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

[Dan Parvaz]

> 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.

____________
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.. .   D A N  P A R V A Z  --  Geek-in-Residence
 U    University of New Mexico Linguistics Dept
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