The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary

403 Pages·1998·9.53 MB·English

by  Richard A. Tennant

The
American
Sign Language
Handshape
Dictionary
Clerc Books
An imprint of Gallaudet University Press
Washington, DC 20002
0 1998 by Gallaudet University.
All rights reserved. Published 1998. Second printing 1999
Printed in Korea
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data
Tennant, Richard A.
The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary / Richard A.
Tennant, Marianne Gluszak Brown ; illustrated by Valerie Nelson-Metlay
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-56368-043-2
1. American Sign Language-Dictionaries. I. Brown, Marianne Gluszak.
11. Title.
HV2475.T46 1998
419-dc21 97-48389
CIP
Desiy and Production
Victory Productions, Inc.
Design: Victoria Porras
Cover Design: Victoria Porras & Karin Daigle
Production: Karin Daigle
WThe paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI 239.48- 1984.
This work is dedicated to those who struggle to learn to
communicate with others, and to those teachers who
devote themselves to bringing these desires to fruition.
R. T.
To the Deaf community that has nurtured me since
birth, and to all who seek to understand the beauty of
American Sign Language.
M. G. B.
Contents
Preface 7
Introduction 9
How to Use This Dictionary 24
One-Hand Signs 39
Two-Hand Signs 151
Index of English Glosses 37 1
Acknowledgments 419
The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary departs from most
sign language dictionaries in that it is organized by the various shapes of the
hands used to form signs rather than in English alphabetical word order. This
unique format allows users to search for a sign that they recognize but whose
meaning they have forgotten or for the meaning of a new sign they have seen
for the very first time.
The American Sign Language Handshape Dictionary will be especially
helpful to new sign language students, and it will be a handy reference for
people who know some signs but want to increase their vocabulary. The
dictionary will also be valuable to Deaf people who want to know the various
English words that are used to signify the same concept conveyed in a
particular sign. Finally, the Index of English Glosses provides an English to
American Sign Language (ASL) listing of all the signs in the book so that new
signers can look up a word in English to learn the conceptually correct sign
to use to express a specific idea. This dual-language feature enables users to
go from ASL to English or English to ASL easily and quickly.
American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual/gestural language. It is a natural
language, meaning that it has developed naturally over time by its users, Deaf
people. ASL has all of the features of any language; that is, it is a rule-
governed system using symbols to represent meaning. In ASL, the symbols
are specific hand movements and configurations that are modified by facial
expressions to convey meaning. These gestures or symbols are called signs.
Contrary to common belief, ASL is not derived from any spoken lan-
guage, nor is it a visual code representing English. It is a unique and distinct
language, one that does not depend on speech or sound. ASL has its own
grammar, sentence construction, idiomatic usage, slang, style, and regional
variations-the characteristics that define any language.
American Sign Language is the shared language that unites Deaf people
in what is known as the Deaf community. Deafwith a capital D is used in
publications to recognize the cultural and linguistic affiliation of Deaf people
who are members of the Deaf community, whereas deafwith a lowercase d is
used to refer to deaf people who do not embrace ASL or involve themselves
with the values, organizations, and events that are heralded by signing Deaf
people. The Deaf community is not bound by geographic borders, but rather
comprises those people who elect to become members by using ASL as their
preferred mode of communication and by accepting the cultural identity of
Deaf people. It is difficult to give an accurate number of how many people
are in the Deaf community because census takers typically lump together all
people who have a hearing loss. Many researchers believe that approximately
10 percent of the general population has some degree of hearing loss and
that 1 percent of that number represents Deaf people, for a total of about half
a million people in the Deaf community.
The people most likely to be native users of ASL are those who have Deaf
parents. People who lose their hearing as infants, before they begin to speak,
may become native signers if they are exposed to ASL at an early age. These
people, who are unable to hear English and learn it naturally, must be taught
English through formal means. Hearing children of Deaf parents also acquire
ASL as a first language. However, their enculturation tends to cross the cul-
tures of the Deaf and hearing worlds. These children, like their Deaf coun-
terparts, are often referred to as bicultural and bilingual.
10 * Introduction
History of Sign Language in America
Not much is known about deaf people who came to America before the
beginning of the nineteenth century, although evidence suggests that they
brought the sign languages of their native countries with them. Because
there were no schools specifically for them and traveling was difficult, deaf
people probably had very little contact with one another.
This situation began to change in the early 1800s when Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet, a Connecticut clergyman, embarked on a voyage abroad at the
request of a Hartford physician who had a deaf daughter. Gallaudet had
heard that successful methods of educating deaf children were being used in
Europe, and he was eager to learn these teaching methods and bring them
back to America so that he could open a school for children who were deaf.
After a lukewarm welcome by the administrators of the school for the deaf in
England, Gallaudet moved on to the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris,
where he was well received. He studied French signs and methods of teach-
ing deaf children using sign language. When Gallaudet was ready to return to
Hartford, he contracted with Laurent Clerc, a graduate of the Royal
Institution and one of the best teachers at the school in Paris, to return with
him to America. Clerc played an important role in the emergence of early
versions of ASL by bringing French Sign Language to the United States to
intermingle with existing sign languages.
Gallaudet and Clerc established the first permanent school for deaf chil-
dren in the United States. The school opened in Hartford, Connecticut, in
1817. This event is viewed as a milestone for the Deaf community in that it
brought large numbers of Deaf people together for the first time. The school
became a forum for sharing ideas, experiences, beliefs, and values unique to
Deaf life. The founding of this school helped to create, develop, and nurture
an enduring sense of community-the Deaf community.
American Sign Language, formed of a fusion between sign languages
already in existence (including the newly imported French Sign Language),
did what most languages do: it evolved. It was flexible enough to be able to
respond to the ever-changingherican society, and today it has evolved into
one of the richest sign languages in the world. We are indebted to Gallaudet,
to early Deaf pioneers, to the French for the head start they gave us, and for
the conditions here in the United States that have nurtured ASL.
Introduction 11
Signs-The Vocabulary of American Sign
Language
A sign is a gesture or movement that conveys a concept. Each sign is
made with a specific hand configuration or handshape, placed at various
locations on or near the signer’s body. If the handshape, movement, or loca-
tion changes, the meaning of the sign also changes. Signs are the basic
semantic units of sign languages, much as words are the basic semantic units
of spoken languages.
The signs of ASL are formed with one hand or two hands. When a sign is
formed using only one hand, the hand used is determined by the signer’s
natural dominance. The same is true for two-hand signs in which only one
hand moves. The hand that moves is called the dominant hand, while the
other hand is called the passive hand. The illustrations in this dictionary
show models with a right-hand dominance.
Two-hand signs can be produced in one of three ways: (1) both hands
form identical handshapes and both hands move; (2) both hands form iden-
tical handshapes but only the dominant hand moves; or (3) the hands form
VARIETY CLEAN INFLUENCE
hands alternate hands have same shape, passive hand acts
movement only dominant hand moves as a base
Figure 1. Examples of how two-hand signs can be formed.
12 Introduction
01.
different handshapes and only the dominant hand moves, while the passive
hand is restricted to a limited set of handshapes (see figure 1).
When both hands move, a symmetry condition exists, which means
that the handshapes and movements must be identical. These movements
may be made either in unison or alternatingly. In addition, when the
hands move in unison the movement can be parallel or in opposite direc-
tions. For two-hand signs in which the handshapes are not identical,
a dominance condition exists in that the passive hand remains static while
the dominant hand executes the sign. The handshape of the dominant
hand is more significant than the shape of the passive hand. The domi-
nant hand carries the essential information whereas the other hand acts
primarily as a base and, as such, is usually stationary and limited in the
handshapes that it can have. The dominant hand can display any of
approximately 150 different handshapes, but the passive hand can assume
only about seven handshapes. Because the passive hand plays a lesser
role, that hand is often less carefully articulated.
Native signers are naturally consistent
in their adherence to the rules regarding
symmetry and dominance. Someone who
does not observe these rules is awkward to
watch, particularly if the person alternat-
ingly uses the left and the right hand for
one-hand signs.
Parameters of a Sign
Every sign is a composite of basic com-
ponents or parameters. The parameters of
a sign are handshape, palm orientation,
stubborn
location, movement, and nonmanual fea-
Handshape: Open B > Bent B
tures or signals. If one of these five para-
Orientation:p alm out
Location: thumb on right temple meters changes, a completely different
Movement: bend fingers sign may be formed. You will notice that
down sharply
the sign descriptions written for each sign
Nonmanual signal: eyebrows
knit, frown illustration in this dictionary include each
of these parameters (see figure 2).
Figure 2. All sign descriptions include
the five parameters of a sigii.