Recently, I've seen two ASL signs used for 'vaccine/vaccination' . They both show "what vaccination looks like", but one is an instrument form (the hand is "the needle"; https://aslsignbank.haskins.yale.edu/dictionary/gloss/2968.html) and the other is a handling form (the hand is a hand; see quote tweet)... 1/3 https://twitter.com/britcastle/status/1387101061752688641

in our 2015 paper ( https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12121), we found a slight preference for instrument forms to be used for naming objects ("vaccine"), and for handling forms to be used for naming actions ("vaccinate"). i haven't seen any pattern for these two signs, and... 2/3

i've been out of the iconicity game for a bit, but i'm curious to see how these two signs continue to "compete" with each other! it will be interesting to see what factors (if any) affect who uses which sign. all while people continue to get vaccinated, of course! 3/3