"to take advantage of"

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DeafCaroline

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Hey everyone, I am doing my final exam for my ASL today - the exam is basically a 10 minute presentation of a story. I am trying to find out the ASL sign for "to take advantage of" - does anyone know?
 
Thanks guys - I had missed the A word vocabulary list class - in my presentation, I have to select 4 words from the A list

The words I'm choosing are: about, agony, abuse, and advantage (there are two options - "advantage" vs. "to take advantage of" such as "She took advantage of him". I am choosing the second option.

So, the context would be "they were taken advantage of". How would you sign that?
 
You're welcome. I just typed in Google "asl pro + to take advantage of."
 
That's "to take advantage of" in the bad sense? Is there a different sign "to take advantage of" in the good sense? For instance: (bad sense) "She took advantage of him and left him with the bill." versus (good sense) "She took advantage of the many excellent programs at the university."
 
Beach girl said:
That's "to take advantage of" in the bad sense? Is there a different sign "to take advantage of" in the good sense? For instance: (bad sense) "She took advantage of him and left him with the bill." versus (good sense) "She took advantage of the many excellent programs at the university."
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Since they are different concepts, yes. They would be signed differently. Remember, ASL is conceptually and visually based, not word based.
 
For the 'good sense' version, I would sign "there university, excellent programs, benefit she/she benefit". But I wonder if you could use the take-advantage-of sign but change facial expression to indicate it as a positive? Anyone?
 
Journey said:
For the 'good sense' version, I would sign "there university, excellent programs, benefit she/she benefit". But I wonder if you could use the take-advantage-of sign but change facial expression to indicate it as a positive? Anyone?
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I wouldn't.
 
Beach girl said:
That's "to take advantage of" in the bad sense? Is there a different sign "to take advantage of" in the good sense? For instance: (bad sense) "She took advantage of him and left him with the bill." versus (good sense) "She took advantage of the many excellent programs at the university."
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TAKE-ADVANTAGE-OF is the negative concept like mooched off of, or acquired gain thru another's weakness.

Think of the concept as someone carelessly holding money in the palm of his hand, and you snatch it away with your nimble fingers.

The positive concept would be to USE. Ex: "You should take advantage of (USE) the free bus shuttle."


However, I've seen TAKE-ADVANTAGE-OF used for positive concepts also.
 
Reba said:
TAKE-ADVANTAGE-OF is the negative concept like mooched off of, or acquired gain thru another's weakness.

Think of the concept as someone carelessly holding money in the palm of his hand, and you snatch it away with your nimble fingers.

The positive concept would be to USE. Ex: "You should take advantage of (USE) the free bus shuttle."


However, I've seen TAKE-ADVANTAGE-OF used for positive concepts also.
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Ah ok, I thought you had dittoed what Jillio had said (not just in reference to the link). I misread, sorry. Also you don't feel that benefit/benefitted from is also synonymous with 'take advantage of'? ie: You should benefit from the free bus shuttle. If not, can you expand on your thoughts so I be clear. :ty:
 
Journey said:
Ah ok, I thought you had dittoed what Jillio had said (not just in reference to the link). I misread, sorry. Also you don't feel that benefit/benefitted from is also synonymous with 'take advantage of'? ie: You should benefit from the free bus shuttle. If not, can you expand on your thoughts so I be clear. :ty:
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How Reba described the negative connotation of "to take advantage of" made total sense - the sign itself is suggestive of taking something from someone.
 
DeafCaroline said:
How Reba described the negative connotation of "to take advantage of" made total sense - the sign itself is suggestive of taking something from someone.
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Yes but I was referring to the positive concept where she used "use" ... I use the bus service vs I benefit from the bus service.
 
Journey said:
Ah ok, I thought you had dittoed what Jillio had said (not just in reference to the link). I misread, sorry. Also you don't feel that benefit/benefitted from is also synonymous with 'take advantage of'? ie: You should benefit from the free bus shuttle. If not, can you expand on your thoughts so I be clear. :ty:
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Yes, you can benefit from the free bus but only if you use it. :D

There is no benefit in an unused opportunity.

Of course, in ASL, it wouldn't be a direct word to sign translation. The entire sentence would be changed around, too.

I used the verb USE as a general explanation but to be specific, for the bus it would be RIDE, for the university programs it would be TAKE-UP, and so forth. In general though, the concept is to use something in order to obtain the benefit.
 
Middle finger off the palm is most commonly used in the negative sense.

A positive version I've seen is:

> non-dominant hand, open-B, neutral space, palm up
> dominant hand, palm sideways, starts in a loose 5 and then "scoops" across the non-dominant hand and ends in an S handshape (similar motion as the sign for WIN)

I'm not sure how common this version is as I've only seen it a couple of times.
 
Mountain Man said:
A positive version I've seen is:

> non-dominant hand, open-B, neutral space, palm up
> dominant hand, palm sideways, starts in a loose 5 and then "scoops" across the non-dominant hand and ends in an S handshape (similar motion as the sign for WIN)

I'm not sure how common this version is as I've only seen it a couple of times.
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Not just similar, it seems to be the sign for WIN.
 
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