American Sign Language For Dummies with Online Videos
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What you know about rhetorical questions in English is not the same as rhetorical questions in American Sign Language (ASL). In English, a rhetorical question is a question that does not require an answer. In ASL, a rhetorical question is asked and the person who asks the question gives the answer as well. A rhetorical question is a way of making a point by providing the information for the very question you ask.

Keep your eyebrows up when you ask the question — that action tells everyone that you don't expect an answer. And if you're on the receiving end of a rhetorical question, you'll recognize it because the signer will barely pause before answering his own question. His hands won't go down to give you a chance to put your hands up to respond.

When you ask a rhetorical question, you use who, what, why, where, when, and how to make the sentence rhetorical, but you don't add a question mark because you aren't really asking a question. You are setting up the question to answer it yourself.

English: Brent is on my team.

Sign: MY TEAM-- WHO — B-R-E-N-T

asl-who-brent

English: The tournament is in Pueblo.

Sign: TOURNAMENT WHERE — P-U-E-B-L-O

asl-where-pueblo

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About the book authors:

Adan R. Penilla II, PhD, NIC, NAD IV, CI/CT, SC:L, ASLTA, teaches American Sign Language at Colorado State University and is a freelance interpreter for the Colorado court system. Angela Lee Taylor has taught ASL for Pikes Peak Community College and the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind.

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