Vocabulary review for:
"How do you sign "live", "alive" in American Sign Language?" The ASL verb may convey a different gradient of meaning when the movement is modified.
There are two common versions which are interchangeable in most contexts.
Meaning: remain alive; make one's home in a particular place or with a particular person.
Pronunciation (sign description): Both "10" hands with palms in contact with lower chest move upward along the chest.
Variation (sign description): Both horizontal "L" hands with palms in contact with lower chest move upward along the chest.
Usage examples: "Where do you live?" [ASL glossed as "YOU LIVE WHERE\/"], "it makes no difference whether he's dead or alive".
There are two phonological versions for "alive".
Pronunciation (sign description): The movement consists of brief and short repetitive movements, which implies alive.
Phonological variation.
Usage examples: "it's still alive!", "No, at age 87, he's currently still alive".
When not to use these ASL signs in English sentences with "alive" in them: "the town will be alive with tourists during the tourist peak" and such. Meanings of words are not always translated word for word from one language to another.
Review 101 words. Refresher.