r/asl • u/Justkindaeverything • 4d ago

ASL Classifiers Question

Hey! I’m new to learning ASL. I’m currently in an ASL course on lesson 4 and I’m struggling with the classifiers.

A disclaimer - My professor is deaf and I’m thankful I’m learning from someone in the Deaf community, however it is ASL1 and I’m learning everything through sign. No English so I’m having some trouble.

A question I had was are the classifiers just based on what we feel makes sense? She had used a folding map as an example in class. She used the CL:BB but then moved her hands around to show that it folded. Is that standard practice for signing map? Or was she doing that as just what makes sense to her for map? For deaf people how do you know specifically what someone is signing if it’s just what we think or if it’s just relative to our own perception of things?

I also don’t want to do this, then not be signing accurately or get my CL confused with something else.

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u/kindlycloud88 Deaf 4d ago

Classifiers are context based. You have to pair with a sign or fingerspelling before using it. In your example she didn’t just fold a map randomly, she fingerspelled M-A-P first and used classifiers to show folding it. Or I may sign MY BROTHER and then use a 1 hand to show him walking to me.

As for handshapes there are certain ones we use for certain things. Like a 3 hand or flat palm indicates vehicles. Or bent V for animals. Check out the list of them here.

https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/classifiers/classifiers-main.htm#gsc.tab=0

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u/Elkinthesky 3d ago

Exactly. Using classifiers is also a great way to get out of the spoken mindset as you can explain things visually without an exact translation.

We had a useful exercise where we had to tell a story about driving based on a couple of pictures (like: person driving, hit a sheep, what next?). I don't know how I would have translated it in English but the story was clear to everyone in sign language 😆

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u/Justkindaeverything 3d ago

This is very helpful!! Thank you for the link. I will definitely be checking out more!!

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u/OGgunter 3d ago

For deaf people how do you know specifically what someone is signing?

Context. Nobody is walking up to you IRL and just Signing CL:BB and then miming folding it. It will be part of a conversation about travel, or about looking up directions, or about pulling a map out of a display at the gas station while waiting for the single use bathroom to be available.

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u/KayaQueen 4d ago

My professor was also Deaf and I honestly felt it made a world of difference. She was the best teacher I ever had in the subject. But a lot of the other students struggled too. She would often have to have me vocalize things for her to clarify things. So, I can imagine how difficult it’s been.

Usually, at least from what I’ve learned, the classifiers are pre determined or pre set. It’s not just what the person feels makes sense but something a group collectively decided would stand for that or mean that. If I make any sense or am even understand and answering your question properly…