Classifiers

• Size and Shape Specifiers (SASS)
• Texture, consistency and quality classifiers
• Entity classifiers
• Body parts classifiers
• Mass or quantity classifiers
• Handling or instrumental classifiers
• Element classifiers

Most of the signs in this dictionary are ‘frozen’ or established signs; that is, they are formed and used in predictable ways. But the lexicon of NZSL is greatly expanded by the flexible combination of certain handshapes and movements to represent objects, actions, and visual properties of things and situations. These more creative sign formations are found in most natural signed languages, and they are known as ‘classifiers’ or productive lexicon. Because the exact form and meaning of such signs is specific to a particular context of use and therefore variable, they cannot be recorded as regular entries in the dictionary.

Classifier signs describe and/or represent a noun by depicting its semantic or visual features. For instance, objects that are flat and round (eg, a coin), straight and thin (eg, a picture frame), or spherical (eg, the earth) are represented by handshapes that are manipulated in space to represent a feature of the object’s appearance, size and location. Instrumental or handling classifiers represent how an object is used, with the handshape reflecting something about the object’s shape or how it is held, and the movement showing how it is used (eg, unscrewing a lid or turning a knob).

Certain classifier handshapes represent closed semantic categories, such as ‘vehicle’, or ‘person’, and these are also used like a pronoun that can be moved to incorporate a verb of motion and location. For example, a flat open handshape with the blade down represents a vehicle, and can be moved in an upward-sloping, zig-zag motion to express ‘a car driving up a steep winding road’. These complex classifier constructions that incorporate an entity and an action are also known as ‘pro-forms’.

Number and quantity is expressed in some classifiers by a change or reduplication of handshape; eg, three upright fingers moving forward, rather than one, can stand for three persons walking, or two hands can be used to arrange multiple objects in space - eg, two palm-down claw handshapes side by side can represent two or more houses next to each other. Often, two hands are used simultaneously in classifier constructions, with each hand representing parts of the same entity, or two different entities that relate to each other in space (eg, a car parked under a roof, a bird on a rock, two people sitting opposite, a train entering a tunnel).

Classifiers are a productive source of new vocabulary creation in signed languages, as they can be used to represent new nouns (eg, mobile phone), activities (eg, bungy-jump), and other concepts. Many signs in the established dictionary lexicon that reflect shape or action originate in classifiers, such as table, hammer, plate, jump, meet, assertive.

Frequently used NZSL classifier handshapes are shown in these pages, according to categories of meaning.