Classifiers are hard. Not hard in the way vocabulary is hard, where more exposure eventually produces competence. Classifiers are hard because they require signers to think spatially while signing temporally, to track multiple referents while producing new content, to select among productive options while maintaining discourse coherence.
DEPICTING SPACE addresses this challenge directly. Written for advanced ASL students, working interpreters, and interpreter educators, this comprehensive textbook bridges the gap between knowing what classifiers are and deploying them fluently under real-world conditions.
WHAT THIS BOOK COVERS
The book is organized in five parts across seventeen chapters.
Part One establishes theoretical foundations, examining classifier systems beyond basic taxonomy, the cognitive architecture underlying classifier selection, and the crucial distinction between topographic and syntactic space.
Part Two addresses spatial anchoring systems: how signers establish and maintain spatial loci, achieve coherence across extended discourse, and manage perspective and viewpoint shifts.
Part Three explores classifier predicates in depth: entity classifiers, handling classifiers, body part classifiers, size and shape specifiers (SASS), and movement morphology.
Part Four applies these frameworks to professional contexts where precision matters most: legal settings requiring spatial accuracy for witness testimony, medical interpreting demanding anatomical precision, and technical interpreting involving mechanisms and processes.
Part Five synthesizes the material through integrated practice frameworks and guidance on assessment and continuing development.
PRACTICAL RESOURCES INCLUDED
Six appendices provide ready-to-use tools: a notation system for transcribing classifier predicates, practice exercises organized by chapter, self-assessment rubrics, a comprehensive glossary, an annotated bibliography, and sample syllabi adaptable to various course formats.
WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
This book assumes readers already sign at an intermediate level or above. It serves advanced ASL students ready to develop sophisticated spatial skills, working interpreters seeking to refine classifier competence, interpreter educators teaching spatial grammar, and researchers interested in applied ASL linguistics.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Janna Sweenie, MA, brings over thirty-five years of experience teaching ASL at the post-secondary level, including three decades at New York University.
David Boles, MFA, is a writer, editor, and publisher who founded the ASL Program at CUNY School of Professional Studies.
Together they authored ARM ANGLES IN AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (2026), which established the analytical framework extended in this volume.
DEPICTING SPACE is the book they wished existed when they were learning, and the book they wish existed now for their students.
Book 2 in the ASL Linguistics for Practitioners series.
64,000 words. 17 chapters. 6 appendices.
"To everyone who loves the language that lives in the hands."
