we now move to another type of question the wh question now in English if we
notice carefully will see that there are two ways to make questions sometimes we
move the english word to the beginning of the sentence and sometimes we leave
it where we normally expect it
now in these sentences we have the words move to the beginning of the sentence
because if we were to leave it
the question where we normally expect it they'd be in a different place
this is called a transformation when we take a word from where it would normally
be in the sentence and move it to the beginning or move it to the end move it
somewhere else
so the question where are you from is a transformation question
whereas the question you're from where is a question called an in situ question
in English we do this whenever we're expressing surprise or maybe we didn't
hear the full sentence
the question in English who did you see is a true is a question with a
transformation who has been moved to the beginning of the sentence because
otherwise the question would be you saw who
or if you're formal you would say whom did you see and you saw whom
and then finally the the question who told you
you see is the same either way because it's a question about a subject and in
English subjects already come at the beginning
so you have a subject at the beginning of the sentence whether you move it to
the beginning or not it is already at the beginning
so in that case questions about subjects don't matter the transformation or no
transformation
they remain the same now in ASL we also have these options two different types
of questions questions with a transformation and questions with no
transformation in situ questions so let's start with in situ questions
with a question that is left exactly where it is
so the first example would be who kill rabbits in order to use the wh question
face which is the furred eyebrows and it will be again
in that sentence who is at the beginning because it's a subject in ASL subjects
come at the beginning
SVO remember that's the deep structure of the ASL sentence so it's okay to leave
the subject word at the beginning and the next question we have here we have
the what where the object would normally appear right after the verb
because remember the base structure the deep structure of ASL is subject verb
object and so objects would go right there after the verb and this is ok it's
ok to ask questions like this in ASL
I know that you're thinking of the first question already has the word at the
beginning and I thought ASL has always has the the question where did the end
but that's an oversimplification
you can leave the question word in the beginning or middle of the sentence
depending on where it would normally be called the in situ that's a question
about a subject well you're going to ask that who or that what at the beginning
where subjects go if it's a question about an object what you're going to ask
it after the verb or objects go
but you are right most of the time ASL questions are put at the end just
depends are you questioning the subject for questioning the object to question
the subject you have an option may be leaving the beginning maybe move it to
the end
if you're questioning the object then your question is already going to
be toward the end of the sentence although in this sentence you eat what
yesterday you have the time right after the question word so it's not quite at
the end but just make sure you understand that there is the possibility
of leaving question words in different places and sentences questions about
subjects questions about objects as well
that said transformations are very common
its more common to move that question word all the way to the end of the
sentence
so it's more common to sign something like or you could make it
the sentence the topic with the question word left at the very end
or in which case you have the option of either having your eyebrows furrowed
through the whole sentence or topicalizing the sentence except for the
question word which you put with the wh expression at the end either of these
is okay now remember the question involves the subject with subjects if
you leave them in situ then they're going to come at the beginning before
the verbs
so you would have sentences like or or this is the classifier for an animal
walking away
so maybe I don't know what that is and I sign that would be an in situ question
where the question where it stays at the beginning or you have the option of
moving it to the end as we saw earlier with the transformation where the
question word it gets moved to the end and that would be the examples like or
or so you're always safe to move your question words to the end
transformations are never wrong but just be careful because remember question
words can appear in other places in ASL sentences if they're left in situ
now
sometimes you'll see a combination of these where you'll see that the
question word in situ as in excuse me keep wanting to sign to eat tomato or you
could see that question word again
so you can see
this is not an error it's another option also remember with WH questions that
sometimes there are questions that are formed with no apparent question word
so for example with just a facial expression you can ask what is the name
what is the color what is the time
what are you doing or what should you do or what should i do that question has a
lot of possibilities
what is it the purpose of this which by the way should not be confused with the
normal ASL sign for they're different signs the rhetorical question and sign
for what kind how tall or how tall
what size how long and how many those questions are form simply by signing the
sign with a facial expression
there's no need to include the english word with those