Chapter 1
Sign languages as natural languages
Find three signs from a sign language that you know or look them up on internet. Describe as accurately as possible the manual parameters of these signs (handshape, location, movement, and orientation).
The knowledge of parameters will be expanded in Chapter 11 on Phonology, but this exercise is intended to give the students a first feel of determining the different aspects and sharpening their perception. Take signs from your own sign language.
For example, the sign train from Bulgarian Sign Language, as depicted below, can be described as follows:
| Handshape: | flat hand, fingers extended ( ) |
| Location: | in neutral space in front of the body, no contact |
| Movement: | simultaneous circular movement of both hands |
| Orientation: | palms facing each other, fingers forward |
Further, we provide three examples from South African Sign Language (SASL) (see exercise 5, video clips via link); here we also provide mouthings, a non-manual aspect, although the assignment only asks for the manual parameters:
| woman – L: | chest, contact; HS: flat hand ; O: palm up, fingers sideways; M: distal to proximal; Mouthing: wume (?). |
| man – L: | chin, contact; HS: index finger curved, thumb extended, other fingers closed ; O: palm towards body; M: downwards, repeated; Mouthing: ma. |
| pap – L: | neutral space; HS: flat hand ; O: palm up, fingers away from body; M: hand internal: fingers bent, repeated; Mouthing: pap. |