Vocabulary and Fingerspelling
Domain 4: Vocabulary and Fingerspelling
This domain tests vocabulary knowledge, fingerspelling fluency, lexical borrowing and number incorporation. You need to recognise established NSL signs, decode fingerspelled strings, and understand when fingerspelling becomes a loan sign rather than a letter-by-letter sequence.
Core rules
- Fingerspelling is used for names, places, acronyms, technical terms and words without an established sign. Context helps you confirm ambiguous letters.
- A lexicalised loan sign is a fingerspelled form that has become a unit with its own movement and meaning. It is read as a whole word, not as separate letters.
- Initialisation uses a manual letter shape within a sign. Do not assume every initialised sign is identical across signed languages.
- Number incorporation fuses a number handshape with a sign such as WEEK, MONTH, YEAR, HOUR or MONEY. Learn which signs in your syllabus allow this and which do not.
- Handshape, orientation and movement matter. A number sign with the palm facing the wrong way can be misread.
Worked example
A signer fingerspells K-A-T-I-M-A, then points to a map location. The first and last letters plus the map context identify a place name. Later the signer produces a repeated movement with a '3' handshape incorporated into WEEK. The phrase means 'three weeks', not 'week, three'. Reasoning: fingerspelling is resolved by context; the incorporated handshape carries the number; the repeated movement carries the unit. Treating each letter or each number as a separate word would distort the meaning.
Traps
- Fingerspelling every word instead of using known signs.
- Confusing similar handshapes such as M/N or U/V under time pressure.
- Missing a lexicalised loan sign because you read it letter by letter.
- Assuming number incorporation works with every noun.
- Ignoring palm orientation when producing numbers.