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.)
X
x