Words in Hand

In this tape we're talking about 'Classifiers'. Perhaps that's a new term for you. Actually it's a term that's used in many different ways by many different people. We don't want to get bogged down in definitions, but we hope in the next couple of tapes, we'll give you some idea of what we mean by 'Classifiers' and how knowledge and understanding of them can help your understanding of BSL.

Gerry has just been talking about a whole range of different objects. He's been showing us how he holds them, and the way that he holds the objects relates to how we actually sign about them. If we think about this in another way, we can see that the handshapes of BSL often give us a clue of the group, or class of object because the handshape tells us how we would handle the object.

Let's look at some examples. If we use this handshape, the 'F' handshape, it shows that we're picking something up that must be small . You couldn't pick up something large with that handshape. And if we use this handshape, we're usually holding something that's round and it refers to something like (that) perhaps a badge, or a watch. Sometimes these handshapes can become frozen into signs. In other cases, we can use those handshapes to refer to something that is specific in the sign of BSL.

Let's look at the frozen examples first of all. In fact WATCH was an example. Other examples are SOW or STITCHING or STRING. All of those signs use the same handshape and they show that they are referring to something that is quite small or thin. Examples like APPLE, IRON, JUG use handshapes which are appropriate for actually showing and getting hold of the actual object, how we actually hold that object. And they become the signs for those objects in BSL.

Sometimes how we hold, or part of that object, can mean the whole object. Look at the sign for CAR. We are actually showing how we hold the steering wheel. Some of you might try it, might manage to remember in the past trams. The sign for tram (signs) shows us how we held the handle, you can remember, or you might remember, how the handle was actually controlled, TRAM. In other examples like BOOK, there are clearly acceptable signs in the language in BSL but instead of the sign, BOOK, we refer to how we actually hold the book, so we can give the shape of the book itself, the spine instead of the flat 'B' hand (using book).

The group of signs that we've been talking about so far 'Handling'. There's a 'Handling' group of classifiers, but there's another group that gives us some information about the size and shape of the object that we're talking about, but they don't necessarily show how we actually hold it. So a shape like this might show rails, so you can remember Clark was talking about the boat trip and he was getting hold of the rails, so he's showing the shape of the rails and the flat hand-shaped like this can show something flat like a TABLE or a DESK or a SHELF.

An open handshape like this is very important for a number of different things (of), different objects. If we look at long thin strands and the fingers show those strands or part of something, it may even be a FENCE or a NET. The handshape that's open but bent can show something that's not even. So the story we had before from Gerry when he was talking about his dream, he was showing the rocks, they're not smooth, they were uneven and showing rocks.

This handshape shows that we have two extensions and it can often be used to show legs in signs like STANDING or JUMPING. This handshape very often refers to something round, or hard, a solid and it could be used for a ball, for example when Gerry was talking about heading the ball. So he was heading the ball in 'Football Crazy' and that hand refers to the ball. So if two people wanted to look up, their heads looked upwards and the handshape becomes the heads themselves.

I think before we have any more explanations it might be an idea to look at some more signing and this time we're going to let you see the whole story. It's a children's story for very young children, but I think that you'll enjoy it. But I want you to look at the way that Clark is giving us information about the objects themselves, how he's talking about and how he's telling us about holding things, the size of things, the shape of things, of what he's actually talking about. So let's look and see.