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Motions Relative to Parts of the Body
| The specified relation of the positions and
motions of the hands to different parts of the body is
essential to the formation and description of many signs.
Those for speak, hear, and see, which must be
respectively made relative to the mouth, ear and eye, are
manifest examples; and there are others less obviously
dependent upon parts of the body, such as the heart or head,
which would not be intelligible without apposition. There
are also some directly connected with height from the ground
and other points of reference. In, however, a large
proportion of the signs noted the position of the hands with
reference to the body can be varied or disregarded. The
hands making the motions can be held high or low, as the
gesturer is standing or sitting, or the person addressed is
distant or near by. These variations have been partly
discussed under the head of abbreviations. While
descriptions made with great particularity are cumbrous, it
is desirable to give the full detail of that gesture which
most clearly carries out the generic conception, with, if
possible, also the description of such deviations and
abbreviations as are most confusing.
For instance, it is well to |
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explain that signs for yes and no,
described with precise detail as in Extracts from
Dictionary, infra, are also often made by an Indian
when wrapped in his blanket with only a forefinger
protruding, the former by a mere downward and the latter by
a simple outward bend of that finger. An example may be also
taken from the following sign for lie, falsehood,
made by an Ankara, Fig. 233. in which the separated index
and second fingers are moved sidewise in a downward line
near but below the mouth, which may be compared with other
executions of the motion with the same position of the
fingers directly forward from the mouth, and with that given
in Lean Wolf's Complaint, illustrated on page 528, in which
the motion is made carelessly across the body. The original
sign was undoubtedly made directly from the mouth, the
conception being "two tongues," two accounts or opposed
statements, one of which must be false, but the
finger-position coming to be established for two tongues has
relation to the original conception whether or not made near
or in reference to the mouth, the latter being understood.
It will thus be seen that sometimes the position of the
fingers is material as forming or suggesting a figure
without reference to motion, while in other cases the
relative position of the hands to each other and to parts of
the body are significant without any special arrangement of
the fingers. Again, in others, the lines drawn in the air by
the hand or hands execute the conception without further
detail. In each case only the essential details, when they
can be ascertained, should be minutely described. |
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Sign Language
Among North American Indians Compared with
that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes,
1881
Indian Sign
Language
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