Question:
Is it possible for a person to reasonably claim to know every version of the
sign APPLE?
Response:
Playing with this a bit: I'm familiar with various cheek-based / chin based
versions: knuckle, version, X version, A version. I suppose we could include
depictive versions wherein the apple is being manipulated: thrown, bitten into,
shown as heavy. We could add any of the connotative or affective versions: "ewww"
or "yum" facial expressions while signing apple. Then we could add the
fingerspelled versions for the Apple corporation and expand that to lexicalized
/ coarticulation influenced fingerspelled versions. If we push it I suppose we
could include absent or present referent versions of signing apple (in context
after establishing the topic). Or the understood/assumed version of dropping the
sign when previously identified and currently non-pertinent. We could include
drunk signing, old signing, and extremely low-effort signing wherein the sign
apple might be done far from the face. I might go so far as to include the
signing done by people who have mis-learned apple and do it by twisting the tip
of their finger on their cheek (instead of the knuckle). Yet really are we still
even talking about "the sign" any more or are we talking about pronunciation
(articulation) now? Oh sure, someone could go find the international sign for
"apple" (perhaps the one that looks like taking a bite out of an apple with
either a C, a claw, or maybe a baby-C handshape) but that is breaking the rules
eh? We are talking about "every version" of the ASL sign for "apple" not every
version in every language. Oh, oh... just remembered... the versions like "Adams
apple" in the throat -- and idiomatic versions like "she is the apple of my
eye," or "the big apple" (New York) -- but just because I didn't list such
versions earlier doesn't mean I don't know them. Also we are entering
questionable territory by going diglossic and/or bilingual crossover examples
when the question is about knowing every version of an ASL sign.
Anyway.... so I gave that my best shot off the top of my head on ASL "APPLE"
versions.
--------------------------
Now I'm going to go look in my "oldest" ASL dictionaries and/or invite the folks
to share with me their "legit" (not just one-off, half-remembered, undocumented)
ASL (not BSL, not international sign) versions of "apple."
Notes:
Also see: APPLE
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