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TEXAS:









Texas (animated)

Dr. Bill replies:
Yah...you are right. She isn't me, heh. No plastic surgeon in the world could
pull that off. "Crystil" was a language model I hired many years ago as
part of an interpreter training workshop I was conducting for a school
district. Having lived in Texas for three years I consider myself
somewhat well versed in the sign "TEXAS" but I thought it would be interesting
to use this clip of Crystil signing Texas.
Now...the handshape is indeed an "X." She's just doing a very "loose"
X. Her index finger is slightly bent, plus her other fingers are curled in
more than would be done for a "D." The movement is right then down.
Admittedly she is starting farther to the left and doing the sign much higher
than I do.
Signs don't have to "look-like" anything. Does the English word "bus" look like a bus? No, the word bus is very small, not yellow, and has no wheels, yet English users continue to use it to refer to something that looks completely different. It makes no more sense to use the English word "bus" to refer to a "bus" than it makes to move an "x" in a "7" shape to mean "Texas." And that is my point. Language doesn't have to be "iconic." ASL signs don't have to "look like" the concept they are representing any more than English words have to "sound-like" the concepts being "talked about."