NEED/SHOULD: You will notice that this is almost exactly the same as
the sign you learned for MUST/HAVE-TO. The X-hand is held in front of
the signer and moved in a downward movement. The difference lies in
both the emphasis and the number of repetitions. MUST/HAVE-TO is
signed more emphatically and is not repeated, while NEED/SHOULD is a
softer sign (more like a suggestion) and is repeated a few times.
LOOK-FOR is an interesting sign historically that is perhaps derived
from French Sign Language. Notice the C-handshape. Apparently this
handshape reflects the first letter of the French word chercher "to
look for". ASL vocabulary includes quite a few so-called initialized
signs in which the handshape of the sign is the fingerspelling
handshape that would correspond to the first letter of the English
translation. In this case, the initialization of this sign reflects
French, not English!
LIKE: At the outset of this sign, the 5-hand is placed on the chest
with the palm facing the signer. The hand moves outward while the
thumb and middle finger are brought together. This sign is easily
confused with WHITE, so be sure to clearly bring together the thumb
and middle finger. The sign LIKE is approrpiately used to describe,
for example, the fact the Mary likes John. This sign should not be
used for every usage of the word "like" in English; for example, it
would be wrong to use this sign to express the fact that Mary looks
like Jill. In this instance, you would use the sign SAME (with the
Y-handshape) that was discussed in Unit One.
WANT: Fingers should be spread apart during this sign. When executed
with fingers together, the sign means DRAWER. This is also an example
of a sign you can negate with a twist of the forearm (see Unit 2
linguistic notes for KNOW/DONÕT KNOW).