Why on Switched at Birth do they use the ASL sign for "NOT" when the subtitles say "Don't"?

Question

I don't sign myself but I've recently started researching/learning because of the show. I was wondering if this was perhaps a dialect thing or just an example of Signed English seeping into the show? I know both Sean Berdy and Marlee Matlin are fluent ASL as a first language so I'm just curious.

Answer 1

You must keep in mind that ASL is not English produced on the hands. NOT is a form of negation. For example "I don't have time" could be signed as:

_____________neg

I NOT HAVE TIME.



"I don't have any children" However, would utilize the sign NONE

CHILDREN I HAVE NONE.



The text Linguistics of American Sign Language (Valli, Lucas) notes that NOT is not actually required in negative sentences and may be used for more emphasis.

You may be wondering how a person will show negation in absence of a specific sign. This is where NMM's (non-manual markers) come into play. For negative sentences they are marked with the word 'neg' NMMs in this category can be made by shaking the head side-to-side, by frowning, 'wrinkling' the nose, having a raised upper lip, and squinting the brows.

so the phrase:

______neg

MAN HOME

means the man is not home. A NMM is enough to make the phrase negative.

There are various other forms of negation such as reversal of orientation. You can see this in certain signs such as don't-WANT, don't-LIKE, don't-KNOW, etc. It is important to note that reversal of orientation cannot be applied to every sign. For example, it cannot be applied to a sign like HAVE. However, NONE would work well with HAVE if you wanted to say 'don't have...'.

I am by no means an expert but using DON'T would definitely seem a lot more English to me than using NOT and NONE.

See Dr. Bill's note on the sign DON'T (link below). I have also heard that this sign is used more as an indication to stop doing something (an action) but I cannot confirm this right now. Like I said, I am no expert but know that NOT can definitely be used to show negation taking the place of don't.



http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/d/dont.htm

Answer 2

Don't means "do not", and "do" does not have a specific sign. Asl comes from French, so some of the grammar seems foreign. Just like other "foreign" languages, asl can't always be translated easily into English and vice versa.

Answer 3

As katekat mentioned, ASL is not "English". ASL is another language in and of its own. It has its own grammar and you simply cannot translate word for word from English.



When you rub your thumb outwards under your chin, that is a sign of negation. Because of this, it can either mean "not" or "don't" (depending on what you're saying) because in English, both these words are negations.



However, there are other forms of negations in ASL. It could be "flicking away" from you whatever your signing. For example, when you want to say "I don't know", you would sign "know" (placing the tips of your middle three fingers a little to the side of your forehead) and then turn your wrist so that the fingers are pointing away from your head. "Don't like" is signed by first signing "like" and then turning your wrist away from your body and spreading your fingers as though you're throwing something away.



Yet another form of negation is a simply head shake. For example, when you want to say "I don't understand", you sign "I understand" and shake your head at the same time. That will negate it too.



It really all depends on the verb. So how do you know which verbs use which form of negation? Just study and learn from a friend or teacher who is part of the deaf community AND is fluent in ASL. The only way to really learn a language and make it sink in is to constantly communicate with someone who is fluent.

Answer 4

ASL uses a different grammatical system than English, so there won't always be a direct match of English words to ASL signs.



Wikipedia has this example of how the NOT sign negates a verb:



English: I don't like to play tennis.

ASL: TENNIS I LIKE PLAY NOT

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sign_Language_grammar#Negation

Answer 5

Because when you are signing "don't", you can sign it either way. There are two signs for plenty of words (what, for example). 'Don't' means 'do not' so, sometimes you can just sign 'not' and leave the 'do' out of it...



Ray is also correct with the grammar remark... when you sign English words, it's call SEE sign (signing exact english) it's very confusing and takes forever.



Say someone gave you a flyer and signed "Pass it on" to you, in SEE sign, it would be "PASS" (like a car passing), "IT", "ON" (like on top of something). You can see where this could be confusing, whereas in ASL, the sign "pass it on" is just your dominant hand moving across your body sort of like dealing cards.