Contrast

ASL and English have different grammars. It's not suprising, therefore, that English uses several grammatical markers that are not part of ASL (and ASL uses some grammatical markers that are not part of English). For example, ASL does not use the sign AND when making lists or comparisons, although this sign is used frequently in Signed English. Instead, ASL uses a device called contrastive structure. A small, simple movement of the shoulders from one side to the other shows the distinction between two categories being discussed. The video clips show two ASL sentences: