Why does a sign's meaning change dramatically when the handshape is altered slightly, even if location and movement are preserved in signed languages?

💡 Explanation

Minimal pairs in signed languages highlight the significance of small phonological differences; because meaning differentiation relies on contrasting features, altering a handshape creates a different sign. Therefore, meaning changes, rather than being retained, as other parameters alone do not suffice.

• During online question-answering, why does providing 'given' information already known to the system affect a user's interpretation of the response?
• Why does initial ambiguity often arise in the interpretation of novel internet slang terms?
• Why does mapping the abstract 'argument' domain onto the 'war' conceptual frame often fail to achieve persuasion within a target audience?
• Why does an email request like "Can you possibly review this report by tomorrow?" often lead to slower response than "Please review this report by tomorrow!"?
• A medieval scribe transcribing a Latin manuscript switches from dictation to copying from an exemplar, why might transcription errors related to *phoneme drift* become more frequent?
• If a language possesses postpositions marking oblique cases, which typological implication regarding case marking is most likely?