An examination of the grammar of ASL reveals the types of lexical items and grammatical constructions one would expect to find in any vocally produced language. Morphological complexity can be found in its extensive inventory of compound signs, in aspectual and other grammatical forms marked through feature insertion into frames, reduplication, or both, in signs with numeral incorporation, in depicting verbs, and to a small extent in signs with an attached prefix or suffix. Like words in any language, ASL signs are conventionalized form-meaning pairings capable of combining with other such signs as parts of grammatical constructions.

Some signs have not only the properties one would expect of a word in a vocally produced language, but also additional properties such as the need to be directed toward some entity, the need to be placed within a space, the need for the signer to direct the face and eye gaze toward some entity during the production of the sign, or the need to perform constructed actions within a surrogate blend. ASL pronouns, for example, have all the properties one would expect of pronouns in a spoken language, and they also have the additional grammatical requirement to be directed toward their referents. Knowing the grammar of ASL includes knowing that pronouns must be properly directed toward referents in real space or in real-space blends.

Since pronouns encode meanings, they are part of the symbolic inventory of ASL.