FINISH:
The sign for "finish"
is made by placing both of your open hands in front of you.
Each hand should face you, with your fingers pointing upward.
Twist both hands quickly a couple times ending with the palms pointing
(somewhat) forward. You can also do this sign with just a single twist
which makes it seem more "final."
Now let me show you a version of finish that means "Knock it off!"
Here is a version that means, "Aw, go on, you're teasing me!"
"I'm not falling for that--you silly!"
Note: The eyes aren't really "closed" on this one...just squinted due
to a big smile.
Notes:
Danielle writes:
Dear Dr. Bill
I have a question, how would you gloss this sentence?
"I've climbed Yosemite Half-Dome 7 times this year"
- Danielle
-----------------------------------
Danielle,
Either of the following approaches could be acceptable depending on
information pre-existing between the conversants:
1. If you are trying to say, "I've already climbed ..."
then you can use a "FINISH CLIMB" phraseology which would look like this:
= NOW-YEAR I FINISH CLIMB YOSEMITE HALF D-O-M-E 7 TIME.
2. If you wish to indicate an emphasis or possibly intend the meaning of
"that's it -- no more" and/or "Booyah! (accomplishment) you could move the
"FINISH" to the end of the sentence. You could also topicalize YOSEMITE if
you need to distinguish between various hiking locations:
= YOSEMITE HALF D-O-M-E? NOW-YEAR I CLIME 7 TIME FINISH!
3. Or you could sign it this way:
NOW-YEAR I CLIMB YOSEMITE HALF D-O-M-E 7 TIME FINISH!
See page 124 of the text "Linguistics
of American Sign Language, 5th Ed.," (by Clayton Valli & Ceil Lucas et. al.)
for a discussion regarding the use of the sign FINISH.
As you can see from the above examples, FINISH can be used to either
establish "past tense" or to instead function as a "completive
marker."
- Dr. Bill
