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prosody governs the rhythmic timing in and between sentences. In spoken
language, pausing to emphasize a phrase, or pausing to allow another person to reply2 are
The following paragraphs describe the role of facial nonmanual signals in ASL. They
contribute to the language on all linguistic levels ranging from phonemic to prosodic.
In ASL, an example of a nonmanual signal functioning at the phonemic level is the
nonmanual signal TH, which is characterized by the tongue through the front teeth, lips
rounded, and cheeks slightly puffed (Bridges & Metzger, 1996). As shown in Figure 3, the
only phonemic difference between the ASL signs LATE3 and NOT-‐YET is the presence of a
TH nonmanual signal in the sign NOT-‐YET (Valli & Lucas, 2000).
LATE NOT-YET
Figure 3: The nonmanual TH distinguishes between LATE and NOT-‐YET.
In a morphological role, a nonmanual signal acts as a modifier of a manual sign. For
example, the sign for “coffee cup” becomes “large coffee cup” when accompanied by the
nonmanual signal CHA, indicated by rounded lips pushed forward followed by a wide open
2
In
theory.
Locally,
it’s
never
been
observed.
3 A gloss is the English translation of an individual sign and is written in upper case.
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