BSL word ordering

Posted on March 21, 2008 by gareth

English version

One of the things that people struggle to understand when learning BSL is how the word ordering differs from English. For example, consider the sentence ‘Why was the black cat climbing the tree in your garden yesterday?’. This would be translated to ‘yesterday your garden tree black cat climb why?’. In BSL, words are normally ordered as follows:

  1. Timeline (yesterday)
  2. Location (your garden)
  3. Object (tree)
  4. Subject (black cat)
  5. Verb (climb)
  6. Question (why)

This is a simple example but can be used to help translate any English to BSL. Note that things like ‘and’, ‘because’ and ‘he said’ split a sentence into multiple parts and should be treated individually.

BSL version (I didn’t wimp out this time!)

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  • wendy lenihan
    I am learning BSL 1, and am enjoying it very much but struggle with the multichannel signs, would it be possible to hear the worde as you sign to help me understand ? Thank-you
  • Hi Wendy. The text in the post should give you a good summary of the video content. It's very difficult to speak and sign at the same time (as word order is entirely different) so that's why there is no speech for you to listen to. Good luck with your level 1.
  • wendy lenihan
    I am enjojing watching the BSL, but struggle with some signs, I am learning year 1, would it be possible to have the words up on the screen too or words sounding the sign. I struggle mostly with the multichannel signs. Thank-you.
  • Nettie
    Hi Gareth
    how interesting & great what you are doing. Very informative.Please advise me of the following:
    I have gone through my file for me to achieve Level 3 Certificate in BSL (BSL3) units BSL 301 +BSL units 302 receptive and productive.
    Theme 1-bsl knowledge and skills(mandatory)
    Can use one deaf /hearing person twice(deaf lev 3) (hearing lev 4) EACH CLIP HAS TO BE 6-8 MINS LONG
    Theme 2-Society(mandatory)-
    Tutor chooses the subject ,productive by myself (video)- (General)-

    For portfolio ,shall i print PowerPoint off and research more off internet. Anymore ideas or tips?

    One will be a broadcast to test receptive and we have to tick the answer.( Deaf)

    Then the tutor gave us a list where we choose, I chose: music (general) -video-productive/receptive 50/50
    got DVD of Frankie wilde deaf dj.Shall i print off internet info about him and Beethoven, As well as research music school for deaf. any more ideas or tips?
    Theme 3-Educational- my chosen subjects:
    Stages of education :Post 16/lifelong learning- (general)productive/receptive 50/50
    Teaching and learning :The role of the teacher-(General)productive/receptive 50/50.
    Education provision for deaf learners: Options for deaf children at each phase of education-nursery/pre-school, primary, secondary, 6th form options, further and higher education.(Deaf)

    Evidence of
    Frozen and productive lexicons including classifier predicates What!!!!! please explain I kinda no but what clarification.
    loans from English e.g. finger spelling, loan translation inc idioms and compounds -What!!!!! please explainI kinda no but what clarification
    choice of vocabulary express numerical data e.g. dates,times,calender,money weight, ,measures, size and enumeration- What!!!!!!!please explainI kinda no but what clarification
    Sign language sentence structure imperative and interrogative form-What!!!!!! please explain.I kinda no but what clarification
    Clarity of articulation, manual versus non-manual grammatical markers, informal and formal registersI kinda no but what clarification

    The best sign language videos, CD-Roms and deaf TV programs. Oviously i have found a lot. what websites do you generally use??
    For my portfolio Evidence shall i add the following;
    Rnid photo copy of me in the one in seven magazine raising money for them and any letters i received off them
    john smith show ticket
    photo of hove park school children and me a reference from Deaf teacher about me as her teaching assistant . Do you think i should put in the handouts i give the kids?
    letter from ndcs for money i raised
    Photo or info off internet of videos i may have with regards to DVDs i may have on deaf?
    list of websites?
    Any more suggestions?
    Obviously we have to keep a log of date where when we met deaf people eg deaf club.
    Sorry i know its long winded.I so want this. Am so passionate about it and have lost so much just to get where i am. Hope you don't mind me e-mailing. Want to ensure I have got it right.
    LUV
    NETTIE




  • Hi Nettie, thanks for your message. Unfortunately I'm not a tutor and am certainly no expert having only just submitted my level 3 portfolio myself. My suggestion would be to take all these questions to your tutor and get him/her to answer each one. Try writing them down if you're struggling to articulate using sign language - I'm sure you'll find common ground between the two of you. Your tutor should know the answers and will be most familiar with the requirements from the exam board - that's their job!

    Good luck!
  • BEth
    this is JUST what i need! thank you :-)
  • Hi Beth, glad I could help :)
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