saying "I" or "me." In the above example you would simply point at yourself to mean "Pro1."]
Quite often ASL signers will use the object of their sentence as the topic. For example:
"MY CAR, I WASH WEEK-PAST"
[Note: The eyebrows are raised and the head is tilted slightly forward during the "MY CAR" portion of that sentence.]
Using the object of your sentence as the topic of the sentence is called "topicalization." In this example, "my car" becomes the subject instead of "me." The fact that "I washed it last week" becomes the comment.
There is more than one sign for "WASH." Washing a car or a window is different from the generic sign for "WASH" to wash-in-a-machine, or to wash a dish. The real issue here isn't so much the order of the words as it is choosing appropriate ASL sign to accurately represent the concept.
There are a number of "correct" variations of word order in American Sign Language (Humphries & Padden, 1992).
American Sign Language (ASL)
