sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign ...

s, movement, or sig, refers to the distinctive hand actions that form words. In William Stokoe's terminology, it is the , an abbreviation of ''signation''. Movement is one of five components of a sign—with handshape (), orientation (), location (), and nonmanual features. Different sign languages use different types of movement. Some treatments distinguish ''movement'' and ''hold''—signs, or parts of signs, that involve motion vs. those that hold the hands still.

Movements in American Sign Language

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expre ...

uses about twenty movements. These include lateral motion in the various directions, twisting the wrist (supinating or pronating the hand), flexing the wrist, opening or closing the hand from or into various handshapes, circling, wriggling the fingers, approaching a location, touching, crossing, or stroking it, and linking, separating, or interchanging the hands. These may be repeated and made large or small and with varying degrees of speed, abruptness, and intensity.Stokoe, Casterline, & Croneberg, 1965. ''A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles'', Gallaudet

References

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