Motion diagram. This sign is outside the licensed video corpus, so the diagram is its full record here.
#TV
“TV”
Fingerspell T, then V, in quick succession — it has worn into a single unit.
Where the sign comes from
DocumentedDerivation traced in historical-linguistic scholarship.
Lexicalized fingerspelling: a fingerspelled English word that has become a sign in its own right, with its own rhythm and often a smoothed movement. The '#' in the gloss marks it. Battison documented the pattern in the 1970s.
- Battison 1978 (lexicalized fingerspelling)Battison, Robbin. Lexical Borrowing in American Sign Language. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press, 1978.
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.
Starts as a fist with the thumb tucked between index and middle finger; ends as index and middle spread, the rest closed.
Also: letter T
Made at the neutral space.
One-handed.
Palm facing out.