Tag Archives: grammar

Modification and intensifiers in BSL

A really common way of differentiating things like speed, weight, size, etc in BSL is using non-manual features (NMF) such as modifiers and intensifiers. For example, when expressing the speed of someone cycling, I would use a single sign to … Continue reading

Posted in sign language | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | View Comments

Compound signs

I’ve mentioned compound signs in a previous post but I’ve studied them recently on my BSL course so I thought I’d go into a little more detail. A compound sign is one that is created by combining two (or more) … Continue reading

Posted in sign language | Tagged , , , , , | View Comments

Multi-channel signs in BSL

One interesting aspect of BSL grammar is multi-channel signs; these are special signs where both manual (i.e. using your hands) and non-manual (e.g. facial expressions, lip patterns etc) actions are combined to form a single sign. In my BSL course … Continue reading

Posted in sign language | Tagged , , , , , , , | View Comments

BSL word ordering

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 … Continue reading

Posted in sign language | Tagged , , , , , , | View Comments

Learning sign language

[Note: I was going to try and translate this post into BSL for the benefit of my readers who sign (there's at least one!) but I have a feeling this post would never appear as I keep putting it off! … Continue reading

Posted in all about me, sign language | Tagged , , , , | View Comments