WORD in sign language
This word entry for "word" contains ASL signs, a video art, vocabulary, and a link to the ASL poetry performance "Deconstruct W.O.R.D" (2010).
Video summary: WORD is not a word. It's an image of the word. "The Treachery of Words" (2006) by Jolanta Lapiak, inspired by René Magritte's "The Treachery of Images" (1929).
ASL sign for "word"
How to sign "word" in American Sign Language (ASL)?
Definition: A sign, character, or sound or combination of language units that has a meaning and is signed, spoken, or written; a symbol or meaning.
Pronunciation (sign description): Dominant upright "clawed-L" handshape in front of non-dominant upright index finger, both palms facing each other in neutral space, fingertips of forefinger and thumb of dominant hand tap twice on non-dominant forefinger. The dominant handshape can be somewhere between the horizontal "G" handshape and "clawed-L".
Old ASL
"Word. -- Make 'C' with right hand but close rest of fingers; place the ends of the thumb and forefinger of the 'C' hand on the forefinger of left 'G' hand, as if to measure its length." (1910) Ref
No change since then. Note that the "G" gloss above refers to the "1" handshape.
Beyond basics
Emerged in circa 2010s; used as a (pronoun-like) classifier in sentences.
Plural sign for "words".
Meaning: a big and/or hard word.
Pluralization: Dominant "Y" hand is repeated once more. Sometimes multiple with modified location and a "pp" mouth morpheme used by Deaf signers to indicate a lot of big/hard words.
ASL writing
Vocabulary
Other related signs: SIGN (as in signed word), CHARACTER (as in Asian writing), IDIOM, EXPRESSION, LOANWORD that one borrows a new word from another language, GLOSS that transliterates a word rather than translates it, JARGON, PHRASE, SLANG, sesquipedalian which speaks for itself, KEYWORD, PASSWORD, SYMBOL.
Meaning of words: antonym (opposite), homonym, metonym, pseudonym, exonym, endonym (autonym).
Words that you look up in or practice a set of words: GLOSSARY, DICTIONARY that you look up a word in a big wordbook, LEXICON, THESAURUS, TERMINOLOGY, VOCABULARY, WORDBOOK.
Words to play with or to be creative with: CROSSWORD, NONCE which is a word you invent and use only once that can be understood, WORDSMITH.
ASL poetry/performance
"Deconstruct W.O.R.D" (2010) by Jolanta Lapiak.
Written ASL
[Note: ASL writing is not an official standard. This sign language writing remains in a state of open space to allow room for experiment, evolution, and improvement.]
Written ASL digit for "WORD" (variation).
Written ASL digits contributed by the ASLwrite community, 2018.
