Motion diagram. A Deaf-recorded clip from the PopSign corpus (CC BY 4.0) exists for this sign and can be placed here.
SAD
“sad”
How to make it
Let both open hands slide down the front of your face, gaze falling with them.
Grammar
Must be paired with a downturned expression. The non-manual signal is not optional decoration — without it the sign is incomplete.
Where the sign comes from
IconicThe sign visibly depicts its meaning — a present-day resemblance, not a historical claim.
The face and gaze fall. The downward motion is the feeling.
Sources
- ASL-LEX (iconicity)Sehyr, Zed Sevcikova, Naomi Caselli, Ariel Cohen-Goldberg, and Karen Emmorey. "The ASL-LEX 2.0 Project: A Database of Lexical and Phonological Properties for 2,723 Signs in American Sign Language." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 26, no. 2 (2021): 263–277. link
The sign, taken apart
Every ASL sign is built from a handshape, a place it's made, and a movement. Learn to see these three and you can read and store any sign.
Location
Eye
Moves from the eye to the chin.
Movement
a straight path
Both hands move together.
Palm facing in.