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Location in American Sign Language
All the possible locations on the body or in space, twelve are used to distinguish signs in ASL:
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the whole face or head,
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the upper face (forehead or brow),
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the mid face (eyes or nose),
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the lower face (chin or mouth),
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the side face (cheek, temple, or ear),
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the neck,
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the trunk (shoulders, chest, and belly),
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the upper arm,
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the forearm (including the elbow),
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the inside of the wrist,
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the back of the wrist, and
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the other (weak) hand: In this case, the weak hand may take one of the simpler handshapes listed above, such as the A, O, B, G, H, V, or L handshapes, but not others such as X or R.
In addition, the sign may be made in 'neutral' space in front of the chest.
For example, a 5 hand tapping the upper face means 'father', tapping the lower face it means 'mother', and tapping the torso (chest) it means 'fine'.
Signs may be made with two active hands, oriented in a specific way both to each other and to the body locations.
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