Auslan: First Language Learner 7–10 Sequence / Levels 9 and 10 / Understanding / Systems of language
Content description
Understand and control additional elements of Auslan grammar, such as the use of non-manual features for topicalisation, negation or question forms, and develop awareness of how signers use constructed action and depicting signs
Elaborations
noticing that sometimes Auslan signers have information about how a verb happens through NMFs not separate signs (for example WRITE-carelessly)
distinguishing between the citation form of a sign and the adverbial NMF overlaid and what meaning each part carries, for example: MAN-SPRINT (base form), MAN SPRINT-fast (manner added)
understanding that, in terms of meaning, a basic clause represents: a happening or a state (verb), who or what is involved (noun or nouns) and the surrounding circumstances (adverb or adverbs)
noticing that clauses can be made more vivid by integrating CA or DSs to show with body or hands or by showing adverbial or adjectival meanings
recognising how conjunctions such as PLUS, IF or BUT are used to join clauses and create cohesion
recognising that the element of a clause that a signer wants to focus on most in Auslan is sometimes moved to be signed first and that this process of topicalisation involves particular NMFs
recognising that signers may include both linguistic and gestural elements in a clause, that is, signers can tell, show or do both in a composite utterance
realising that in many clauses signers ‘tell’ with lexical signs at the same time as ‘show’ with DS, CA and other gestural elements
