GRAPE in sign language

A drawing by Jolanta Lapiak
A drawing by Jolanta Lapiak, 2005

ASL sign for GRAPE

How to sign "grape" in American Sign Language (ASL)?

Meaning: A juicy berry that has a smooth green, dark red, or purple skin and grows in clusters on a woody vine (grapevine).

Related signs: FRUIT, VINE.

Baby signing GRAPE

The time-lapse video shows the phonological acquisition of the bilingual child for the ASL signword GRAPE.

The earliest video shows the baby Juli at 12 months (at the beginning of a one-word stage) signing GRAPE.

It looks like a babble but it wasn't. In this context, she asked for it and waited for her mother to give her some more grapes. In the video, it seems that she was somehow conscious that it was on the top of the hand, not on the palm. Possibly self-corrected? Or, tried to learn to manipulate her hands (proximalization).

At age 4, her hand moves in the opposite direction from what most adults produce. But, if I recall right, it's a possible phonological variation a few adults signing that way as well.

As of this update, I asked Juli (age 12) in ASL glossed as fs-GRAPE/\ WHAT SIGN? She showed the sign with the normal movement. This is an illustration of how children acquire a language naturally without direct corrections.

Usage/Grammar

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