Words in Hand

Well, I've heard of teaching a dog to speak, but I've never heard of dogs using fingerspelling or signs. Maybe it will help.

Well, what did you make of that? Did you understand it? I'm sure you got a lot of information from the fact that some of the signs were iconic, that they were giving you some information about what the sign meant.

An obvious example is the sign for 'bird'. Clark uses the sign for bird that shows the wings. The indicates the whole bird. The other sign for 'bird' I've used is this one, which doesn't focus on the wings, but on the beak instead. So these signs use one part of an object to represent the whole thing. That happens quite a lot in sign language.

We get the same thing with the sign for 'dog'. The sign Clark uses is this, which focuses on the legs of the dog. This sign uses the legs to represent the whole dog.

The sign for 'footsteps' shows us the shape of paws and the action involved in walking.

The idea of imitating this animal is found in a number of signs.

The sign for 'carrying' refers to carrying the dog, hands positioned around the shape of the dog. The sign is linked to what I am carrying, copying as if you were actually carrying a dog.

In the sign for 'injection', we copy the action and the needle shape as it injects. We copy an actual injection.

In the same way when Clark talks about the vet examining the dog using a stethoscope. We have the vet holding a stethoscope, but they're not using it on themselves – it's being used on the dog.

When Clark talks about the drawer, he copies the action of opening a drawer.

There are several clues to help, in the way that signs are iconic. Sometimes they give the shape of an object. Sometimes they show how much of the object is being held. And sometimes they imitate the action.

Let's look at a few different signs that we would give the term 'conventional' to.

Signs like 'it's my fault'. Again, you can see the handshape is linked to something 'bad'. It's my fault.

Or the sign for 'good' or 'proud'. Again, they are linked. Here we have the 'good' handshape linked to good, and then we sign on our chest as it's linked to feelings. This sign means 'proud'.

Same with the sign for 'satisfied' – it's linked with feelings.

Or the sign 'feeling sorry for' – it is coming from the heart. 'Poor thing.'

That is a little bit different because it doesn't look like what it means, but it seems to us to be appropriate signs.

We're now going to leave you with Clark explaining how particular signs developed in Germany for the names of their cities. It comes from particular iconic signs or are picture based. If you watch out, you might catch some fingerspelling and German words. So, I'll see you again later on the next tape.