3.1.2. Proper nouns and name signs

 

In contrast to common nouns, proper nouns describe specific entities rather than classes of entities. Such nouns can be country names, names of unique objects such as planets or famous monuments, peopleโ€™s names, or brand names. There are some proper noun examples below:

 

       

michael_jackson                                                     england           

 

      

sun                                                                           eiffel_tower

 

In the Deaf Culture, every deaf person has a name sign which is determined by the Deaf community and this name sign reflects a character trait or physical feature of that person. For instance, a name sign indicating eyes can be given to a person with big eyes or a name sign emphasizing joy or happiness can be given to a person who always smiles. For some toponyms (place names, such as countries and cities) TฤฐD has its own indigenous signs. Some of these signs are in the native core lexicon [Lexicon โ€“ 1.1.] or they have a degree of non-nativeness. Below, some indigenous place signs in TฤฐD are shown:

Indigenous place signs:

 

                        

italy                                                erzurum                                                                    

 

izmir                                

                                                       

Some of the non-native signs [Lexicon โ€“ 2] involve fingerspelling [Lexicon โ€“ 2.2.2] which is based on the Turkish orthography of the place name. Some other place names are borrowed from other sign languages.

Borrowed place signs:

 

amsterdam

 

berlin

 

Fingerspelled place name:

 

       v                                           a                                      n      

                                                    van

 

Many city name signs iconically represent the entities that the cities are known for [Lexicon - 1.1. & Pragmatics - 9.2.1.]. For instance, Antalya, a town in southern Turkey, is famous for its oranges and the name of the town has the same sign as the one used for the fruit, orange.

 

   antalya (/ orange)