Fw: [USA-L News] British Deaf Association in controversial posterdrive

[Theresa Smith]

Hi all,

Theresa Smith from Seattle.  I have not seen this used for the Space Needle but
yes for another very tall building (the Columbia Tower) early on when it was the
first and only very tall building -- so it "stuck up there" all by itself.  It
was, therefore... a sort of visual analogy.  In subsequent years many other tall
buildings have come close and so the description has faded.

One more use - double handed raised middle fingers starting in the center and
moving apart from one another towards each side - roughly equivalent to "screw
everybody" or "screw the world".   -- a comment on the signer's feelings about
"people".

Theresa

Dan Parvaz wrote:

> > Bencie's oberservation in "The Linguistics of BSL" that this sign is not in
> > ASL (sic) to my mind suggests that the crudity of the gesture was well known
> > to American signers for decades. They have therefore avoided it. [snip!]
>
> Well, yes and no. A middle-finger handshape is used in signs for certain
> landmarks (WASHINGTON-MONUMENT and SPACE-NEEDLE). Another sign which
> almost certainly had scatologial origns is a verb which might be loosely
> translated as "to disrespect." A two-handed reciprocal version might mean
> "The two of them are not on speaking terms." However, it would be a
> mistake to assume that this verb is still considered vulgar under every
> circumstance. Deaf individuals have told me in the strongest possible
> terms that they would be very upset if an interpreter chose "certain
> four-letter sequences" as an English equivalent. :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Dan.
>
> ____________
> ,,,
> .. .   D A N  P A R V A Z  --  Geek-in-Residence
>  U    University of New Mexico Linguistics Dept
>  -    dparvaz@{unm.edu,lanl.gov}   505.480.9638