The symbols of American Sign Language are visible representations of concepts. They represent neither spoken nor written words, thus making it meaningless to refer to ASL as ideographic.

• 美国手语的象征是对概念的可视表达。它们既不代表书面语言也不代表口语语言（即是手语与书面语言和口头语言是不同的），所以将其指为表意文字是没有什么意义的。