I also analyze grammar through corpus studies a special set of ASL pronouns known as self. I explored the functions of three different forms of ASL self spanning 32 hours of ASL corpus data, and identified specific grammatical properties that were not described in previous literature. Given the tradition of comparing ASL grammatical functions with English, previous literature described functions of ASL self pronouns similar to English, including the marking of person and number. However, my analysis revealed additional functions in ASL not found in the set of English self forms. ASL is more similar to other languages known for a more complex pronominal system than is English. My analysis found that one specific self form marks obviate reference (where a referent is not proximate to the environment where the speaker is located) and is restricted to identifying abstract entities (e.g. idea, love).The analysis revealed that the function of self pronouns are not similar to English -self pronouns, as traditionally described, and instead express functions that are more complex, comparable to Native American languages’ referential pronominal systems. This study demonstrates how little we know about grammatical functions in ASL, and illustrates the need to revisit grammatical functions in other sets of ASL signs.