Resultado de las Encuestas

This is the same form and meaning as the LSF sign pour (for), which was described for the first time by Abbé de l’Épée (1784) and may have been invented by him. Lambert (1865) later described the same form as produced by “touch[ing] the index finger on the forehead (thought) then thrust[ing] it in front of the body (directed towards).”

With a short and repeated movement, the ASL sign also functions as a ques-tion meaning “What for?”

fo r ever, l ong time

This sign derives from the very old LSF jusqu’a (until, from one moment until another), documented since the eighteenth century as being made with the French manual letter J, which is also the modified horn handshape ( Ferrand circa 1784; Blanchet 1850;

Lambert 1865). According to Lambert (1865), the hand draws away from the body: “advance to the front the manual letter J, from one point to another.”

This particular contemporary variation, where the thumb of the modified horn handshape contacts the temple then moves directly away from the face, has not been found in older texts, but it is widely used in both ASL and LSF. When produced with one short movement and the mouth shaped in a circle, the sign means “a long time,” as in “I waited in line forever.” When produced with repeated circles extending from the temple, it means “a prolonged period of time.” When the LSF sign is repeated, it also means “a long time.” The upward

LSF pour ( Pélissier 1856 )

LSF jusqu’a, c’est long ( IVT 1986 ) ASL forever, long time ASL for

forget 107 migration of the hand in both ASL and

LSF may be due to the location of the sign future, will (see entry).

fo r ge t

forget comes from an old LSF sign meaning “forget” that has since disap-peared. De Gérando (1827) described the form as “rapidly pass the hand over the forehead.” Ferrand (circa 1785) states that the signer must “bring the hand over the forehead and throw it behind the head with a look in the eyes and face that I don’t remember anymore.” This stems from the meta-phor “ideas are objects,” and the action depicts the signer removing objects (ideas or memories) from the mind.

This form was first documented in the U.S. by Clark (1885), who describes how the fingertips of the right flat hand swipe the forehead and then close. A contemporary variation of ASL forget consists of the bent middle finger handshape sliding across the forehead. This form is typically reserved to denote forgetting specific things like a topic to discuss (for example, “My mind has gone blank”).

This handshape is commonly used in ASL to indicate blank or empty spaces, as in the signs bald and empty (see entries).

ASL forget

108 fork

f ork

This sign was originally produced as a compound in LSF ( Pélissier 1856 ), in which the right fork handshape first contacted the mouth and then the left palm. The contemporary ASL form retains the second part of the compound to show the tines of a fork pressed into food. This newer form was first documented in the early twentieth century by Long (1910) and represents the most literal interpretation of the handshape. A myriad of LSF and ASL signs with metaphorical relationships to forked entities incorporate this hand-shape (see careful, hell, and worse).

fr iend

The sign friend comes directly from the French sign ami (friend ). Lambert (1856 ) described it as “unit[ing] the two indexes in a ring.” In the ASL sign, the index fingers hook together, one palm down and the other palm up, and then “the hands change their relative position” ( Long 1910). This is an iconic representation of the link between two people and the reciprocity inherent in

friendship. ASL friend LSF ami

( Lambert 1865) ASL fork LSF fourchette

( Pélissier 1856 )

from 109

fr iend l y

Long (1910) describes this sign in his entry cheerful as “ ‘beams of joy’ radi-ating from the face.” Oscillradi-ating fingers symbolize shiny things in several signs (see color and flirt). The etymology of this sign may also derive from the polysemy of the English word pleasant.

Roth’s (1941) description states that the sign “come[s] from pleasant weather.

The sign indicates pleasant breezes blowing against the face. We use this sign to indicate a person who is of a pleasant disposition.” LSF has a similar sign—frais (cool )—that originated as a gesture centuries ago. This sign rep-resents a breeze of fresh air, “the act of waving oneself with one or both hands”

( Lambert 1865). The ASL sign cool is exactly the same. The extrapolation of a concrete sensory experience to a gesture also occurred in the develop-ment of signs like favorite (see entry).

While friendly may come from the same root as frais, it no longer has a literal association with a cool breeze and the reduplicated movement has disappeared.

f ro m

The origin of from is the old Signed French de (from), which Sicard described in 1808 as follows: “take back the hand that one had directed towards a goal, and trace the hand, in the air, in a straight line from the point in space where it was directed.” The right index touches the left at the beginning of the sign, like the ASL goal (see entry), then draws away into a hooked

ASL friendly

LSF frais ( IVT 1986 )

LSF de ( Laveau 1868) ASL from

110 fruit

handshape. Higgins (1942) interpreted the sign as “something drawn away from under left index.” Unlike most Signed French signs, the one-handed variant of de ( Laveau 1868) continues to be used by Deaf people in France;

the index finger also draws toward the signer into a hooked handshape.

fr uit

Identical to the contemporary LSF sign fruit (fruit), this sign likely represents the grasping of a small piece of fruit brought toward the mouth. Ferrand (circa 1785) indicated that the signer moves the hand toward a tree “as if picking an apple and bringing it to the mouth” in his entry fruit. The sign is now initialized with the letter F in both ASL and LSF.