CONTEXT: The American Sign Language (ASL) sign for "context"
There are quite a few different signs that can be used to mean "context."
I'll show you a version here, and it is an evolved, efficient version that is
quick to sign and fairly depictive.
CONTEXT:
(Version 1 of many versions)
Note: It doesn't matter if your non-dominant index finger is between your index
and middle or if the nondominant index finger is between the dominant middle and
ring fingers. The sign shows up both ways on the hands of fluent signers.
CONTEXT: YouTube link: https://youtu.be/NXBAUjxzhWs
CONTEXT: Surroundings, the ether, the force, what is floating around
the point of reference.
CONTEXT: environment, the circumstances, the situation:
Link: https://youtu.be/Ca7uTAoMuPc
If by "context" you mean the context of a string of text then use one of the
versions of the sign labeled as SENTENCE
SENTENCE:
Notes and discussion:
Question: Is it okay to use the sign MEAT to mean context?
Response: I encourage you to use one of the more current / more
common versions of CONTEXT
that depict the concept of surrounding conditions instead of the sign for MEAT.
It is been many years since the MEAT sign generally (but not entirely) diverged
from being used to mean "context."
There was a time in the early 2000s when quite a few people were using MEAT to
mean both context and content. I had a classmate (Deaf, EdD program at Lamar)
who regularly used MEAT to mean "context."
However that usage has definitely faded!
Interestingly though it hasn't entirely dropped from usage. The use of MEAT to
mean context can still be seen from time to time.
(The following videos mentioned were accurate as of 11/5/2024. If they
break in the future it doesn't change the fact that the usages documented
existed at the time).
For example we see Nic Zapko (a Deaf Interpreter and Deaf Mentor) using it at
the 6:49 mark of this video that was posted in 2023: https://youtu.be/XZTik4nZLys?t=402
(the "context" label is in the captioning around the 6:43 mark).
Another example is the 16:59 mark of this video in which we see an interpreter
(Michael Fehmer) using MEAT to mean "context" https://youtu.be/HoL8TavF03Q?t=1018
and we see him again using MEAT to mean context at the 19:23 mark of https://youtu.be/l7IJ-oRuiwA?t=1163
. We see a Colorado School for the Deaf employee using the sign MEAT to mean
"context" at the 12:54 mark of: https://youtu.be/C-FI58f-C6A?t=773 .
Rogan Shannon did a one-handed version of MEAT to mean "context" at the 3:49
mark of his video at https://youtu.be/CLEZ8RxJnhY?t=228 in which he discusses
the foreword of the 60th anniversary printing of "Fahrenheit 451" that provides
"history, context, and criticism."
However, the fact that the sign MEAT still shows up as meaning "context" on some
Deaf signer's hands and/or interpreter's hands in relatively rare situations
doesn't mean YOU should do so. What it means is that you, me, and everyone
else should be careful not to assume that just because we sign something or
don't sign something that we are "right" and others are wrong and that our ways
is the only way. That type of thinking is just arrogant.
In the "for what it is worth" aspect of this discussion I posted the newer usage
in 2017 (to the @aslu "Signs" channel a clip of the MEAT with "content" included
as an interpretation --
https://youtu.be/8E8ZiHAwzqo and again with a slightly different clip of the
sign for MEAT (with no shake) three years later in 2020:
https://youtu.be/bn08rco-M4Y Both of
those entries included the "content" meaning but not the "context" meaning
because language evolves.
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