ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how words are made in American Sign Language (ASL). It discusses the ways that new words are formed, how words are modified, and the role of iconicity in ASL. The chapter also includes the way that the signing space is integrated in signs, and some morphological devices that seem to be special to sign languages. Morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies how words are formed from component parts. New words constantly enter the vocabulary of a language, and other words may decline in usage. Words also change their meaning over time. Fingerspelling is the use of different handshapes representing letters of the English alphabet to spell out words. Another way that words from English can be borrowed into ASL is through initialization. This is a process using the fingerspelling handshape of the first letter of an English word, incorporated into an ASL sign.
