11 Referring to Persons, Objects or Plac

Referring to Persons, Objects or Places

When you are referring to people, objects or locations, certain signs are useful to start with:

If the person, object or place you are referring to is not present, you should make sure that the person you are signing to knows who or what you mean. Use a forward pointing sign, slightly to the right (or left if left-handed), followed by the sign or name identifying that person, object or place. When the person you are signing to indicates (with a nod or confirming comment/question) that s/he knows who or what you are referring to, you can continue with your comment or question.

If the person, object or place is within sight, a forward pointing sign can be used with a similar sequence of identification, confirmation and comment/question. For the first sign, the movement should be towards the person or thing referred to.

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