American Sign Language:  "Coat: "Animal Coat"

In ASL you express the concept of animal's coat differently than you would a human's coat.

 

The sign for "animal coat" would be:
1. Establish the context that you are talking about animals.
2. Consider the size of the animal.
3. If the animal is small you can use your non-dominant fist as a classifier to represent the animal's body. (We are not talking about animal placement nor movement, thus we are not using a "bent-V" classifier.)
4. If the animal is large you can use your non-dominant arm to represent the body.
5. If the animal is a primate or walks upright you can sometimes use your chest and torso to represent the body.
6. If the animal is "very large" like a horse or moose you could place your non-dominant hand on an imagined animal and run your dominant hand along the imagined animals body.
7. Once you have established the body, you can spell "fur" and then use a slightly curved "5" handshape to indicate where the fur is by moving the "5-hand" along the body surface. (From the hand to the wrist, up the arm, down the torso, or along whatever body surface area you have established in the preceding steps.)
 

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